Written by ContentPowered.com
Facebook announces each year how many of their users access the site via mobile, and it should come as no surprise that the number has been over 50 percent for several years now. Needless to say, you need to make sure your Facebook posts are showing up for mobile users.
The Default State
To begin, Facebook has a very robust mobile presence. It has to, to support so many mobile users. By default, anything you post on Facebook is visible on mobile, within limits. You don’t need to do anything special, like installing a plugin or developing a responsive layout, to get your Facebook account visible to mobile users. Facebook has done all of that for you.
The thing you need to realize is that your Facebook Page looks significantly different on mobile than it does on the web. Just because your posts show up doesn’t mean they are formatted properly or that they appear the way you want them to be seen.
On the web, for example, when a user visits your page they are presented with your cover photo taking up a large amount of screen real estate. It serves as an excellent billboard for whatever you’re advertising. On the mobile web, however, your cover photo is largely hidden behind text and your profile picture. It’s the profile picture that is best to optimize for mobile.
Promote Content with a Pin
On the web, you can pin a post to the top of your timeline. This allows it to hold one of the prime real estate positions at the top of your timeline feed columns. It’s always there, until you remove the pin. Ongoing contests, important announcements and other such posts can deserve a pin.
On mobile, when a user visits your page, the first thing they see is a pinned post, if you have one. More importantly, mobile devices typically only have the screen space to show one short post at a time. You need to make sure the pinned post you’re promoting is something you want users to see first thing when they load your Page on a mobile device.
Dead Space or Useful Value?
Scrolling down beyond your pinned posts typically shows users a few of the informational boxes on your Page. These can include local recommendations, foursquare-style check-ins and photos taken with your business. Depending on the business, these can be dead weight or they can be very valuable indeed.
In particular, you want to decide whether having recommendations is valuable or not. You may find it more beneficial to hide the box entirely, if you have a series of negative reviews or too few reviews to show value.
Photos likewise can be valuable or they can be a big box taking up space, depending on the content of the photos. If you want users to see your photos, show them. If not, it might be better to hide the box from your timeline. This box will also show pictures with your business tagged in them, so you can encourage users to tag your business in powerful images.
At Long Last
Finally, after all of this, a mobile user can see your most recent posts. They must pass through all of the above categories to see your most recent unpinned announcements. So, in a way, your posts aren’t necessarily visible even if your profile is open to mobile users.
The lesson you need to learn here is that, just because a post is highly visible to desktop users because of its recent time stamp, doesn’t mean it’s immediately visible to mobile users. Mobile users see pinned posts before anything, and your recent posts take some work to find. If your post is absolutely something you need mobile users to see, you are almost required to pin it.
Search Visibility
Now, here’s another question. Are users finding your business when they run a search? The answer depends on how well you’ve filled out your profile. Some of the little touches, such as your business category and your location, come into prominence here.
With your category, you’re filing your business away in a list of related businesses. This is important, because users often run searches for, say, “tire change service” in their area. If your business offers that service, you want to show up in their search results. If you aren’t properly categorized, you won’t show up – but your competitors, who have filled out their profile properly, will.
Location is the second half of the coin. When a user runs a mobile search, most of the time they’re looking for a result near their current location. You need to have your location specified and correct. If it’s not, users won’t find your business through their search and will, again, find your competitors. If you haven’t checked your location, make sure to do so, as it might have been incorrectly recorded some time ago and never fixed.
Another thing that affects your visibility in mobile search is your recommendations. Encourage users to check in to your physical location to help promote your visibility. This is, of course, only relevant if you have a physical location. Small businesses operating entirely online don’t benefit from the local emphasis, unfortunately.
The Matter of Contests
Contests are a frequently promoted means of acquiring new users and increasing user engagement. The primary way to run a contest on Facebook is through a Facebook app. Setting up an app is quick and easy, using one of the many templates available, so it’s easy to skip giving your contest a second thought.
What you need to check is that your Facebook contest app works for mobile users. The biggest problem most businesses run into is that the destination of their contest call to action is located on a Facebook Page Tab. The Tabs are a great way to keep content organized and filed away on your desktop version of the Page. Unfortunately, they’re also blocked from the mobile app. This means a mobile user, clicking on your contest link in your contest app, will be taken to a 404 page.
Thankfully, many contest apps will have mobile setup options, if you remember to use them. It’s easy to do, it’s just something you need to remember when you run a contest.
Bonus Tip: Image Optimization
Remember that mobile users are browsing on small screens with comparatively low resolution. This means that, when you promote or share an image, it will look different on a mobile device. In most cases, this won’t be an issue. If you’re putting vital text on an image, however, remember that it will be much smaller on a mobile device. This means, consequently, that it will be harder or impossible to read.
Double Bonus Tip: Website Mobility
Don’t forget that a lot of your Facebook activity is designed to funnel social media users to your website, where they can be exposed to your blog posts and your calls to action. With so much of your Facebook traffic coming from mobile users, you need to make sure your site is visible to them as well. If you don’t already have a responsive design, make one ASAP. It’s absolutely in your best interests to do so.