Get ready for the mobile
investor web
By Dominic Jones, IR Web Report
Dramatic changes in technology
are providing new ways for companies and investors
to stay in touch -- and the mobile Web should
be right near the top of every IR and PR department's
web plans.
People around the world are increasingly accessing
the Web on mobile devices -- and investment
information is a logical fit for mobile content.
From cellphone browsing to Blackberries to SMS,
mobile is the next frontier for investor relations
web content.
A few companies have had mobile versions of
their investor relations websites for several
years, but recently I've noticed growing
activity and interest in mobile IR content
among the companies
we cover.
The new .com of the
mobile Web
One of the most important tools as you
consider developing content for small mobile
screens is to get your company a new .mobi domain
name. This is the new .com for mobile
devices. Registrations will begin opening
on a staggered basis over the next six months.
When users go to a .mobi page, they know it
will work in their mobile browser. Right now,
99% of regular .com sites cannot be viewed properly
on mobile devices, or if they can the usability
is poor. You can expect in future that someone
trying to find your company on the small-screen
web will guess the url as your
company name plus .mobi.
Small screens, big
web management challenges
Designing sites for small devices requires new
skills and expertise. The private company that
issues .mobi domains has issued guidelines
for designing sites to work in mobile browsers.
These follow the mobile standards of the World
Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Mobile Web Initiative.
The W3C is the official standards setting body
for the Internet.
Web managers are going to have to get their
heads around several challenges in implementing
their mobile websites. As mobile communications
pro and author Martin
Sauter explains in a recent blog entry,
having two webs — one for mobile and one
for PCs — creates interoperability issues.
Another challenge is going to be deciding
what content to provide on the mobile
web. There are likely going to be tussles among
departments wanting a piece of that very small
mobile homepage. And designers are going to
have to learn a new set of usability standards.
Vodafone's .mobi Investor
Relations website
One company that already has a .mobi
domain for its IR site is Vodafone,
the giant global cellphone company. To find
their IR website on the "normal web" you type
www.vodafone.com
and then click on investor relations.
Now try Vodafone.mobi
and what you'll get is illustrated in the screenshot
below:
Investors can access news releases, the company's
share prices on both the London Stock Exchange
and the New York Stock Exchange, an investor
calendar, contacts and a one-sentence description
of the company.
Several other companies offer similar or better
IR content for mobile access, but they don't
yet have a .mobi domain. When investors try
to access these other mobile sites, they often
go to the .com site before being automatically
redirected to a mobile-ready page.
Some companies require investors to input
their email address before they can access the
url for the company's mobile site. This is being
done as a way to measure early interest in mobile
IR sites.
However, it is not a good long-term tactic
as registration discourages people from using
a site and creates a barrier to people
consuming your information. Lots to think about
and do, so let's end it there for now.
Read our