The Social Media Marketer

Social Media Marketing Goes Mobile

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Millions of people are using social media sites these days – but do you really think they're sitting on their computers at home?

With the advances that have been made in recent years in smartphones, it's no surprise that many people are using their iPhones, Blackberries and Androids to update their Facebook statues, Tweet and all around use the devices for many of the same purposes they used to use computers for.

Recently, comScore Inc., which measures the digital world and how people are using technology, last year released a study on social networking on smartphones. At that time, 30.8 percent of the users were accessing social media sites on their mobile browsers. This had grown from 22.5 percent just one year before.

ComScore found that the number of people using their smartphones for Facebook grew by 112 percent and those tweeting increased by 347 percent.

And while some of those people who were using their phones to access social media sites were using traditional feature-based cell phones, most were using smartphones.

What does this mean for social media marketing?

It means that while in the past, those working on social media sites needed to worry mainly how they would translate for traditional computer users. You optimized your SEO for the larger screen, as well as your site's appearance and content.

However, those days are rapidly changing, and to have success in social media marketing, this means you'll have to make an effort to not only be engaging for people on laptops and desktop computers, but also for those who are on the go.

Let's face it, you can write the longest, most eloquent article that ordinarily have been a classic on most websites, but if someone's using his or her smartphone, that person is not going to scroll through your hundreds of words.

Not only that, but now you'll have to start watching your Facebook and Twitter usage, and make sure you're aiming for smartphone browsers as well. Long status and notes on Facebook aren't going to please these people, and too-frequent tweets won't either.

So how do you go about doing you social media marketing through cell phones?

For one thing, you have to consider that people who have smartphones are pretty sophisticated in their use. And with that in mind, whatever you are working on will have to be able to work with their apps.

For example, the Android and iPhone both allow apps for upgraded galleries, emails and You Tube videos, as well as emails. And don't forget, every major social media site has free apps for Facebook. Twitter, Foursquare and so many more social networks.

With all of that competition for users' attention, it's not as easy as it used to be to connect with them through social media. So, you'll have to make a special effort to hook up with those smartphone users too.

For example, smartphones have location data. This is a great advantage in social media marketing, because you can actually tailor tweets and Facebook statuses to be captured by someone seeking a local connection for a business on their phones.

So, if you're tweeting for a specific city's business, be sure to add a #city to your tweets so those people with smartphones in or near that may pick up your tweets. If you don't add a hashtag, it's likely your tweet will be lost among the other thousands of tweets, and people with smartphone location data won't necessarily see what you have to offer.

And don't forget to update your statuses frequently, but not so frequently that you're flooding smartphone users' browser pages.

Also give some consideration about how your Facebook landing page looks not only on a traditional computer, but also on someone's smartphone. A page with a lot of bells and whistles can download slowly on a smartphone. And tweets that lead to that page? It's very annoying to get a link to a page, just to have it lock up your smartphone.

Remember, times are changing quickly when it comes to social media marketing, and it's up to you to change along with them, or you'll be left behind.