Increase your success rate with a mobile website versus mobile apps: I am going to say this again and again and again…if your mobile app doesn’t give me a reason to frequently engage with you and loses its charm after that free download, yeah chances are your ROI from a mobile app will hit a glass ceiling pretty quickly. On the other hand if you have a steady web traffic, by extending your content to the smart phone or any mobile device, you have now increased your reach and also tapping into new unique visitors who might be searching for your product or service on the iPad, iPhone or Android versus the desktop. According to a recent survey from Adobe, “Mobile websites are the predominant presence of businesses in the mobile channel, accounting for the bulk of their mobile traffic and surpassing the traffic generated by downloadable mobile applications. More than 80% of the respondents said they were planning or have already deployed a mobile commerce website versus 8% with a downloadable application-only strategy.”

1. Keep it simple
The golden rule of mobile website content is "less is more". Cut out unnecessary images, or give visitors the option of whether to view them.

2. Cut down clicks
Provide information that is easily reachable without the need for excessive clicks or typing.

3. Hone the homepage
Consider what features customers find most important to the mobile experience and highlight them on the homepage.

4. Be finger-friendly
Touch screens are becoming more widespread. Users will be using their fingers to navigate. Make sure content and links are large and clear to make navigating the site hassle-free.

5. Test
What looks great on one device may be a complete turn-off on another, so test mobile websites on as many platforms as possible.

Trendspotting Market Research came out with a report about predictions for social media trends in 2010.

Some predictions included:

• “Mobile becomes a social media lifeline.”
• “Companies get serious about social media, elevating their focus to social business.”
• “By the end of the year we’ll have a new interface for status updates that looks nothing like a microblog.”
• “Search will get more social: real time content in results, information from social network friends to results, using collective information from other web users.”
• “Social media in 2010 will cease being the shiny new object and instead, become part of the everyday lexicon on business.”
• “We’re going to see an explosion of things that use location.”
  

 
Is your business ready for Social Media in 2010?