Actually mobile represents both the present and future of social media but I’ll return to that momentarily.

The presumption inferred by the title is that your company has already begun to integrate social media into your broader marketing strategy. If not, I feel compelled to ask why not ? Numerous articles, such as 3 Ways Social Media Is Driving A Business Revolution from Forbes, have been written outlining how social media is fundamentally altering the way business, and in particular marketing, is conducted.

Source: Doug Ray/Three Ships Media

Ok, so explaining the current social media landscape using donuts is done somewhat tongue-in-cheek but th

ere are many good overviews of the major social media platforms available (and how consumers and brands use them), such as this informative Social Platform Cheat Sheet from 360i, a digital marketing agency in the U.K.

If you are perhaps still a little skeptical of the potential of social media it may be worth listening to Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian, in a brief TED Talk, describe how to make a splash, both literally and figuratively:

Let’s assume that after further research you have overcome your doubts and chosen 2 of the bigger names – Facebook and Twitter – as the initial platforms for your fledgling social media marketing efforts. If you are an Irish company the Social Media Statistics Ireland infographic from eightytwenty should provide further support for your choices.

So what about mobile ?

As the graphic below from Statista indicates, most social media networks are now mobile-first networks with, perhaps unsurprisingly given the nature of the content, Twitter and Instagram even more mobile-centric than Facebook.



Again if you are an Irish company, an FCR Media blog, The State of Digital in Ireland as of April 2014, should be of interest. Among many interesting stats the blog notes that 70% per cent of all Facebook activity is now on mobile, with 1.7 million Irish people using smartphones to access the social network.

In addition GlobalWebIndex’s Social Summary for Q2 of 2014 notes that the percentage of internet users accessing social networks via mobile phones rose to 38% over the last year, a 5% year-on-year increase while tablet usage is up from 10% in late 2012 to 16% in early 2014.

Parting Thoughts: Responsive Web Design



Source: Todaymade

Make sure your website is properly formatted for display on various mobile devices, be they tablets or phones. This is commonly referred to as responsive web design and is quite easily accomplished with modern content management systems such as WordPress. After all users are likely to see your website first on their mobile devices, especially if their introduction to your company is via a social media platform.