Skip to content

The world has gone mobile. Have your law blogs?

20130719-140404.jpg
Blog post viewed on Flipboard on iPad
 

Facebook reports that the number of users accessing Facebook via their mobile phones in June jumped around 20 percent in the United States and Britain.

This from Reuters’ Kate Holton (@holtonreuters), on how the world’s largest social network has “…[M]oved to reposition its business for a world in which consumers’ primarily access the Internet via small-screened smartphones rather than computers.”

Are you law blogs ready for the world which has moved from computers to mobile?

    Are they mobile optimized, whether through WordPress touch or responsive design?
  • How do your blog posts appear on Flipboard, the fastest growing mobile personal curator. Are your blogs developed to be read in a seamless display like major publications, or do users have pull up your blog and desktop design, a nuisance when reading on Flipboard?
  • How do your blogs appear on Zite, the ‘Pandora’ of content owned by CNN and extremely popular among business people and consumers? Again, is it seamless experience or because your blogs have not been developed as well as they may be for mobile users need to pull up your design with content?
  • Are your RSS feeds set up as best they can be so as to provide users an optimum experience on the various mobile newsreaders? I went to a top 10 law firm blog this week and couldn’t even get the feed to work on my iPad app. Sad, especially with the 6 or 7 lawyers blogging and business development all not knowing of the problems they’re creating for users.

I consume 95% plus of my content on my iPad and iPhone, I don’t use the 30 inch monitor sitting next to me in my office. I don’t take my MacBook Air home at night nor on the weekends. I don’t take my Air on the road anymore, I take my iPad only.

I love the eloquent experience I am provided by publishers who get mobile. GigOM, ReadWriteWeb, The New York Times, and Wired, to name a few.

The wild thing is that you as a law firm are very capable of matching the experience these larger publishers are providing their users. The design, development, and technology needed is at your disposal. The cost is not significant, and in the long run will save you money. You just need to have an appreciation of what you need to do and be capable of executing on the the delivery side.

If you don’t have the talent or appreciation to know what needs to be done, that’s okay. You may have more pressing things to get done. Ask others. My team enjoys the heck out of working with law firms looking to the future of digital publishing and networking, rather than the past.

I may be a step ahead of some of you on mobile consumption, but not for long. We’ll soon look back and laugh at how we consumed content on laptops and desktop monitors. Why not act now? It’s not beyond your capability nor budget.

Posted in: