Mobile Devices, Marketing, and Social Media

Mobile devices have changed the way the world does business, interacts with family, watches television, listens to the radio, and the list goes on.  There are now 5 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, which is shadowing access of PCs, landlines and televisions combined.  Thus, mobile devices not only qualify as revolutionary, they are now known for being the most sweeping set of media of our time, or anytime for that matter (Kerley, 2013).  While the internet established information on a much larger scale, and social media has allowed us to connect with others across the globe, mobile guarantees that we are always connected and always working.  From news, to social media, music, sports, and more, mobile access to the world wide web has proven to be the game changer in business to business and our everyday lives.

To illustrate, even traditional enterprise-computing giant IBM predicts that mobile applications will exceed traditional platforms in the enterprise market by 2015 as the popularity of smartphones and tablets continues to surge (Kerley, 2013).  What surprises me about this is that there are still people who are hostile at the thought of having access to social media during working hours, or work email when you are "off the clock."  Mobile is creating a disappearing line between our personal and our professional lives.

Nevertheless, mobile is how professionals stay in contact with their teams, stay abreast of breaking developments in their industries, and stay competitive in a 24-7 global business world (Kerley, 2013).  However, with all the staggering statistics of mobile devices taking over, there are still some companies that are argumentative to the thought of business in a social and mobile world.  I've heard B2B businesses say more than once, "we aren't selling shoes."  It's important to be able to advise our superiors, and change the minds of our leaders when it comes to utilizing social media and mobile in a B2B world. The common misconception is the thought that professionals disconnect from their mobile devices and social media when they are not at work, when in fact, the opposite is true.      

Tablets have fueled the continued rise of eBooks: Digital consumers read more books a year on average than their print-only counterparts, and 41% of tablet owners have used their device to access books (How Content Is Being Consumed On Mobile Devices, 2012). Tablets, like Barnes and Noble's The Nook, and Amazon's Kindle, started out as a reading device, which has launched the sales of eBooks making them easier to download and buy. In comparison, one of the main attractions of smartphones is their ability to also be MP3 players:  The percentage of all U.S. mobile users listening to music on their phones increased from 12% in September 2009 to 27% in May (How Content Is Being Consumed On Mobile Devices, 2012). 

Mobile devices has increased news consumption up 17 percent from the year 2011 to 2012.  Mobile readers go to news sites more often, spend more time per visit, and read more articles per visit than desktop readers (How Content Is Being Consumed On Mobile Devices, 2012).  In addition, mobile has helped drive an enormous amount of video consumption.  Tablets and smartphones haven't replaced televisions…yet, however they are being used a second source of entertainment and information.

There are two ways to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile access.  First, a style sheet is a separate document that tells web browsers how to display all elements of a website.  This ensures that programmers are able to easily change the look of a site by only having to change the code once (Kipp Bodnar, 2012).  The second way is to create a different mobile site that allows you to take advantage of the SEO on the main site (Kipp Bodnar, 2012).  However, I would not recommend developing a second site because it will cause duplication of your content and possible technical issues.

In the text, The B2B  Social Media Book, gives a lot of really great resources for optimizing your mobile website.  One suggestion to understanding the power of  style sheets is to go to cssZenGarden.com.  Another resource is litmus.com, that allows you to test out your email marketing messages to ensure that they are readable in a mobile world.

According to Edison Research, 64 percent of regular social network users have posted updates to one or more social networks from their phones (Kipp Bodnar, 2012).  This highlights the reason why mobile access is so lucrative--information is now available at our fingertips.  The reason that people are using it more so than any other medium such as PCs or television is because it is now accessible anywhere, anytime.  We are now able to search on our phones while waiting at the doctor's office, or update our status on Facebook while in the grocery checkout line.  Mobile has changed the way we do things because of the ability to do so whenever, and wherever we please.  This information on mobile is important for businesses to understand because if they are not adapting to this new technology, they may be missing out on valuable leads because their sites are not mobile friendly.   

References

How Content Is Being Consumed On Mobile Devices. (2012, September 25). Retrieved March 3, 2013,    from Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-how-content-is-being-consumed-on-mobile-devices-2012-9

Kerley, C. (2013). The Mobile Revolution and B2B.

Kipp Bodnar, J. L. (2012). The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More. John Wiley & Sons.