Come Friday I usually try and close up my PC and laptop and I tend to use my iPhone and iPad instead of lugging a laptop around with me.

Often while watching TV during weekend nights I am ,video flicking idly through web pages, social media and online news sites.  With a typical laptop experience I enjoy rich graphics and colour but when using a mobile device my demands different.  I have a smaller screen but I still want an enjoyable experience.  As the device is at my fingertips I also want a light yet rewarding experience online.

Speed of Delivery

Speed of delivery for me is critical.  At night time my kids are often using the Internet as well and more often than not streaming video and games so I want my content quickly and light.  I don’t really want that big image or the flash slide show.  Give me clean typography and crisp text.  I actually want that from my desktop browser as well but I get more finicky when on a smaller screen.  If I am on the move and restricted to 3G or even worse Edge the limited number of HTTP requests can really drag my transfer speed down.

Mobile Theme

Give me the mobile theme.  I really appreciate getting presented the mobile theme and not the full up theme.  I want clearer navigation and crisper menus when on the move.  Get me the message quickly.

If there is an image that contributes to the message then by all means deliver it but deliver it fast!.  People that are using mobile devices are content junkies.  If you can get us good graphics and video at the same speed please do so but not at the expense of speed.

Are You Losing Customers?

Don’t lose valuable customers.  Look around you on the streets and bars and the Smartphone is dominating the market now.  People really don’t use these for calls,  they use them for a host of things and getting online is top of that list.  If you want a ‘lite’ experience and want these people to read your information then think of this  mobile user.  We are an impatient lot.  Much more than the desktop user who can Alt-Tab to another window while your site is loading.

WordPress Mobile Theming

As I thought about this article I realised that I didn’t even have a mobile theme for this blog.  So how long di it take me to remedy the situation?  30 seconds.  I downloaded the WPTouch mobile plugin and installed it in a few seconds and then went to my iPhone to see what it looked like.  And it did exactly what I wanted.  Nice crisp presentation of the blog posts and the date that they were written.  Exactly what a mobile user who was blog hunting would want.  You can do similar work with one of the many free themes that are available for WordPress users.

Detecting Mobile Devices

There are many ways of detecting mobile devices so that when they do come to a static HTML site they get directed to the mobile device.  The above plugin has the code inbuilt to the php and does it transparently which is nice.  However your site may not always be WordPress and need a different design approach and in some cases even a separate site.  However if you don’t have the budget or time for this then the best thing to do is focus on a number of devices and create specific code to recognise the incoming device.

You can then adjust to accommodate  the  screen size to reflect the device.  Use the right CSS can make the mobile browsing experience that bit easier.  Your visitors will thank you

Other Options

Of course you can also get more imaginative and take more time by having a mobile sub domain and a separate site to reflect this or serve different templates (which the plugin above does) or as we are seeing more and more adpopt a more fluid layout.  Fluid is possibly going be what is going to domiante the market as mobile becomes the first device of choice.

Planning Your Site - Flexible Design and Responsive Layout

If you are thinking mobile from day one in your design then your first stop checklist should think of items like CSS choice, and Scaleable Vector Graphics (SVG).  SVG is the new kid on the block and is now a W3C standard that when used well can help you deliver graphics without compromising speed and proportions of images.  It takes a bigger investment in design but if your user community is a mobile one then the payback will be worth it.

Both flexible layout and responsive design deliver the experience irrespective of the design or the actual screen being displayed.  It takes a thoughtful approach and is just not changing fonts but deciding on what the delivery experience is.

Sadly Interent Explorer seems the least responsive on many counts here so again there is the added challenge for the designer to be conscious of the myriad of browser versions that are out there and the risk (or more correctly fact) that depending on the end use, browser and display size your client base will be seeing different content in different orientations and screen sizes.

So Confusing – Where to Begin

Realistically without a significant investment of time (read money) it is difficult to deliver the perfect experience to everybody but some market research of your customer base can help decide where to focus and deliver the best experience there.  Ultimately the mobile market will haea larger and larger piece of the pie so you need to be conscious of this and keep apace with the hcanges.

 

I remember when I discovered the Internet over 20+ years ago I wonder if I would have turned Tim Berners Lee down as well I don’t hink so.

 

Editors Note:  After this was tweeted I took my own advice and made adjustments to this post by adding some more content, improving the content and embedding a YouTube video for people to see one of the people I enjoy listening to speak about goals.

