Flash Video

NO NO NO! Never use this. Are we clear? Ok, let’s move on.

HTML5 <video> Tag

Why should you never use Flash videos? Because most mobile devices don’t support Flash, especially Apple devices. But fear not, this is where HTML5 comes in. The HTML5 <video> tag is widely supported on modern mobile devices, baring minor issues on outdated operating systems such as iOS 3.2 and Android 2.3. If you are looking to host video files on your own server, using the HTML5 <video> tag is the way to go.

Basic HTML5 <video> tag structure

<video width="320" height="240">
  <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
</video>

or

<video src="movie.mp4"></video>

Video Formats
In the first snippet of code shown above, it is possible to include multiple sources of the same video. When multiple sources are stated, the mobile browser will pick up on the first video format that it recognizes and ignore the rest. This is a common practice if you are going for cross-browser compatibility, because different browsers support different video formats. It is important to remember that you need to define the type attribute for each <source> tag for it to work correctly. The 3 common video formats are the following:

• .mp4
• .ogg/.ogv
• .webm

Example code for including multiple sources

<video width="320" height="240">
  <source src="movie.mp4" type='video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E, mp4a.40.2"' />
  <source src="movie.ogg" type='video/webm; codecs="vp8, vorbis"' />
  <source src="movie.webm" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
</video>

Note: .mp4 must be listed as the first source if you want iPad compatibility.

But wait, there’s more…
With HTML5, it is very easy to add subtitles/captions to your video using the <track> tag, but this feature is not supported at all on any browsers so you’ll have to wait or jump on a Delorean and travel to the future. Since it’s so cool though, I will show you how to code it anyway.

First you need to create a subtitle text file. It is really easy to make, just simply follow this tutorial by makeuseof.com. Now that you have your subtitle text file, you can use the <track> tag to call it up like this:

<video width="320" height="240">
  <source src="movie.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
  <track src="subtitles.srt" kind="subtitles" srclang="en" label="English">
</video>

Pretty cool, eh?

<iframe> Embed

If you have lots of videos, or your videos are large in size, hosting them on your own server might not be a good idea. In this case, you may want to upload your videos to popular video sharing websites such as YouTube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, etc. These websites provide an iframe embed link for each video you upload. All you have to do is copy and paste that into your HTML.

The issue with size
The video sharing websites stated above provide provide customization for width and height of the video you upload, so you can resize it to fit your mobile website. This works as long as you are ok with your video being constrained to a fixed size, but that might not be the case for everyone.

While some smartphone users hold their devices in portrait view by default, some also turn their devices sideways and use them in landscape mode. Assuming your mobile website’s design accommodates this change in screen width (obviously, the screen is wider in landscape mode), you’d want your embed video to accommodate it as well. Let’s take a look at a standard YouTube video embed code and see what you can do to make the size of the video flexible.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HC_OE74qtAE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Looking at the code above, the simplest way to make the video’s width flexible is changing the width attribute to 100%. Like this:

<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HC_OE74qtAE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Keep in mind though, this only changes the width of the video while the height is still at a fixed size. You may think if you just change the height to 100% or auto, then your video would scale proportionally. Unfortunately, it is a bit more complicated than that, but fear not, it isn’t something that a little CSS can’t fix. Nick La of WebDesignerWall.com has written a detailed tutorial on how to make fluid iframe embed work; read through it if you need your video to scale proportionally. If you are a Bluetrain Mobile customer, you’d know we use this technique very well. When you are using the Page Editor inside our platform and you want to insert a video embed on your mobile website, all you have to do is click on the “Insert Video” button and paste in the YouTube link to your video. And VOILA! Your video is embedded on your mobile website and it scales proportionally if the mobile device’s screen width changes (going from portrait mode to landscape mode).

Other Video Embedding Techniques

Do you know of other ways to embed videos on a mobile website? If so, make sure to let us know by simply adding a comment or tweeting at us. We’d love to learn about them.

About the Author

Mike Mai operates the train of creative thoughts at Bluetrain Mobile. He loves web, mobile and social media. Language skills include Mandarin, Cantonese, and HTML5.
@mikemai2awesome

1869. The final spike. “East and West: Completion of the Great Line Spanning the Continent.” This message brought to you by …the train. A shovel of coal in, steam out. Moving forward. The American dream.

Many inventions throughout American history have come and gone: Morse Code, the 8 track tape, floppy discs, pianos for the bedridden. However, almost a century and a half later, the train still hasn’t gone out of style.

Trains symbolize movement. Evolution. Transcending boundaries. Post manifest destiny, Americans had obligations and changing desires. Transcontinental travel was becoming more essential and no longer impossible. 143 years ago in Promontory Summit, Utah, the “golden spike” was driven into the final tie completing 1,776 miles of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railways. The face of America was forever changed. As the use of the stagecoach and wagon trains declined, traffic on the Oregon and California trail started to dwindle as well, and Americans found it possible to travel across half of the continent in under eight days. Talk about a transition. Literally.

