One of the biggest challenges for businesses is figuring out what to do when trying to take advantage of new technologies. Taking your business mobile can be a daunting undertaking. Yes the financial investment is important but often more importantly businesses are strapped for time. Some of the questions people ask are:

• Where do I start with mobile marketing?
• Should I go for a mobile website or RWD?
• What is RWD, responsive web design, anyway?
• When should I get my web developer involved?
• What about social media?

Those are all good questions but today let’s make a small start and get your mobile-feet wet, learn a little and perhaps most importantly not make any mistakes. Wherever the journey your organization takes, these are good items to start putting yourself in the hands of your customers (literally).

Mobile Marketing Tip 1 – Join Twitter

It is quick and simple to join Twitter and there is no need to worry compatibility with the large variety of mobile devices people are using. Each ‘Tweet’ is only 140 characters long so you won’t need to overhaul your content marketing approach. The set up takes maybe 3 minutes. To keep your branding consistent, make sure your ‘Full Name’ represents your organization. You will need to choose something unique for the ‘Username’ but this is not the most prominent item on your Twitter presence so should the name of your organize already be in use by someone else, don’t fret. This unique username, also known as a ‘Twitter Handle’, is not the most prominent aspect of your Twitter presence. Some ideas for choosing a Twitter username:

Unique Twitter Username Examples:

1. YourOrganizationsName_Location e.g. @Jane_E_Morgan_Dublin, @OMD_Ireland
2. YourOrganizationsName_Official e.g. @Jane_E_Morgan_Official, @goMobi_Official
3. Your Name with underscores or without the spaces e.g. @Jane_E_Morgan, @adrianweckler

You’ll find me on Twitter @Jane_E_Morgan

Mobile Marketing Tip 2 – Check Google Analytics

If your organization is already using Google Analytics, check out how many site visitors are using mobile devices. Log into Google Analytics, browse to ‘Audience’, then ‘Mobile’. It’s a good idea to look at the goal conversion rate on mobile devices: are your site visitors doing the same thing when using mobile devices as when visiting on the desktop. If you have a decent amount of mobile visitors but the goal conversation rate is below your norm, that’s a good indication that your existing web presence is not working well for visitors using mobile devices. Note: by default only mobile devices that can execute Javascript are including in this report. If your target customers include the half of the population without SmartPhones / tablets then they won’t show up here.

Mobile Marketing Tip 3 – Scope Mobile Into Your Next Marketing Campaign

For those refreshing an established or creating a new marketing campaign, include a question in the campaign checklist: is this compatible with mobile? At worst you’ll create a list of items to consider mobilizing for either this or the subsequent marketing campaign. At best you’ll uncover some low hanging fruit e.g. 140 character summary of items that could make up Tweets for your new Twitter account (see Mobile Marketing Tip 1)

Examples of Checklist Action Items:

1. Will customers and prospects be reading this on mobile devices?
2. Had the document been opened on a SmartPhone?
3. What mobile devices are we using ourselves that we could try?

These are all low risk easy steps to start learning. If you are really strapped for time, I can give you a hand. As with a lot of these things, the trick is to get started and if the task seems too big break it down into small, maybe very small items.

Now go check it out and see what your think for yourself. (Personally I love Twitter).