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Smartphone video viewing grows 20%. Are law firms ready?

mobile video law firms

Lawyers and law firms are regularly asking about video. We did an entire panel discussion on the use of video in blogging at the Texas State Bar Annual Meeting last week.

Leave aside the question of the why and the how, no one raised the possibility that the smartphone is the primary vehicle for many people when it comes to viewing video.

Yet smartphone video viewing is growing approximately 20 percent each year. This per a Nielsen Report presented at the Mobile Commerce Daily’s Mobile Research Summit.

Nearly 70% of Americans use their smartphones for staying abreast of news and information. This would include news and info produced by law firms in any format, including video.

A legal marketing professional shared on Facebook last week word of their new website. I complemented them on the clean and light feel which was easy to navigate. A nice responsive design.

Everyone else on Facebook discussed the video on the website. I never saw the video, I was viewing the site on my iPhone 6 Plus which I use 80% of the time. The video did not display on a smartphone.

How many others never saw the video? Did the firm and its lawyers consider the declining audience for their videos on non-mobile devices? Did the firm consider producing video which would be viewable on mobile?

A report just out finds that Facebook is nipping at the heals of YouTube in video viewers.

One reason is mobile. Facebook users are likely to be on a smartphone. Another reason is social sharing, Facebook videos move socially through sharing and likes.

Social is another reason to be thinking mobile for any videos. Users moving items, including your videos, across social networks are more likely to be on mobile than non-mobile devices.

Bottom line for lawyers and law firms, think mobile first in all you do online.

For video, that means realizing that everything you are shooting needs to be shot for viewing on a smartphone. Can it be seen? Is it easily viewable? Will users want to share the video?

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jack Fussell