{"id":19096,"date":"2013-04-16T14:53:23","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T21:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/content26.com\/?p=19096"},"modified":"2017-02-22T08:26:12","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T16:26:12","slug":"tagging-for-mobile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/987654321.space\/c26_dev\/blog\/tagging-for-mobile\/","title":{"rendered":"Tagging For Mobile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MobilePerhaps the greatest challenge content producers and marketers face today is how to protect their content from the rapid pace of technological change that’s transforming our world.<\/p>\n

Just when you thought you had your marketing strategies set in stone, and you\u2019ve finally got your content optimized for smart phones, reports of the development of Google<\/strong> Glass<\/a>\u00a0and several\u00a0smart watches<\/a>–all considered to be potential smartphone killers–go viral.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, you did not plan your content for the 1.5-inch smart watch screen. And as you read this sentence, hundreds of yet-to-be-named dot-coms and pieces of hardware are in development that will upstage the iPhone and iPad and every other smartphone and tablet known to humankind. And there is a strong likelihood that the content you’re creating today will be unreadable on the devices du jour on the day Obama re-enters civilian life.<\/p>\n

The question is not, to steal a phrase from Sara Wachter-Boettcher, “Should I future-proof my content now?” or, to echo Nassim Taleb<\/a>, “Should I make my content antifragile?” Rather, the question is, “How should I protect my future from the ‘black swans’ of tomorrow’s ‘disruptive technologies’?”<\/p>\n

Responsive Design: A Future-Proof Design Solution<\/h2>\n

Our recent interview with web designer Brian Casel<\/a> touched upon the concept of responsive design, a web design solution that scales a web page according to the device that’s visiting it. This graphic offers a neat visual<\/a> of how this approach works.<\/p>\n

While responsive design goes a long way to meet the mobile-desktop challenge by giving you a way to offer a full content experience for today’s mobile devices, as well as future devices, a significant shortcoming is that you lose the ability to prioritize your content. As the site scales to fit your screen, the content that sits on top of the page for a desktop user–the “buy now” button or the page’s primary call to action, for instance–may be pushed below the fold for a small-screen user. This lack of design control will have a significant impact on conversion.<\/p>\n

And just as importantly, responsive design effectively assumes that all web visitors are equal; that mobile and smart watch users will want the same content experience as desktop and tablet users.<\/p>\n

I would argue from a product content perspective–and from most content perspectives–that device users are not (and will not) be equal; that mobile users are generally looking for quick and instant gratification<\/a>, and that offering them the option of both “at-a-glance” content, as well as the complete content, will optimize your conversion.<\/p>\n

Only by tagging your content at its production can you do this.<\/p>\n

How Amazon Renders Content for Mobile Users<\/h2>\n

Let’s take a look at an Amazon<\/strong> A+ page for the SanDisk<\/strong>\u00a02GB SD Flash Memory Card<\/a>\u00a0as an example of a less-than-optimal approach to this conundrum.<\/p>\n

From the leisure of a couch or cubicle, the page does its job at the content level: a full description of the user benefits and features of a SD card along with key graphics, comparison charts, and images.<\/p>\n

\"desktop-full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

On the Amazon mobile site, however, this is the content an iPhone user sees:<\/p>\n

\"ios-amazon-mobile-full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Unformatted sales bullets, no graphics, no comparison charts, and no user benefits.<\/p>\n

The Amazon iPhone app offers a better, though still not optimal, experience:<\/p>\n

\"ios-app-full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see, Amazon’s iPhone App offers the full desktop site description, but without any formatting that simplifies the reading experience, and no sidebars, graphics, or images.<\/p>\n

Tagging Your Content Wikipedia Style<\/h2>\n

For an ideal mobile solution, look no further than Wikipedia<\/strong>. Wikipedia provides a separate mobile site that offers the full content of the desktop site, but with collapsible content “chunks” that give mobile users the option of reading more.<\/p>\n

This site provides an ideal model for parsing out content for mobile users.<\/p>\n

Here is a screen shot of the Wikipedia SanDisk Corporation page:<\/p>\n

\"ios-wikipedia-mobile-full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The site offers the full range of graphics and images that the desktop site offers, as well as the same content, but in a comfortably digestible form.<\/p>\n

A retail (or brand site) mobile platform could, by tagging the content elements within a product page as I discussed in the previous post<\/a>, have the same effect.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at what a mobile site for the Sandisk SD card might look like:<\/p>\n

\"page-mockup-full\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here you have the content organized and parsed into small enough chunks that you can easily imagine this content displaying line-by-line on your wrist, or on any other small device.<\/p>\n

Ping Takeaway<\/h2>\n

Tagging your product-detail pages not only future-proofs your content, but also gives small-device users the control to access whichever pieces of content will satisfy their immediate needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps the greatest challenge content producers and marketers face today is how to protect their content from the rapid pace…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[789],"tags":[1154,66,582],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n