The developments of mobile technology is likely familiar to all of us to one degree or another. Smart phones and iPads and micro-laptops mean more and more of us are capable of accessing the internet at any point in the day and from almost any place. Sure, we are more likely to access the game ‘Farmville‘ than the BBC News while waiting for a bus or standing in the grocery-store line. Nevertheless, charitable organizations should get ahead of the curve (or at least ‘catch up to the curve’!) and be prepping their sites for easy and pleasing access via such mobile devices.
J.D. Lasica posted a useful introductory ‘How-To’ at SocialBrite.org to get your organization’s website mobile-ready. Admittedly, he speaks especially of WordPress sites and two particular plugins (WP-Touch and WPtouch-Pro), but the larger lesson applies: access to your organization (and opportunities to raise funds and garner long-term supporters) will be made more and more by mobile devices. Be ready. (For a study of for-profit companies moving to mobile sites, see a report from Cisco Systems.)
Another handy (and rather more general) how-to is offered by GMBHNews.com. The service includes a convenient introductory video offered via YouTube and available here as well:
The opportunities to go mobile are growing and they are becoming ever more user-friendly. Your organization need not create two kinds of websites with two kinds of coding (costing two sets of designers and programmers). But your organization needs to be ready for the extension of mobile computing – as we’ll touch on tomorrow!
