Whether you agree with me or not, the fact still remains: if your website isn’t mobile friendly, you’re losing a lot of eyes (and money). As the devices get faster (LTE, etc) and screens get larger (5.5-inches is a new norm) people are browsing more on the go and less on their desktops. So, it’s either you keep up or simply get left behind.

So…now what? Never fear, Spark Boutik has you covered. Below are 9 tips in making a solid mobile website:

1. Display key information only:

The fact that you got their eyes says a lot, don’t inundate them with redundant information. Ensure your office address, phone number, and email address are clear and available. You can include more information, but ensure it is all sectioned off. Organization and clarity is key here.

2. Make sure the page loads in 3 seconds or less

This point is pretty self-explanatory. Attention is a one of this things that is hard to come by, especially when talking about others. you’re lucky to get eyes in the first place, if your site doesn’t load in under 3-seconds, consider them gone. Try to focus on HTML5 for best results.

3. Keep it light, very light:

There is 0 need for flash-based, or other large types of files. Keep it light and easy to render. Why?

Most, if not all, phones don’t support Flash. It’s ugly takes up a lot of bandwidth to load.

Keep it simple. Use standard images. Your viewers will appreciate it.

4. Stick to your design language:

Maintain brand consistency. This will help for brand recognition.

5. Touch is the new click

Make your mobile website touch friendly. Incorporate big, call-to-action buttons that will encourage touch-throughs.

6. There is more to the world than the iPhone:

Remember: just because every one of your friends uses an iPhone, doesn’t mean the rest of the world does as well. Make sure your site works with ALL feature phones. This includes: BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone, and of course Nokia (running Opera). You never know where your eyes are coming from… make sure you support them.

7. Redirect your mobile visitors automatically:

This is a no-brainer. Create a subdomain of your main website, typically, m.yoursite.com or mobile.yoursite.com, which is where your mobile website resides.

8. Track your mobile visitors separately:

You can’t add value unless you can track it. In many cases, your mobile site is probably doing more traffic than your desktop one. Using any form of analytics (Google for example) create a separate profile for your mobile site and study its behaviours month by month.

9. Make money

Going mobile means opening the doors to more money for your business – ensure you have a monetization plan. Those desktop ads that you sold will be too large for the mobile site, so make sure to sign up to a mobile ad network and get the dollars rolling in.

I hope this has helped you all. Feel free to reach out to me directly with any questions or concerns!

[via MarketingProfs]

This past week – as most are – was an interesting one in mobile. No story, however, deserves this weeks post like remember the late great tech visionary Steve Jobs. You see 4 days ago, on October 5th, was the one year anniversary of the death of the former Apple CEO. Among all the lessons he taught us all about following your dreams, one of the best was “stay young, stay foolish”. As I am sure many of you can name your own favorite quotes, what I am going to do, in memory of Steve, is compile a list of some of his most famous quotes for you to peruse and enjoy.

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

“A lot of companies have chosen to downsize, and maybe that was the right thing for them. We chose a different path. Our belief was that if we kept putting great products in front of customers, they would continue to open their wallets.”

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.”

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.”

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.”

RIP Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011,

your friends at Spark Boutik

When Tim Cook took over the reigns as CEO of Apple, achieving the long sought after title from predecessor Steve Jobs, the world knew Tim had some big shoes to fill. Alas, after sitting on the board for years, one which Mr. Jobs watched over carefully, it was his time to shine and prove what he could really do.

That was a last year; an eternity in technology terms.

Over the course of 12 months, he oversaw the launches of two of Apple’s popular products, the 3rd-generation iPad (called the “new” iPad), and the new line of MacBooks. Both were deemed successful by analysts, bloggers and critics.

Then, it came to launching the 6th-generation iPhone, now known as the iPhone 5, Apple’s most profitable and popular offering. After months of speculation, leaks, rumours and other mishaps, Apple finally lifted the curtain and announced it to the world. However, it was missing two things this time around: Google Maps searching, and the late Steve Jobs’ charisma.

While many were quickly able to get over the fact that the mock-neck wearing genius was not the one pitching the deck, they were not able to fully accept the Apple/TomTom attempt at turn-by-turn mapping. It was simply broken and missing information; so much so that a Tumblr account was created solely to point out the flaws.

What as the face/CEO of Apple can Tim Cook do now? Avoid the topic and hope it goes away? Or, do as he’s told by his PR team, and confront the issue publicly and subsequently apologize?

He chose the latter and we applaud him for it. Read below to see the official press release addressing the maps issue, put out by Apple, on behalf of Tim Cook:

To our customers,

At Apple, we strive to make world-class products that deliver the best experience possible to our customers. With the launch of our new Maps last week, we fell short on this commitment. We are extremely sorry for the frustration this has caused our customers and we are doing everything we can to make Maps better.