Nowadays, some people see trains as archaic, but in reality, they are far from it. Ever since the first coal-shoveling steam locomotive made its debut in 1830, trains have been evolving. And as the second most efficient mode of transportation, Americans are still on board. Why celebrate trains? They bring us closer to each other, remind us of our country’s history, and offer a more intimate way to see the beautiful countryside and cities that sparkle across our great continent.

So, it’s time to celebrate National Train Day! May 12, 2012 marks the 143rd anniversary of the completion of the first transcontinental railroad. On this day Amtrak will host major events in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles with free family-friendly activities, entertainment, and exhibits showcasing just how awesome trains were, are, and will be in the future. Other events scattered across the country will also be taking place and offering interactive and educational exhibits, model train displays, tours and more. For additional information, check out the National Train Day website events page at http://www.nationaltrainday.com/events.

Trains show us where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. They remind us that it’s not the destination, but the journey. They give us the sense of paying homage to our roots. Like having lunch between Abe Lincoln and Andrew Johnson and saying, “Hey, man, thanks for getting this whole railroad thing going.” Patting thousands of railroad workers on the back and saying, “I really appreciate your hard work.” They help us get in touch with the simple things. So buy a ticket, pay homage, and go explore!

Whether you are inviting alumni to a lecture by a famed marine biologist or alerting prospective students to upcoming admissions deadlines, as a college administrator you need to be able to reach your audience wherever they are. As more and more students, prospective students, and alumni turn to their smartphones for daily web searching, this means creating a mobile-optimized website that gets them the content they need while on the go.

In this blog post, we will help you devise a plan of action to bring your university or college website into the mobile era.

Why Mobile?

In just a few short years since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, smartphones have become one of the primary ways that Americans access the Internet. Fifty-four percent of mobile phone subscribers in the United States ages 18-24 use smartphones, while 37 percent of subscribers ages 13-17 use smartphones, according to a November 2011 Nielsen report. This means that two of your most important demographics—current and prospective undergraduate students—are accessing the Internet on their smartphones in numbers that you cannot afford to ignore.

Furthermore, your competition is rapidly adapting to the mobile web. Fifty-nine percent of higher education institutions now have a mobile web solution—either a mobile-friendly website, native mobile device application, or mobile-accessible website, according to a 2012 survey by University Business Magazine. That is up from 37 percent in early 2011. If you are in the higher education space, now is the time to go mobile.

The 5 Steps

1. Define Your Mobile Audience

The trick with designing a mobile-friendly website is to simplify your content so users who are on the go can easily find what they’re looking for.

The first step in simplifying your content is to decide who your mobile audience is. Some schools design mobile sites exclusively with prospective students in mind. Others choose to focus their mobile sites on the needs of the campus community: current students, faculty, and staff. Others include content for all types of audiences. It all depends on your school’s online goals.

As an example, when we designed Northeastern University’s College of Business Administration site, they chose to focus on two constituencies: prospective students and business owners who want to participate in Northeastern’s popular student co-op work experience program. Your school may be in the midst of a capital campaign, and sending a large volume of emails to alums that need to be linked to pages on your website. Or you may be making a major admissions push. The key is to use your mobile real estate wisely by prioritizing the audiences that matter most to you.

2. Stick to the Essentials

After you have chosen an audience, it is time to decide what content to offer your audience on your mobile site. Smartphone screens can only display a small amount of information at a time, so it is important to include only the most essential information. Be sure to hit the basics: contact information for critical offices like admissions, registrar, and alumni affairs; info about the admissions process, financial aid and deadlines; alerts about upcoming events; a list of academic programs, or a list of student clubs and activities.

For general advice on deciding which information to bring to the front of your mobile site, check out our blog article “How to Prioritize the Content on Your Mobile Website’s Homepage.”

3. Add Some Flair – Use Video

Once you have determined what basic content to include on your mobile site, think how you are going to grab your audience’s attention. One of the best ways to add flair to your site is through video. Especially on smartphones where the screen size discourages extensive use of text, videos can hold your audience’s attention and convey information effectively.

You may want to include video testimonials by current students or alumni, or tours of the campus, or a montage that gives a compelling glimpse into life at your school. For inspiration, check out this mobile website we designed for the Culinary Institute of America, which includes one such video montage: http://ciachef.mobi (enter the address into your smartphone’s browser to get the mobile experience).

4. Use Location-Based Services

A GPS-enabled campus map is a great feature to include on your mobile site. You can include all relevant campus offices, landmarks, and even nearby public transportation and parking locations. Current students, prospective students and their parents, or alumni visiting campus will all appreciate a map feature. After all, one of the key functions of a smartphone is to help people find where they are and get to where they want to go.

