I had the honor of recently attending the annual Salesforce.com Dreamforce convention.
Salesforce.com is the leading provider of Customer Relationship Management,
On-Demand software. I was there with multiple agendas, but was baffled by what
I found. There were top notch presenters at this convention — take John Chambers
for example, the man is a technology genius and has you at the edge of your
seats waiting to hear to what he has to say next.
While listening to this presentation, I could hear some “typing” going
on. The assumption was made that people were taking notes on Mr. Chamber’s presentation.
When I looked around it was quite the opposite. Audience members were glued
to their cell phones — to my left was a CFO of a small paper company, to my
right was another online marketing expert, both of which were on their mobile
phones.
After leaving the presentation, I decided to do some “people watching”
for the next hour in the lobby. What I noticed was fascinating. 8 out of every
10 people had a mobile device that was connected to the internet. They would
be checking emails, surfing the web, even purchasing products!
Why not use a laptop I proposed to several of the participants in my underground
study? “A blackberry is smaller to carry, has a longer battery life and
is easier to use.” How could I argue with that? I was sporting my brand
new Sony Vaio with a 16 inch monitor. I had already run out of batteries twice
while at the conference rendering it useless until I could find an outlet.
The two most popular mobile phones with an easy connection to the web are blackberrys
and Iphones. Both of which continue to put out different “apps” that
help make your life more efficient (and fun) in the little down you may get.
The notion that busy executives are the only ones carrying blackberrys no longer
exists. People from all walks of life are carrying these devices from teens
to senior citizens, the trend quite frankly is addicting. While the blackberry
is more noted for the older crowd, Apple and its recent release of the Iphone
have targeted the younger generation. The Iphone is three devices in one; a
phone, an ipod and an internet device. Sales have been strong and continue to
rise.
So what does this mean to you and your business?
Embrace the revolution that consumers and prospects will be finding your web
site on their mobile phone, browsing your site and hopefully purchasing products!
It’s noted that more than 89% of the web sites on the internet today are not
mobile compliant and will look “funky” when attempted to be viewed
from a mobile device.
Grab a blackberry, or an Iphone and visit your web site to get a first glance
at how your site appears. Does your site contain flash that will not come up?
Is it too wide, do the fonts not show up correctly? Those are just a few of
the elements you want to look for.
The key to making your web site compliant is to have your site coded in plain
HTML site with clear semantic web site code and navigation structure.
Most businesses have grown accustomed to the notion that “flashier is better”,
in this case, the plain janes web site on the internet will rule the day!
