Digital Marketing changes so rapidly these days, its hard to keep up. Just a few short years ago, people were using Myspace and businesses were advertising through Second Life. Today, it’s possible to buy things at the mall with a cell phone, use its camera to “augment reality”, and even communicate through social media with everyone including your grandparents (mine joined Facebook recently). The times they are a-changin’.

The question is, how should you prepare your marketing campaign for these changing times and what should you expect?

Social Media

Now that Google+ is available for businesses, expect it to play a much larger role in your companies marketing strategy. The biggest advantage to anything run through Google is all of the services that can be integrated including Google checkout, analytics, blogger, places, and Google offers.  Also, if Twitter is any indicator, people love to follow their favorite brands. This alone should draw a lot of consumers over to the platform, especially if Google can make their pages more interactive than the brands’ others. Chris Brogan, consultant to PepsiCo and GM just to name a few has a new Google+ book you should check out.

Mobile

The rapid growth of mobile browsing is making it a promising ad platform for both PPC and mobile optimized page ads.

Before and after - mobile optimized

Today’s cell phones have different capabilities than computers such as being able to use NFC to make payments, finding its own location with GPS and augmenting reality using the built-in camera. This poses a huge opportunity for companies to utilize these platforms in a way that brings a level of engagement that isn’t possible through a typical desktop browser. Some companies have already begun implementing these features, such as Foursquare’s Radar and Yelp’s Monocle. Is your website mobile optimized? If not call us – 619-224-2455

Mobile Website Optimization

Optimizing a site for the mobile web is essential because lets face it, browsing on a smartphone is not at all the same as being in front of a computer. The screen is smaller, the links are harder to click and visitors are usually on the go. This makes it necessary to simplify the most important aspects of the website for the mobile version making sure to include elements like a list of products, an easy to find address and phone number and excluding extraneous information like company history and press releases. Also, iOS doesn’t support Flash so mobile landing pages should be kept to HTML/HTML5 and YouTube should be used to embed videos since most newer phones come with that functionality baked in. Finally, don’t forget to optimize your blog. With WordPress plugins like WPTouch, it really couldn’t be easier and makes a huge difference in terms of readability.

- Philippe

Philippe Gagnon is the founder and writer for Craft Beer Culture. Currently residing in Orange County California, you can find him at the local brewery drinking craft beer or online through Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.