5. Make It Seamless

Once you have generated the content for your mobile site, you need to make sure it integrates seamlessly with your full website. Be sure to include a “Full Site” button at the bottom of the page, so users can navigate to the full website if they don’t find what they are looking for on your mobile site. And include relevant links to content on the full site from secondary pages on your mobile site. If you follow all of these steps, you will be well on your way to reaching your school’s ever-expanding mobile audience.

It’s hard out there for brands. Everyone else is wooing users on mobile devices with fancy HTML5 sites and mobile apps, so you figure it’s time to put yourself out there. It’s time to build a mobile website and get a piece of the action!

So what’s the first thing you do? You throw together a quick and dirty mobile site and start promoting the hell out of it. That should impress them! But wait… why is everyone bouncing? Why aren’t visitors signing up for your newsletter or requesting more information? You start to feel a little self-conscious about your mobile site. Is it you?

Yes. As it turns out, all mobile sites are not created equal.

Don’t worry, consider me your Mobile Love Guru. I’m here to help you put your best foot forward by pointing out some common mistakes that companies make with their mobile websites. Without further ado:

1. Take the time to get to know your mobile visitors.

It’s easy to think of your mobile website as just another marketing tool, but don’t forget that the ultimate goal of the site is to please the end user. As the new adage goes, “Mobile is a behavior, not a technology” – it’s not enough to simply make a website easy to navigate on smartphones, you need to understand how users behave while on-the-go. They need directions, they need information quickly, maybe they’re bored in the dentist’s waiting room and they’d like to see what’s new on your blog. Use Google Analytics to discover what content mobile visitors are accessing on your current desktop site. The answers are there, you just have to look for them!

2. Be Yourself

There are a lot of mobile website creators out there that promise you a mobile site in less than 5 minutes – they may even say that their sites are “customizable.” But if all you’re doing is picking a couple of colors and a template layout, who’s to say that your mobile site will look anything like your brand? Or worse, what if it looks exactly like that other brand? You’ve invested time and money (and probably blood, sweat, and tears) into developing a brand that is recognizable, unique, and speaks to your audience. You shouldn’t throw this all away for a stack of buttons and an interchangeable color palette. Be yourself – it’s what your customers expect.

3. Don’t be shallow.

Just because your site is optimized for mobile doesn’t mean you have to strip away all of the great content from your desktop site. By using advanced navigation, your visitors can easily navigate to deep pages without getting lost or having to rely solely on their browser’s “back” button. Even more importantly, you don’t have to stuff your homepage with links to every page on your site! Leave room for branding and a great focus image by giving navigation its own separate area on your site, and link to only the most important pages from the homepage.

4. It’s a first date, I’m not ready for an app yet.

Stop asking people to download your app the first time they visit your mobile site. Mobile websites are all about first engagement, quick information retrieval, and helping your visitors find ways to connect with you on an ongoing basis (social media links, newsletters signups, and maybe downloading an app). If the first thing a visitor sees when they’re trying to access your site is a disruptive pop-up asking them to download something they may not necessarily want or need, you’re going to leave them with a sour taste in their mouth before they even make it to your homepage.

5. Don’t make them feel trapped.

Remember to include a link to the full desktop site on your mobile site. Always give your visitors the option to choose, especially if your mobile site has been heavily edited.

6. They’re all thumbs, but don’t make them feel bad about it.

Is your mobile site thumb-friendly? We’re probably stating the obvious here, but don’t put your visitors in a position where they feel like it’s their fingers or thumbs causing problems while they struggle to navigate your site. Make sure the target size of any button is at least 40 pixels high (we recommend 44 pixels). Any smaller, and your users are going to feel clumsy and frustrated. This is also true for text links; don’t place them too close together, or your user is going to face a lot of misclicks.

7. Be interactive.

Mobile visitors love streaming video. In North America, video and audio streaming make up more than half of all data traffic, led by YouTube. Lucky for you, YouTube makes it very easy to embed videos, and depending on the platform or technology you’re using to create your mobile site, users may be able to stream videos without ever leaving the page. Give your mobile visitors some eye candy and promote your cool new product demo by embedding videos directly into your mobile site.

Have you had a bad experience with a mobile website recently? Tell the Mobile Love Guru all about it in the comments section!

In the rowing world, they say it takes 1,000 repetitions of the same motion before it can be engrained in your muscle memory, learning something new and enforcing old bits of information with each stroke. Repetition is, in essence, the mother of skill. The same could be said in the realm of mobile marketing. How many different mobile sites must you visit before you can be considered an expert in a certain field? I’ve just visited and navigated through thirty. Does that make me an expert? We’ll see.

(Note: while we are VERY proud of our customers in the higher education space, we purposely chose not to focus on their sites in this blog post. We encourage you to visit our Mobile Showcase for examples of college and university mobile websites that use the Bluetrain Mobile platform to excel at delivering mobile web experiences to their visitors!)