It is important that for your website that you have a business plan for it.  this may sound a bit silly when you read this first but if there is to be a point to having a website  then you should document some achievable goals for over time as you meet them you can adjust them.   You can’t sit back and let the site just sit there.  There are literally thousands of website being created every hour worldwide for bloggers, businesses and just for fun.

Even though I do not have exact data for Ireland you can be sure that there are enterprising people working day and night to make their online business work. 

Just having a good or even excellent product isn’t enough.

  Here are some quick goals that I would think would work.  You don’t have to use all of them – start off with one.

• Increase number of subscribers to your RSS feed of your blog.  Don’t have a blog?  Get one.
• X New social media followers through the site alone.  You can use a URL shortener to see who is coming from the site.
• X number of comments on your blog per day, week and month.
• Increase visibility on certain pages on the site.  These could be your products, blog post(s) or a topic close to your heart.
• Update content on main site X times pre week to either add, update or delete.
• X Number of blog posts per week on a topic or topics that you want to educate people on.

I would jot these down somewhere and post them where you can see them if you don’t reach them like any business goals you should modify them  If you don’t think your website should have goals then I think you should rethink.

Often your goal may be that people learn about your products.  The why not have a goal that a certain product page gets increased visibility over the next month.  Measure visibility as visits, hits, comments.

There reason people don’t have these plans is they don’t want to work and thing that if they leave the site there it will happen by magic.

Believe me it doesn’t – lets listen to one of my favourite speakers Brian Tracy on the topic.

{EAV_BLOG_VER:cd83ce35bfa942f6} – Empire Avenue tag

The other day my brother visited 7 businesses in his local town asking if they had a website or thinking of getting one. The answers were fascinating.

• 2 had a website but hadn’t updated it in years
• 4 didn’t think a website would benefit their business
• 1 had his brother-in-law creating a site.

This tells me that there is a huge market of people who are badly educated on the benefits of having a website presence and that education upfront is what is most important in the initial stages.

 

Social media is easy to ignore.  If you are a busy business person, working hard on a day to day basis to keep your head above water and trying to make a buck and struggling to get by  in a new or existing business then it easy to grimace when you hear people speak of the benefits of social media for your business.  The grimace is understandable, the new age of social media is often perceived as gimmicky and just a fad.  But this is not the case.  Next time you are out in a pub look around you and observe (sip your drink as well).  Most of the people will either be clutching their phones or if not holding them will glance at them 2-3 times per half hour.  If you were in an airport lounge recently nearly everyone was on their laptops and they weren’t crunching Excel or Word documents they were on Twitter, Facebook or surfing the web.

Invariably these people will have smart phones of Android or iPhone variety.  When something happens they take a photo and within minutes it is up on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Flickr or one of the many social media sharing sites.  The video above is about a year old and it is a grainy iPhone video of my son’s rugby team celebrating a win in one of their league games (season imploded later but this was a good win). I videoed this and uploaded this in minutes.  You could be doing this for your product demo,  conference stand or even a short interview with a valued client.  All you now need is a phone.

So What ?

What social media is doing at its most basic level is giving people a richer picture of who you or your business is, what it does and what you stand for.  You don’t have to share every waking moment, nor do you have to  live on it every hour of the day.  But when you are active on these mediums you are exposing you, your business and your brand to an audience that you are more than not likely not reaching through your bricks and mortar business, networking or normal advertising channels.

Social media is a slow burn often without tangible direct results.  A tweet on Twitter could generate an email, followed by a coffee followed by a pause and then a contact for business.   A Facebook post with an interesting article could be a lead to someone who connects you with someone else

Yeah Right Prove It

I primarily use Twitter and Google + for my social interaction and over the past 3 years it has helped me with the following

• I have established at least 8-10 face to face solid ongoing business contacts that I now work with regularly
• Get a regular stream of business contacts for website design
• Learn so much from an expert group of topics.

All of the above has been done without very little promotion of my website design business.  I rarely if ever mention Grange Web Design.  People who interact with me know from my name what I do and check my profile.  I rarely tweet my link (this is one example where I have).  I do not spend hours on social media – perhaps an hour a day.

Harumph – OK What’s The Secret?

There is no secret.  If you want to get fit you train regularly in short sessions.  The same applies to social media.  Make it part of your online workout.  Be patient.  Converse with people. Make good contacts.  Enjoy the experience.  Learn how to use the tools. Make it fun.  Don’t look for measurable metric driven results.  A result may be a contact, email, or even a cup of coffee.  The rest is then up to you.