Is your content mobile friendly?

The latest smartphone releases from Apple and Samsung are set to shatter sales records, and with almost half the American population on a smartphone accessing content on mobile devices is becoming more and more common.

Creating content that’s optimized to transition well from a laptop screen to a smartphone or tablet screen, can mean the difference between content that’s shared, or forgotten. It’s a transition that any blogger, content marketer, or small business owner should be ready to take whether they write blog posts, or e-mail campaigns.

So you want to catch the eye of your tech savvy readers? Here’s are five questions to ask yourself before you pen your next post.

1. Is your site mobile device friendly?

Borrow a friend’s device and check out the look and feel of your site on some common mobile devices. “It’s elementary my dear Watson” and it helps you understand how readers actually see your content.

WordPress offers plenty of mobile friendly themes. Next time you are shopping around for themes look to those that already support mobile devices and are pre-designed to fit on to different screens right off the bat.

2. Is it hard to read?

The iPhone screen ranges from 3.5 to 4 inches, HTC Evo is but 4 inches, and the latest Samsung Galaxy is almost 5 inches. Keep these guidelines in mind when figuring out how much or how little to write. Technical pointers like keeping your text at 13pt or above are helpful, but also break text into bite-sized chunks helps make your posts reader-friendly.

Your mobile readers most likely have a few short minutes before bed, the elevator, their coffee or next meeting to check your stuff out so keeping track of your word count, formatting your writing to include subheading or bullets helps them wade through your content easier.

3. Are there too many images?

Unless pictures are essential to your message, focus on writing that can paint the picture for your readers without the need for too many images. Figure out how to place images so that not too many are clustered in one area of the message. Pictures appeal to readers, but too many can bog your message down.

4. Where is your Call-To-Action?

A Call-To-Action is basically what you want your readers to do. Whether you are trying to get people to subscribe, place an order, tweet your post or call you for a consultation good placement can affect how appealing your request is.

The higher the Call-To-Action buttons are placed the more chances people will buy what you ask them to. Google Analytics recently launched a Browser Size Analysis tool within analytics that can tell you which content is above the fold to help figure out how your content is seen on different screen dimensions.

5. Do you have customized sharing buttons?

Want to tweet this post? Click here.

Most smartphone users will have their social networks integrated to their phone. It’s standard to having sharing buttons in each post, to take it a step further create a customized message that users will post. Services like Click to Tweet help your readers share your post with your own customized message (like this). Share the link within your story to make it as easy as possible to spread the love.

And that’s it! Five short and sweet tips to help you capture the heart of your tech savvy readers.

Image credit: Flickr- Jorge Quinteros

This post is part of a series on Branding and Social Media for small business, follow me via Twitter or join me via E-mail to receive your fresh copy of helpful small business online marketing strategies.

Daisy Quaker is an Internet marketing consultant, specializing in social media strategy, content marketing, e-mail marketing, connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.