As a recent college graduate from Michigan State University, I have a decent grasp on what most students want to see out of a college website. However, at the beginning of this project I didn’t have a clue as to what alumni, parents, sports, and faculty would be looking for. Truthfully, I hadn’t really even considered those audiences. I had only dipped my toes in the sea of mobile and was ready to learn more.

Surprisingly enough, I’d say a good 60% of the schools I searched for didn’t even have a mobile site. And considering that most of the sites I visited were larger universities, I’m sure the percentage of smaller, private schools without mobile sites would be even higher. When 1 out of every 8 internet requests are mobile, I can’t help but wonder why people have not jumped on this train yet?

The journey began.

I started at the beginning of the alphabet, going state by state, focusing on both larger state universities and small private schools. Maybe there was a better method, but this worked for me. Alabama through Arizona gave me a decent idea of the basic mobile sites that were out there. A plain list of tabs, easy to navigate, nothing special. The first problem I ran into occurred when I began searching for each school’s academic programs.

I see this as a very important feature when it comes to designing a mobile site for a college or university. If I’m browsing a school’s website, I should have absolutely no problem finding an academics section. You are an institution providing state of the art academics, right? So show me!

Finding the University of Alabama’s academics information was unexpectedly difficult. Unintuitive for sure. As I later discovered, the University of Mississippi has no academics tab, section, or icon. Nothing. Really, what is the motivation behind this?

Surprise #1:
It’s oddly difficult to find an Academics section on a large number of university mobile websites.

It wasn’t until I landed on Hendrix College that I really started to notice some other major flaws. Or rather, some inconveniences. Some things that, frankly, flat out irritated me. You don’t want a prospective student to be irritated.

Where to begin… Overall, Hendrix College’s mobile site looks simple. Nice colors, happy picture, decent feel. How about functionality? Hendrix uses responsive design to accomodate for both desktop and mobile, however there are still some issues that arise. I liked that there’s a search bar, but why is it so huge? An why do I have to scroll for 3 years within the “Go to…” dropdown menu to find what I want? Some of the pages are useful, but they’re really meant to be experienced on a desktop site. For example, the font size is too small to read on some pages and I left grandma’s bifocals at home. This was not going well. The “quick links” at the bottom of most pages are not so quick to get to because the pages are so long. There are click-to-call phone numbers, but I don’t want to do any calling anymore. I was just frustrated with how difficult this site is to navigate, so I closed the door on my way out.

Surprise #2:
It is possible for a mobile site to appear simple, yet be enormously difficult to use.

I then moved on to the University of Southern California and was pleasantly surprised. The look of their homepage is different than any of the sites I had seen so far. There are convenient tools and services at the top, popular links, and easy navigation. I liked all the resources provided for me on the homepage, yet I was comforted knowing that an in-depth, easy-to-navigate menu is available in case I needed it. In my opinion the site does have some issues with complexity, in that there are a few resources you can access in multiple, unnecessary ways.

But this site is unique. It feels welcoming and has so many features that I wanted to explore, including: News, Gallery, Video, Statistics, Research, and their social media links. Never had I ever thought that a bus schedule would be something you could include in a mobile site. How functional! It painted a decent picture of the university for me, and if I were a prospective student, I’d be booking a visit.

Surprise #3:
Including features and useful tools specific to the mobile audience improves the functionality of a mobile site and fosters a positive image.

I traveled from Colorado to Michigan, Pennsylvania to Maine, learning something more from each site I visited. From the very beginning I was impressed by simple sites with a picture or two and academic information for prospective students. But throughout my search, I began to realize there is so much more needed on a mobile site. It isn’t just prospective and current students visiting these sites. It’s faculty, sports fans, parents, alumni, businesses, etc. The site has to appeal to them, too. A potential faculty member isn’t going to want to land on your homepage and be inundated with a screen full of resources for current students.

My opinions were changing. I didn’t like overly simple anymore. I didn’t like the list of tabs. Yes, it was easy to navigate through, but I needed videos, pictures, and stories. I wanted news articles. I wanted a picture of this university to be painted for me without having to read an “About Us” page.

George Fox University. Another example of a mobile site making me feel welcome. Their homepage gives you the option to navigate to a part of their site that is catered to your specific needs. You can do this in one of two ways: 1) Choose “Prospective Students” or click on “GFU Community”, giving you the option to classify yourself as a current student, alumnus, parent, or faculty, or 2) Once in the main menu, select resources, and you are presented with the option of exploring resources for current students, prospective students, current faculty, current employees, alumni, churches, donors, journalists, and parents. Too many options? Maybe. But how pumped would you be if you were a journalist and there was a specific area with resources for you? Talk about catering to your audience.

In contrast, the College of New Jersey provided the exact opposite experience. Their homepage consists mainly of obscure links that only current students may recognize, such as SOCS, PAWS, YESS, etc. Those things mean nothing to me. They probably mean nothing to an alumnus who graduated 20 years ago, a news reporter, a sports fan, or a parent, as well. Maybe these shouldn’t be the first things everyone sees when they come to the site.

Surprise #4:
A mobile site with an abundance of information and tools isn’t necessarily good. It needs to be organized well. A site should have the capability to cater to different audiences.

I’m calling these “surprises” not because I expected the opposite, but rather because they are concepts that I didn’t even consider when I began my search. By the end, I was able to narrow down the best and the worst. The beautiful and the ugly.

A site seems to work well if it’s simple and intuitive, easy to navigate, well-organized, and has key features such as:

• Resources for multiple audiences
• Academics information
• Social media links
• Pictures and video
• Academic calendar
• Search
• Click to call contact numbers and emails
• News and events

Things to avoid in creating a mobile site for a university would include:

• Confusing or Obscure Navigational Links
• Excessively long pages with too much content
• Links at the bottom of a long page
• Features or text that’s too small and difficult to select
• Weather tool

Conclusion

After not having a clue what I was getting myself into at the beginning of my search, in the end I was pleasantly surprised to find some really interesting and unique mobile sites for universities. None of the schools’ mobile sites I visited were perfect, but each one taught me more about designing a site for a college or university. I learned what kind of site intrigued me, what made me want to learn more, and what persuaded me to even consider packing up and booking a visit.

It seems quite elementary. Provide me with a simple site, tell me a little bit about your academics, and help me easily navigate from page to page. Paint me a picture, tell me a story, happily send me on my way, and I’ll probably check you out later. Maybe I’ll even recommend you to a friend. However, accomplishing these steps takes research. You can’t learn all there is to learn about building your school’s mobile site from me or from visiting only a few other sites. See what’s out there.

Here’s the complete list of college mobile websites I visited:

• University of Alabama
• University of Alaska
• Arizona State University
• Hendrix College
• University of Southern California
• University of Colorado, Denver
• Wilmington University
• University of Florida
• Argosy University
• North Idaho College
• Iowa State University
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Chicago
• Bethel College
• University of Kentucky
• University of Maine
• University of Maryland
• Boston University
• Harvard University
• Michigan State University
• University of Mississippi
• University of Nebraska, Lincoln
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• The College of New Jersey
• The City University of New York
• Rochester Institute of Technology
• University of Mary Washington
• University of Pennsylvania
• George Fox University, Oregon
• College of William and Mary

How does your college or university’s mobile site compare? Go ahead, flaunt what you’ve got in the comments section.

Ever feel like it’s too overwhelming to keep up with the ever-evolving mobile marketing industry? We hear you. It’s tough staying on the bleeding edge of mobile, so we compiled this list of blogs from our Mobile Marketing Map to help you stay up to date on the latest industry trends. Add these sites to your RSS feed and sound incredibly well-informed at your next conference.

Google Mobile Blog

The Google Mobile blog is a roundup of news from  the Google Mobile team. This is a go-to resource for product announcements and upcoming features for Google’s mobile services and applications. The team at Google also does an amazing job of staying on top of industry trends and providing readers with greater context surrounding their mobile product offerings.  Another great resource provided by Google is their Google Mobile Ads Blog.  Be sure to subscribe to their feed to get their latest case studies!

Mobile Marketing Blog

The Mobile Marketing Blog is edited by Giorgos Saslis, a software engineer at Cytech. It’s updated weekly with industry news, mobile marketing best practices, and case studies. It has also become a resource for finding upcoming events and conferences in the mobile space and an outlet for press and product announcements from respected mobile vendors.

HubSpot Blog – Mobile

The HubSpot blog has become one of the most widely-read resources about online marketing on the Web.  The high-quality content is a vital resource for any marketer. The quickest way to access their mobile content is to search for “mobile” on the blog, however, they’re sure to add a dedicated category for mobile soon!  The last time we did an analysis of the web’s most popular blog posts about mobile, we featured 9 Amazing Mobile Marketing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know, by Jeanne Hopkins, VP of Marketing at HubSpot (follow her on Twitter, if you don’t already!).

InsiderMobile

InsiderMobile boasts a contributor list of over 60 mobile industry insiders and provides professional opinions about trends in mobile commerce, mobile technologies, and mobile devices. In addition to their original content, InsiderMobile curates mobiles stories from various news outlets, giving readers a more in-depth perspective on current events in the wireless world.

M-Trends

M-Trends is the blog of Rudy De Waele (we also featured Rudy on our must-follow mobile influencers list in November, so it’s no surprise his blog made it onto our Mobile Marketing Map). M-Trends is a great mix of thoughts on mobile media lifestyle, trends, and Rudy’s ideas on all things mobile. While it may not be updated as often as other blogs, there is a wealth of information and resources in the blog archives.

The 60 Second Marketer

The 60 Second Marketer is an online magazine for marketers sponsored by BKV Digital and Direct Response. Jamie Turner is the Founder and Chief Content Officer of the blog and updates almost daily with great industry insights. There is also a wonderful mix of guest content from mobile start-up founders, tech writers, and more.