We launched Maps initially with the first version of iOS. As time progressed, we wanted to provide our customers with even better Maps including features such as turn-by-turn directions, voice integration, Flyover and vector-based maps. In order to do this, we had to create a new version of Maps from the ground up.

There are already more than 100 million iOS devices using the new Apple Maps, with more and more joining us every day. In just over a week, iOS users with the new Maps have already searched for nearly half a billion locations. The more our customers use our Maps the better it will get and we greatly appreciate all of the feedback we have received from you.

While we’re improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app.

Everything we do at Apple is aimed at making our products the best in the world. We know that you expect that from us, and we will keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard.

Tim Cook
Apple’s CEO

There you go. From the mouth of the beast, confronting the issue and formally apologizing. No better way to handle any sort of crisis and we applaud him for it. It takes a strong CEO to admit he’s wrong and go on the record not only apologizing, but recommending the competition until Apple has a more polished product.

Would you have handled the situation differently? Sound off below!

It’s 2AM, you’re in a daze watching TV, half-asleep, not letting your eyes close; that’s when it happens: “text message 1112220 with your birthdate to get your perfect match sent to you via text”. You figure, what do I have to lose, it can’t cost me THAT much, right? And it’s for true love. So, you subscribe and start receiving these texts daily, not realizing that each one that comes in is costing you upwards of $2-$3 a pop. Then, boom, the end of month comes and the cardiac arrest hits; you have “premium SMS” overages to the tune of a few hundred dollars. Boom, they got you. It’s now, and only now, that you call your respective carrier and fight, plead ignorance, etc just so that they pity you enough to reverse the charges. If the aforementioned scenario relates in any way to you….

Don’t worry, you’re not alone.

The Competition Bureau has finally gotten involved and is seeking customer refunds and $31 million in penalties from Rogers, Telus, and Bell for misleading customers. Following a five-month investigation, the Bureau has begun legal proceedings against the “Big Three” as well as the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, requiring them to “stop misleading advertising that promotes costly ‘premium texting services,’ and to compensate consumers.”.

Finally, relief.

The Bureau is seeking full customer refunds and administrative monetary penalties to the tune of $10 million each from Bell, Rogers and Telus, and $1 million from the CWTA.

“The Bureau’s investigation concluded that Bell, Rogers and Telus, in conjunction with the CWTA, facilitated the sale to their own customers of premium-rate digital content (such as trivia questions and ringtones) for fees that had not been adequately disclosed. Customers were misled into believing this content was free, when it was not. In fact, in the case of Bell, Rogers and Telus, they pocketed a share of the revenues collected. Aggravating the situation, Bell, Rogers, Telus and the CWTA led customers to believe that measures were in place to prevent these unauthorized charges.”

“Our investigation revealed that consumers were under the false impression that certain texts and apps were free,” said Melanie Aitken, Commissioner of Competition. “Unfortunately, in far too many cases, consumers only became aware of unexpected and unauthorized charges on their mobile phone bills.”

The legal proceedings are before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the misleading advertising provisions of the Competition Act. The Bureau is seeking:

• Full refunds for customers;

• Administrative monetary penalties;

• A stop to any representations that do not clearly disclose the price and other terms and conditions applicable to premium-rate digital content; and

• A corrective notice from each of Bell, Rogers, Telus, and the CWTA, to inform the general public about the terms and conditions of any order issued against them.

“We take misleading advertising very seriously,” said Lisa Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, Fair Business Practices Branch. “We want to ensure that consumers are not misled about pricing terms and have greater control over third-party charges on their wireless invoices.”

[via TechVibes]

Alright, so it happened. After much chatter, Apple finally unveiled its latest flagship device the iPhone 5, powered by the latest iteration of their famed iOS version 6.0. Many criticized, many were in awe; read here to see the full specs of the forthcoming device set to hit stores on Sept 21st, 2012.

You can also click here to read the conference recap via TheCellularGuru.com

You can also look at images from the event below

In case you had any worry at all that the wireless industry in Canada was showing signs of slowdown, think again. As it turns out, overall subscribers are up 6% over 2010, according to the CRTC. Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC, stated “this report is used to gauge whether the communications industry is meeting the needs of Canadians as consumers, citizens and creators.”

According to the report, the number of wireless subscribers in Canada now sits at 27.4 million, up 6% from last year and representing 78.2% of households. As for subscribers, the CRTC says that the new entrants (WIND, Mobilicity, Public Mobile, Videotron) have captured approximately 4% of wireless subscribers and 2% of revenues in 2011.” Take the 4% of 27.4 million and you have 1,096,000.

