Social PR Going SoLoMo: 3 Ways to Optimize

Fish where the fish are. Taking your social PR message to the market works best when you take the message to the mobile market.

Today’s up and coming market represents the collision of social, local, and mobile media. The numbers translate why mobile marketing was named by many SES Conference speakers as a key component of the future of search.

Mobile Soars, PC Crashes

Have you looked at the mobile stats on your Google Analytics lately? Android, iPad, and iPhone visits are creeping up the online totem poll…in a three screen kind of way.

As experts crown mobile as king, PCs become so yesterday as iPads, iPhones and other mobile devices become the “go to” technology for everyone from business executives to students. Recent numbers reported in a USA Today Money article illustrate a massive shift to handheld devices and for the first time ever, the smartphone market is outpacing PCs.

Market researcher Gartner says that sales of smart phones will soar 56%, to 467.6 million and tablet sales will grow nearly four times, to 69.8 million this year.

Even one of the highest authorities at Google recognizes mobile as the next big thing.

“Tech has exhausted the limits of the PC as a platform and the future will center on the mobile devices,” Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has predicted.

The staggering shift from PCs to mobile devices is sending ripples through not only the technology industry, but the online marketing industry as well.

“The cell phone is where people go to fill their down time and find information to guide their daily lives. Get hip to the mobile aesthetic or suffer the consequences!” said Cindy Krum, CEO of Mobile Moxie and author of “Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are.”

Mobilizing and Publicizing

Publicizing events, news, and promotions to the mobile market becomes increasingly important for online marketers and brands. The social revolution is driving a paradigm shift in technology use and online public relations and social media campaigns need to go with the SoLoMo flow.

3 Ways To Optimize Social PR for SoLoMo

1. Sharing PR in an Instant: Instagram, a photo-sharing app for iPhone users, has become a widespread sensation among individual users. Put your brand on Instagram, sharing news via mobile on the go with cool pictures documenting news, events, people and places? Brands like “The Today Show” and Starbucks are taking the social PR leap reporting the news with Instagram. 
    
2. QR for PR: Recent reports show QR code use has exploded by 1,200 percent in North America. No doubt the opportunity is huge and combines a way to combine a social and mobile aspect. This might be a trend, but considering in 2010 we saw a 1,600 percent increase in number of QR codes being scanned, you can now capture the social signals via QR codes to get the Like, follow or vote. 
    
3. The PR Check ins: Facebook Places, Foursquare, and now Google+ can spread the digital word better than a press release or branded wall post. For Google+ users, Latitude check-ins are also integrated with your Google+ account. When you check in on Latitude, you also check in on Google+.

Happy Landings

The key just might be in the landing pages when it comes to best conversions.

“QR Codes in all forms of PR and advertising will be more and more prevalent as these pixilated boxes can be quickly scanned by smartphones to direct the user to an action or mobile site,” said Michael Martin, Senior SEO Strategist at Covario and owner of San Diego-based Mobile Martin. “The key is to provide a mobile optimized landing page for the promotion or mobile coupon.”

Taking your search PR campaigns to the SoLoMo market is part of the marketing flow, let’s just make sure we capture some happy landings!