Do you have a favorite blog with great content about mobile marketing?  Let us know!

Recent statistics show that those looking for doctors, hospitals, or general medical information are turning to their smartphones and other mobile devices in droves to find what they need.

If you are a marketer, administrator, or other stakeholder at a hospital, you need to take advantage of this trend in order to get information about your services in front of  patients and potential patients. That means you need to have a mobile website designed for the needs of mobile users.

Meet Them Where They Live

Like most U.S. adults, your patients and potential patients do not just live in houses, apartments, or office cubicles. They live online. OK, you may say, but are they looking for hospitals online? Well, after e-mailing and generally “using a search engine,” the 3rd most popular reason to go online is to look for health information, according to a recent Pew research study. That’s right — adult Americans go online to learn about their health more frequently than they go online to get news or even to shop. And many of them are specifically looking for hospitals. According to the Pew study, 36% of Internet users search for information about hospitals or other medical facilities.

Furthermore, your potential patients are increasingly looking for health information while on the go, through a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. 16.9 million mobile users in the U.S. accessed health information on their mobile device in the three-month period ending November 2011, according to a recent comScore report. That is a 125% increase over the same period the year before.

The vast majority of hospital website visits still come from desktop computer users. In the U.S., the median percentage of visitors coming to hospital websites via mobile devices is 7%, according to Andrew Roberts, Greystone.net’s director of analytics (from this August 2011 article in the New York Daily News). However, with mobile web searches for medical information more than doubling in a year, that percentage is bound to increase quickly.

Tip: Check your website analytics data to see exactly what your hospital’s mobile traffic is. To learn more, read this article: Are Your Customers Mobile? How To Use Google Analytics To See The Data.

So ask yourself: with so many Americans searching for health information online, can you afford not to have both a traditional website and a mobile-optimized site? I think you know the answer.

The 4 Strategies

Now that we’ve established the need for a mobile-optimized site, how do you get there?

1. Keep It Simple

Good mobile websites are clean, simple, and to the point. Remember, only the first 80-90 words on your mobile website will be visible on the screen without scrolling (see our advice on mobile copy writing).  So choose your content wisely, and give mobile users a few basic options so they can quickly get to the information they want. After all, they are on the go!

2. Help Patients Find a Doctor

One of the most popular health-related web searches is for a doctor; the Pew study showed that 44% of Internet users search for doctors or other health professionals online. To take full advantage of this opportunity to connect patients to your doctors, create individual doctors’ pages on your mobile site (that are also optimized for mobile SEO), and make sure there is a clear way to search for doctors and specialists, as well as navigate through the directory.  Allow users to drill-down to find contact information, maps, and even to make an appointment by filling out a very simple form. The less effort on the user’s part, the better.

3. Location, Location, Location!

Because they are on the move, mobile web users are often looking for location-related information. They may be looking in a search engine for the closest emergency room, or searching for directions to your hospital, or looking for parking or a particular department once they are inside the hospital. A lot of these needs can be met efficiently by integrating your mobile website with the map and location-finding apps that are native on a user’s phone. For instance, allowing users to quickly pull up a map and plot directions to the hospital from their current location.

4. Include Special Features, When They Make Sense

Some hospitals are including special features like emergency room wait times on their websites. Others are using apps that will text patients with emergency room wait time info, or other apps with a wide range of features. The key is to know your constituency’s needs and find simple, effective ways of meeting those needs for a clientele that is increasingly on-the-go.

Conclusion

Learn to master the mobile web, and you will have a simple, cost-effective vehicle for reaching patients, caregivers, and potential patients. As use of the mobile web continues to soar, you will ride this technological wave and truly be where your patients are. Then you will have closed the virtual loop, allowing patients to get the information they need from you when it is convenient to them.

Related Information:

• Learn more about Mobile Websites For Hospitals

While this post sounds like the beginning of a sci-fi thriller, I think we can assume we’re safe from any sort of machine takeover…at least in the near future. All kidding aside, smartphones can do some pretty cool things these days, and their capabilities are changing so quickly, it’s almost impossible to keep up. Even though this article will most likely be outdated by next week, here are some ways that smartphones are becoming more like, and in some cases even smarter than, human beings.

They Know Where You Are

With the rise of Location Based Services (LBS), smartphones now have the ability to pinpoint your exact location. Based on your mobile searches, the phone can easily make recommendations, gather coupons, and direct you to places of interest. LBS has the potential to target specific individuals based on their needs and where they are, and has huge implications for marketers and retailers. This makes it easy to offer highly targeted deals to local consumers and minimize wasted marketing efforts.