Other notable stats from this study:

•  Networks cover approx. 20% of Canada’s geographic area and is available to 99% of Canadians
•  LTE network is available to approximately 45% of Canadians
•  Rogers had 36% wireless market share, followed by Bell at 28% and TELUS at 27%
•  Texting is still the most popular activity for smartphone owners, followed by accessing the web
•  Tablet usage is sitting around 10%

Mobile in Canada is booming as consumers begin to grasp the concept of being able to “disconnect from the desktop”. With the popularity of “unlimited data” and tablets, consumers are feeling more comfortable with consuming data on the go – and that’s exactly how the carriers want it. What device do you use? Sound off in the comments below and let us know!

See the full report via the CRTC here

It has been proven that Facebook users ‘like’ photos twice as often as they do text updates. Even more, they share videos 12x more often than photos and text updates combined. Brands are quickly quite learning that visual media is one of the most effective means of storytelling and visual content is becoming a huge priority among content marketers.

Check out the following infographic produced by communications company M Booth and social analytics company SimplyMeasure exploring user engagement with photo and video.

Here are a few Facebook features that will truly come in handy for all you busy page admins and community managers.

1. Admin Roles

As a number of people need access for posting, moderating or analytics purposes, any given Facebook page often ends up having multiple admins. To manage this easier and organize your team more effectively, Facebook now makes it possible to assign various admin roles. There are 5 to choose from: Manager, Content Creator, Moderator, Advertiser and Insights Analyst.

2. Scheduling Content

Constantly logging in and out and posting content throughout the day can take a lot of time out of your day. Many community managers use content management tools and dashboards solely for the purpose of scheduling content. Did you know that Facebook now allows you to do it too? When writing an update, you are able to choose a date and time to the left of the “post” button. All your scheduled posts will appear in the “activity log” of your admin panel for editing or removal, if need be.

3. Reach Data

When you manage a Facebook page, it is a good practice to gain insights on how your updates are performing. This way you can make an effort to continuously improve this performance. Facebook allows page admins to view simple metrics below each post that detail the number of people the post has reached and what percentage of your fans saw the post. This simple data helps page admins test out the most opportune times to post content and generate a response.

4. Promoted Posts

As you can see through your posts’ reach data, content that is posted on your page will only reach a percentage of your fans. If this just isn’t good enough for you, Facebook also allows you to promote select posts for a fee. Once you specify how much you want to spend and the post is saved, the promoted post is immediately active. Unlike Facebook ads, you don’t have to wait for approval from Facebook. Promoted posts are shown as a “sponsored story” on your fans’ news feeds and, as your fans engage with the post, it will be shown in their friends’ news feeds as well.

How are you liking Timeline for Brand Pages? Have you been taking advantage of some of these features?

Communities aren’t built overnight. It takes time, patience and a loyal following to make them come to fruition. In the case of Jingu Apps, we have exactly that for our beloved BlackBerry devices. With their plethora of BlackBerry-centric apps, Jingu aims not only to change the way BlackBerry users communicate with each other, but also to challenge their creativity in doing so.

Among the many apps under their umbrella, including: Jingu Avatars, Jingu Text, and Jingu Smileys, their most popular (and one they’ve seen the most success with) is Jingu Friends – a secure public forum for BlackBerry users to chat andexchange their pins, and meet each other in, where nothing is private and every conversation is free to join!

Engagement:
• Analyze various keywords, trends and topics to introduce to the community for the purpose of engagement.
• Managing day-to-day posting of Twitter and Facebook accounts for purpose of growth and user engagement.
• Create engaging messaging to push out to 1.5 million+ users for purpose of non-organic growth.
• Content creation to execute community management, blog and influencer outreach initiatives.

Facebook:

Design and management of official Fan page.

Twitter:

Responsible for design, implementation, management and growth of official @jinguapps twitter handle. Successfully grew account from 51 to 8955 followers in a two week time span.

As business continues to flourish and networking goes mobile, shouldn’t your business card, and the way you exchange it, become more mobile-friendly as well? Say hello to ContactMonkey: a device-agnostic, cloud-based way to share you details with others.

Built out of frustration as a means to alleviate the stress of constantly entering new contacts into your address book, ContactMonkey is compatible with 19 different web/desktop based address books and will work on BlackBerry, Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

Engagement:
• Analyze various segments to introduce the platform and facilitate partnerships with vendors for launch.
• Development of Press Release, Press Kits, and other relevant launch materials.
• Seed press release out and gain relevant blog coverage to aid with organic growth and awareness.
• Design social platforms including: Twitter, Facebook Fan Gate and Facebook ads to drive awareness and conversion.

Press:

From the day we started our engagement with ContactMonkey, their presence became very well known online. See below a screen shot of some of the press we attained for ContactMonkey.

Click here to see the list in its entirety.