Optimize Your Mobile Social Strategy

Lets face it, 

we’re living in a fast-paced world where people expect, no, demand quick and easy access to online content. Americans spend an average of 37 minutes a day on social media, making it the internet’s number one activity. 60% of social media use takes place on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) and roughly 75% of Facebook’s daily active users are logging in on mobile.

In the world of rapid online content sharing, we as marketers have a lot to keep in mind when crafting our social strategies. Obviously, user experience and engagement behavior are among the top priorities, and if you’re not optimizing your social strategy for mobile, you’re losing business.

Here are some bite sized tips to keep in mind with optimizing your social marketing strategy for mobile:

1. Short and Sweet Messaging with Visual Appeal

Mobile users are typically on the go and are interested in a brief, “browsing” style experience, opposed to desktop users who are more likely to open multiple tabs, read full length articles, or make purchases. Don’t weigh mobile users down with text heavy copy, or advertise off site content that a mobile user will not get value out of. Get your message across with concise copy and eye-catching visuals. Visuals are processed by the brain much more rapidly than text, so if a user is scrolling away on a mobile device, a post with an appealing image and a small text overlay will perform much better than one with a long caption and a link to a blog post.

2. Be Where The Action Is

While Facebook is still the heavy-weight champ of social on all devices, platforms like Twitter and Instagram are great for mobile users. The quick, snappy, “in-the-moment” setting is perfect for thoughts on the go. Take advantage of live tweeting events related to your business. These are great opportunities for exposure and networking with attendees, or potential customers who would be interested in such events. 

3. Optimize Your Website

A mobile-optimized website will be visually appealing, responsive, and load properly on mobile devices, making for the best user experience. Choose image files that retain quality, but will not drag your load time into next week. Mobile users are moving quickly, so if a site doesn't load properly, they are likely to move on and not return. Also, mobile users are usually looking for information on the go. Be sure your site is linked with Google so that your contact information is easily accessible. If a user is riding in a car and searches “burger joints” in the area, not only do you want to be high on the results page (by optimizing your SEO), but potential customers should be able to tap your address to get directions via Google Maps, or their smartphone should recognize the phone number text so they can call you with just a touch of their finger. If your site is particularly robust, talk to your developer about creating a mobile version of it. This will boil down the most important Key Performance Indicators and let your site perform more like an app, so users can fill out contact forms, or use other online services in a streamlined format.

4. Take Advantage of Facebook Targeting

Recent Facebook updates allow marketers to target users at a more granular level than ever before. Audiences can be identified not only as mobile users, but can be categorized by type of device. This quarter, Facebook’s mobile ad revenue hit 59% of its total, up from 30% in last year’s first quarter. This demonstrates a significant shift of focus and marketers need to be taking advantage of this trend. Facebook is also consistently updating their ad platforms by restricting certain verbiage and link types, and promoting more visual content and ads that promote app downloads.

5. “Down-Time” Is Online Time

Take advantage of social media user’s obsession with the second screen. Multi-tasking has become ingrained in our lifestyles, and 60% of polled users say they regularly use social media on a mobile device while watching television. A large majority of this activity is wholly unrelated to the television programming they are “watching.” (More like listening to the TV while they scroll Facebook and Pinterest). 

The bottom line is this: we all know mobile is the preferred method of communication for much of the global population, so it’s imperative that you incorporate a mobile strategy into your marketing campaigns. Things in the digital world are moving fast, and we here at matchstick social are constantly researching, testing, and optimizing our client’s strategies to keep them ahead of the curve. Need help nailing down the perfect strategy for your business? Go ahead and give us a call; we know you've got your smartphone nearby!