They Know Who You Are

Smartphones can now recognize your facial features. Simply point the front-facing camera at your lovely smile, and the phone will unlock itself upon “seeing” you. (The first phone to use this technology was the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.) Simple facial recognition is just the beginning; perhaps in the near future, phones will be able to detect emotions and sense how you’re feeling, which could lead to huge opportunities for marketers. Imagine checking your phone after a long, stressful day at work – your phone sees your expression and recognizes your mood. Meanwhile, a local spa offers coupons for half-off massages to phones in the area that identify their owners as stressed. This is all speculation, but as you can see, the possibilities are endless.

They’re Looking To The Skies

No, your phones aren’t becoming religious, but an increasing number of smartphones can now connect to the cloud. Cloud computing is where the digital world is heading, and being able to access all of your files from your smartphone will make people more productive, more mobile, and more efficient. This will also make it easier for people to share and view documents with their smartphones via the cloud. In a few years, we may not even need desktop computers anymore.

They See Things You Can’t

Augmented reality may be a term you don’t recognize, but it’s actually a technology you’re quite familiar with. In fact, you most likely experience it every Sunday between September and January. I’m talking about football of course, more specifically the yellow first down line you’ve become so accustomed to seeing on the field. It’s a geographically-tethered image superimposed on the canvas of reality, which is just a fancy way of saying it’s augmented reality.

Augmented reality goes way beyond the gridiron, and the technology is now being adapted for smartphones. While it’s not yet perfected, the concept is that you view your surroundings via your phone’s camera function, it uses GPS to orient itself and “see” your surroundings, and then it superimposes images or text over buildings, landmarks, or areas of interest to offer you additional information.

Google is currently developing a pair of virtual Android glasses that operates using a series of head tilts, and uses augmented reality to let the viewer discover info on whatever it is they’re looking at, and even discover local deals as they walk down the street. Although the project is purely intended as an experiment, it could be the future of how we interact with mobile devices.

They Talk And Listen To You

When Apple released the iPhone 4S, the biggest new features was Siri, a personal assistant built right into your phone. Siri can update and report on your schedule, make recommendations for local restaurants, find answers and directions, and a whole lot more. Even cooler, the more you use Siri, the more she knows about you and the more tailored her answers are based on your interests and tendencies. I’m even using a gender-specific pronoun to describe her, as does the rest of the people who have “met her.” Sounds pretty human to me.

They Talk And Listen To Each Other

Smartphones, and electronic devices in general, are now able to identify and communicate with each other. This technology, called Near Field Communication (NFC), allows electronics to recognize and connect with each other when in close proximity, similar to how your laptop can detect WiFi networks in the area. With NFC, your smartphone is able to sense and communicate with devices around it, allowing you to make payments, share contact info, photos and files with another person, and even use your phone as your hotel room key. Over the next few years and with the continuing development of NFC technology, everything that you used to carry around in your pockets will be consolidated into one device.

They Shop For Groceries

South Korea has implemented a virtual supermarket in their subway that allows customers to shop using their smartphones and QR codes. Shoppers can browse pictures of products on the walls, snap a picture of a QR code, and the product will be delivered to their house. A company in Denmark is taking this one step further, by incorporating NFC into grocery shopping. With just a scan of your smartphone, all your groceries will be collected, paid for, and delivered to your house with minimal effort and time on your part. This isn’t to say that traditional grocery shopping will be a lost art, but new smartphone technology will provide an alternative for busy, on-the-go people who don’t always have time to make a milk run.

They’re Diagnosing Diseases

Apple’s Siri is great at finding places to eat, reporting on your schedule, and writing messages for you. But what if you were sick and Siri could help diagnose your symptoms? A group of scientists at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have been experimenting using touch screens to detect biomolecular matter ultimately to decipher diseases. The concept is anchored in smartphones’ responses to electrical signals sent from the human body via touch. Smartphones can also recognize the presence of DNA and other proteins as well based on their unique electrical signals. By identifying specific proteins and concentrations, smartphones have the potential to accurately diagnose certain diseases and then communicate the results with doctors and databases throughout the medical world.

To diagnose, the user would need to provide a blood or urine sample, which obviously they would not want to put on the screen of their phone, so KAIST is also developing a slide mechanism for samples that would then plug into the phone for diagnosis, but either way it’s some pretty exciting stuff. Imagine receiving a smartphone as part of your healthcare benefits! One day, that might not sound so absurd.

What cool new things would you like to see your smartphone do in the future?

Here on In Transit, we decided to take a deeper look at the more than 150 resources included in our Mobile Marketing Map. Our first stop will be Mobile Analysts, the real faces of the evolving mobile industry who serve as the go-to gurus when it comes to data analysis and identifying mobile trends.

Gerry Purdy is the Principle Analyst at MobileTrax. He is the mastermind behind Inside Mobile, a newsletter that boasts a readership of over 100,000 per month. Dr. Purdy is an ‘edge of network’ analyst, looking at devices, applications and services, as well as wireless connectivity. He focuses on monitoring and analyzing emerging trends in mobile.

