Steve Jobs Unveils the iPad. Image from Associated Press.

Yesterday morning, the blogosphere and Tweeps were all abuzz (to put it mildly) in anticipation of Apple’s big reveal of their tablet product. Many a joke was made about iMoses (Steve Jobs) coming down from the mount with two iTablets in hand.

As people watched the live streams of the reveal, Twitter crashed from all the chatter and Facebook statuses became filled with thoughts of desire and jokes about the unfortunate name: iPad. Today’s tech blogs are busy dissecting the iPad and what it means for the consumer.

I have to admit, my feelings on the iPad can be summed up in one word: Meh.

To me, it’s a big iPod Touch that is twice the cost of a Kindle.

However, even though I’m not completely wowed by the iPad, the amount of chatter and anticipation over this mobile reader is actually what’s more important. Keeping in mind that the Kindle was Amazon’s biggest seller, that smart phones (Blackberries, iPhones, Android phones, etc.) are being purchased by “everyday people” and not just business executives – the iPad buzz solidifies that mobile browsing and mobile content gathering isn’t just for early adapters, it’s gone mainstream.

So, what does this mean for your content marketing efforts? It means it needs to be mobile-friendly. Your blog, website, videos and any other content you have online need to be able to be read easily by anyone using these kinds of devices – because more and more, these devices are what people will be depending on. Here are three basic tips to make your website more mobile-friendly:

• Optimize your landing page and the rest of your website so that it is mobile-friendly (compresses well, easy to scroll, etc.). That can require the work of a programmer, but there are a few tips and tricks even those of us who aren’t so code-savvy can use to do this. WordPress plugins like MobilePress can work well as can sites like Mofuse that use RSS feeds to mobile-fy your content. Think about whether you want to have a “mobile version” button – or, better yet – have a site that automatically detects mobile browsers so the website adjusts to them right away.
• Keep the site design clean. If there are a million images to load, if people have to scroll horizontally to see everything, if the font colours are hard to discern from the background, this will come across even worse on a mobile device. Don’t lose an audience because they’ve lost patience with your website.
• Make your content short and sweet. Whenever possible, keep the blog posts under 500 words. People on the go don’t always have the time to read pages and pages, even if they’re interested in the topic.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.