The average person spends a good portion of their day online. As mobile devices have overtaken desktops and personal computers for browsing the internet, knowing how to optimize for mobile is a must for marketers. One-fifth of all digital media time in America is spent on social sites and apps and almost 80% of all social media time is spent on mobile devices.
Many social platforms began as mobile apps, but brands don’t always optimize for mobile in thier posts. Social media users are twice as likely to share content via mobile devices versus laptops or desktops. Mobile-first marketing when it comes to social media enables brands to drive engagement and boost awareness.
Find and Solve Mobile Pain Points
To solve problems that might arise with social media content, brands first need to find the pain points. Once they are identified, brands can figure out how to strategize as they optimize for mobile. Look over all channels, social media pages, contests, content, mobile apps, blogs, advertising, videos, and landing pages. While performing this audit of your social media presence, look for key areas that would be beneficial to optimize for mobile.
What to Look For:
-Visuals that are cut off or skewed on mobile because they were designed for desktop
-Messaging or content is truncated on a mobile phone
–Calls to action are non-existent or impossible to find
-Social media contests that aren’t viewable via mobile due to lack of sharing widgets available on landing pages, blogs, and/or websites
Once the pain points are compiled, list and prioritize the areas that you could optimize for mobile. Tracking the progress as you optimize for mobile will help show the effects of the changes made and the positive impact of your extra optimization efforts.
Optimize Visuals
Social media images should be optimized for mobile, but it is important to consider that not all channels and devices react the same. Pay attention to the different specifications to ensure that your visuals translate across all channels.
Choose images that are clear, impactful and relevant. Images (including photos and logos) should be easy to read and distinct even at small sizes. Make sure the proportions are appropriate and that relevant content will still be visible as a cropped version on a mobile screen
Make sure images are optimized and compressed while still maintaining their sharpness on Retina and high-resolution displays. There are many effective applications that can shrink your image file size to help optimize them for mobile.
Optimize Copy
It can be tempting to add lengthy text posts to your visuals, but the best practice is to limit the amount of copy paired with visuals. The message may not come through if mobile users are looking at a preview or only see part of the image. Don’t turn every image into an ad.
With copywriting, “less is more” holds true for the mobile experience. There is a direct correlation between character count and engagement. Tweets with under 100 characters and Facebook posts with under 40 characters have higher engagement than longer posts. Write concisely and edit out unnecessary words.
Mobile users don’t want to read long paragraphs, they don’t have time and they’re more likely to lose concentration and interest. On a sentence level, shorter is also better. Users will stay interested and be able to easily find the key points with shorter sentences. Keeping your content brief helps facilitate the ease of reading on a mobile device.
Optimize for Mobile on Each Platform
Space on is limited, so brands should focus on eye-catching posts that are visually appealing to mobile users. Be sure to blend text and images and limit the amount of text so it doesn’t take up too much space.
Almost 900 million Facebook users access the platform through mobile, a huge demographic advantage for brands. Focus on customer interaction and engagement by providing CTA buttons for sharing or visiting an e-commerce site. Ask your audience questions and invite them to like photos and videos on your page. Encouraging interactions on Facebook posts drives views and engagement.
80% of Twitter users access the platform through mobile devices and are more likely to be on Twitter several times per day. Users on Twitter are 44% more likely to click on provided links. Brands on Twitter should take advantage of the marketing opportunity. Be sure to include hashtags in your posts that will help maximize engagement with every Tweet.
There are several best practices for a good Twitter profile:
-Use the same logo across all social media channels, including Twitter.
-Include a link to the website or e-commerce site in your bio
-Introduce your brand with a compelling tagline that explains who your brand is.
Other platforms that weren’t created specifically for mobile might have other requirements for best practices. Brands should make sure that content is optimized across all channels for maximum reach.
Social media usage makes up a large part of all time spent online and brands know to take advantage of this. However, many brands aren’t pursuing a mobile-first strategy when it comes to content on social media. Identifying and solving problem areas where content or visuals aren’t optimized is the first step for a successful mobile social strategy.
What other ways does your company optimize for mobile? Share them in the comments section below!
Looking for more mobile optimization tips? Check out our other blogs on how to optimize for mobile!
Optimize for Mobile: SEO
Optimize for Mobile: Website Design