Alistair Hill is the Managing Director of On Device Research, a London-based mobile research firm. Prior to co-founding On Device, he was a Senior Mobile Analyst at comScore. In his work with On Device, Hill researches markets, mobile consumers, niche respondents, and trends in the mobile industry. His recent work has included a study on mobile trends in the retail space.

Michael Wolf is the founding Vice President of Research at GigaOM. As a consumer technology analyst, he also helped develop and launch GigaOM Pro. His recently published work in the mobile space includes Forecast: the Evolution of the E-book Market and Why Connected TV Devices Will Follow the Phone Market’s Model.

Thomas Husson is a Principle Analyst at Forrester Research covering mobile consumer trends. His research has been cited in multiple languages across various publications, including the BBC and Reuters. His latest research includes 2012 Mobile Trends for eBusiness Professionals and 2012 Mobile Trends for CPS Professionals.

Dean Bubley is the Founder of Disruptive Analysis, as well as a technology industry analyst specializing in mobile, wireless, and telecon. His most recent report, Telco-OTT Strategies & Case Studies, covers everything from VoIP to femtocells to SaaS to IP-VPNs to portals and IPTV-anywhere. Bubley’s Disruptive Wireless blog is a widely read and respected industry resource.

Carolina Milanesi is the Research VP in Gartner’s Mobile Devices Team. Her work includes forecasting and market share, mobile device vendors’ competitive analysis, mobile device operating systems, application stores, and connected consumer electronics. Her most recent publication, Agenda for Consumer Devices, 2012, profiles emerging trends in cloud computing.

Brent Iadarola is the Global Program Director for Frost & Sullivan’s Mobile & Wireless Communications Group. His work focuses primarily on location-based services, mobile enterprise applications, and mobile resource management markets. Iadarola contributes to Frost & Sullivan’s GIL eBulletin, which covers the Global Community of Growth, Innovation and Leaders.

We believe a mobile website should be specific and streamlined, with top-loaded content and strong headlines and calls to actions, otherwise you risk losing your easily-distracted visitors. Here are five tips to help you distill and refine your desktop content so that it packs more punch in less than 1/12 the space!

Short and Sweet

First things first, you’re going to need to trim the fat. The average desktop website page contains 250-400 words of content. As a general rule, we recommend that you keep word count down to 75-110 words per page on your mobile site. Only the first 80-90 words will be visible on the screen, even fewer if you’re including images or call-to-action buttons.

You can easily create a template in Word to help you draft content before entering it into a mobile CMS. This will help you “see” how copy will fit on a typical mobile page.

1. Open a blank Word document
2. Set the page width to 4.4 in (this visually approximates the width of an average smartphone)
3. Set the font size to 15pt
4. Paste copy into this template and begin editing

Top-Load Your Content

Remove introductory sentences or paragraphs – the very first sentence your mobile audience reads should contain the most valuable information on the page. For instance, your “About Us” section should start off with your brand promise or an explanation of services, not a history lesson. Your mobile visitors are typically goal-oriented, so top-loading content is your #1 priority.

Is it Readable?

Fancy fonts like Impact or American Typewriter may look great on your desktop site, but they’re much harder to read on a smartphone screen. Stick to mobile web-safe fonts like Trebuchet or Verdana to make your content as scannable as possible. We’ve written an entire post on choosing fonts for your mobile website, if you want to learn more.

Although it may seem counter-intuitive, font size on your mobile site should be slightly larger than on your desktop site – we recommend 13pt for body text. Remember that your audience is on-the-go, and may just be glancing at the screen while walking down the street.

Organize With Headlines

Your mobile audience is used to scrolling for information hidden below the fold on mobile sites – and when they scroll, it’s a quick flick of the thumb before they’re at the bottom of the page – so use headlines to grab their attention as the screen flies by. Make sure every headline clearly states what they’ll find in that section.

Convert With Strong Calls To Action

If your mobile website is a conversion tool, keep your calls to action at the very top or bottom of the page (preferably both!), and use strong and succinct wording. Better yet, use colorful buttons or touch-friendly links to appeal to both their eyes and their fingers.

If you’re capturing information via forms, keep in mind that typing on a smartphone is far more labor-intensive than using a standard keyboard. Limit the number of fields to only the most necessary, and don’t make it a hassle for users to submit (one page maximum, please!)

Finally, take advantage of native smartphone functionality by including action buttons or links, like Click-to-Call, Click-to-Email, or Map Directions. This makes it easy for your audience to get in touch with you on the fly.

Conclusion

Let’s boil down the content in this blog post into a mobile-friendly recap!

1. Short and Sweet Keep word count at 75-110 words per page.
2. Top-Load Your Content Lead with the important stuff.
3. Is it Readable? Use mobile-safe fonts, at least 13pt size in body text.
4. Organize With Headlines We did in this post. Easy, right?
5. Convert With Strong Calls to Action Use clear wording, friendly buttons, short forms, and native phone functionality.