It’s no secret; mobile browsing commerce is on the rise. Mobile devices are being used more than ever, almost doubling last year’s usage. Thus, your customers are most likely accessing your brand and its social sites using a mobile device.
Are your company’s efforts optimized for a mobile audience? Aside from establishing a mobile site, you need to optimize your social media strategy for mobile viewing as well. There are many ways to go about doing this, but here are three ways to get you started:
Alter Your Content
Whether you’re viewing copy on a desktop or mobile device, copy tends to translate the same. However, this isn’t the same for visual content (such as images). Mobile screens, as well as tablets, render image and video sizes differently than originally posted. Thus, some of your content may need to be altered or it will be cropped by the mobile device.
For example: on a Facebook business page if you have not resized your images correctly, they may not fully show up on mobile. In this case, I’ve found the best size for an image post is 403 x 403px. Highlighted posts on your business page are shown larger when viewed from a desktop. It’s important to note that these images will be cropped in the mobile view.
The mobile redesign of Facebook’s business pages has fixed most of these image resizing issues. However, images that are too wide or highlighted will be chopped. Here’s an example:
The main thing to remember about your mobile viewers is that they want their content quick and to the point. Try to remember this when writing copy and keep it short and sweet to avoid losing viewers. For the most part, video translates relatively well on a mobile device. Videos should also remain short and to the point. A great option for creating videos for social on desktop or mobile is Vine.
Target Users With Mobile Ads
Chances are you’re working hard to get your brand noticed. Your advertisers are working hard online and off. One area some businesses are missing out on, or unaware of, is mobile advertising through a social platform.
Facebook now allows ads to be purchased that specifically target mobile users. As of May, 30% of Facebook’s ad revenue is from mobile ads. Ads you can choose from to feature include sponsored stories, promoted posts and app promotion. This is a relatively recent roll-out, but so far these ads are proving quite effective for businesses.
If you decide mobile advertising is the way to go, your ads will need to be optimized for a mobile audience. As with posts, keep your copy simple and to the point. Make sure it is interesting enough to grab the attention of someone quickly scrolling through. A big aspect of this is to concentrate on choosing the perfect image to compliment this copy. Does it stand out on a mobile device? It should.
Here’s an example of how a sponsored story may show up:
Test, Test & Test
Publishing altered content and mobile ad campaigns are great ways to start optimizing your marketing efforts for mobile. After completing these steps (and others), always check to see how they look and work. To do so, start testing.
For ads, try A/B testing as you would for any offline campaign. Which is getting the most clicks? What is converting better? Which image is attracting more page likes? This is the best way to see which efforts are working the best.
The same goes for social media content. After you publish a post, check it within several browsers on desktop, different mobile phones and a tablet. The look of the post may vary, depending on the device you’re using. It is also crucial to check all links in a post. Most likely, you’ll need to create a specific mobile link for users to see certain URLs. For example, Facebook promotional apps usually can’t be seen using the regular URL on a mobile device.
Social media and mobile devices are always changing. Two rules to always follow when dealing with optimizing items for mobile include:
- Know your audience. Mobile users tend to respond best to shorter posts and eye-catching images.
- Never stop testing – in any aspect of your campaigns. Testing is really the only way you’ll be able to prove what’s working and what doesn’t.
I’m curious to learn what you’ve experienced with the rapid growth of mobile usage! What have you found out is the biggest disconnect between viewing posts on a desktop or mobile device? What advice would you suggest for optimizing content for mobile? Leave a note or tweet me @JesKorn!
Photo credit: Flickr user qiaomeng
