We’ve all heard of the ‘Mobile First’ Mentality, persisted by quotes from tech giants such as Dr. Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google who said “if you don’t have a mobile strategy, you don’t have a future strategy.” Last week we saw this go from concept to practice when Facebook unveiled its newly designed news feed last Thursday which was heavily influenced by mobile design.
Facebook has over 680 million unique active viewers on a monthly basis as of their last quarterly report; a demographic so large it certainly cannot go unnoticed or un-catered to. In addition, noting that the new design was mobile-inspired was something executives made sure to point out during the release. “In the big picture, what it is saying is that the mobile experience both on smartphones and on tablets is starting to affect the way that people are expecting to be presented with information and interact with information because so much of people’s time these days is spent on mobile devices,” says Roger Katz, CEO of Friend2Friend, Palo Alto, Calif. This means that because people are now utilizing their mobile devices (phone and tablet) as the primary access points for information they now expect to have a similar experience to when they do log on from their desktop or laptop device.
Facebook isn’t the only brand which is moving quickly to create enhanced customer experiences for mobile users. Best Buy executives recently stated investing heavily in the mobile consumer experience will be one of the key focuses for the brand; Best Buy has planned capital spending between $700-800 million during the current fiscal year.
“ focused now on mobile, where they were not two years ago,” said Steve Cole, chief marketing officer at Gladson, Lisle, Ill. “They recognize that shoppers are using mobile tech before and during their shopping trips. The paradigm is clearly shifting to mobile being the primary consumer search tool.”
A while back we wrote a column here at Monday Morning Mobile titled, “follow the money,” the premise being that as a small business, researching trends and consumer statistics to determine where to spend your dollars is cost prohibitive, but big companies spend tons of money doing just that. As a small business, it makes sense to “follow the money” and spend on the same things big companies are spending on. Well, big companies like Facebook and Best Buy are investing in mobile and they’re not the only ones. To remain relevant with consumers you need to invest in mobile too!
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