Facebook recently revealed big plans for Mobile platforms that the new Timeline format for brands will be available on Mobile. Facebook also revealed that more than 450 million people use Facebook Mobile on a monthly basis, and more importantly, that mobile is outgrowing desktop use on the social network 2:1.

For these reasons, Facebook has planned a variety of Mobile-centric products, including last week’s announcement that brands will now be able to advertise in Mmobile news feeds through Sponsored Stories.
These game-changing trends mean that business owners need to get serious about Mobile in 2012.

Here are three new ways you can build mobile into your Facebook marketing plan.

1. Mobilize and Optimize All Your Content

Timeline for brands is coming to the Mobile platform in 2012. They where not considering this last year but I believe that 2012 is the year for Mobile.  When you consider that brand pages on Facebook Mobile have had almost no functionality I believe that Timeline for brands was launched specifically to enable brand’s Mobile Facebook capabilities—therefore Mobile Facebook ads.  Perhaps?

And since users use Timeline functions on Facebook Mobile, Timeline for brands should be equally versatile, giving brands the ability to provide engaging mobile experiences for the first time.

Since nearly half of Facebook users access the site through a mobile device the local business brand reach could effectively double if you Mobile optimize your social content. And because users will soon be able to experience the same workflow on their desktops as their smartphones, page managers will now be able to curate an identical experience for all users, regardless of viewing device.

SEE ALSO: Facebook Brand Timelines: 6 Big Changes Every Marketer Needs to Understand

Whether you’re building a Mobile presence for your business, make sure the applications are seamlessly viewable across all platforms and devices. Ideally, you will be able to design once and deploy anywhere. That would be nice.  But still today there have been challenges in this arena.  Sometimes I have deployed an application and the Blackberry platform doesn’t present itself well because of it’s smaller screen.  I cannot wait for all the manufactures get together so us consultants can deploy anywhere.  That way, you avoid messy synchronization issues, duplication of effort between creative teams, and working around multiple content channels.

All the new platform framework for Mobile employs specific HTML5, CSS and Javascript technologies to ensure that the same content displays well on devices of any screen size. (I think this is where Blackberry has failed a wee bit.) In the context of Facebook mobile pages, apps built within this framework can morph Facebook page tabs’ for mobile, tablets and desktops’ with one build.

2. Blend Sponsored Stories Into Your Marketing Plan

To date, there has been no way to advertise to Facebook users on Mobile devices. This has been an enormous lost opportunity for local business owners up until now.

Now, Sponsored Stories premium ad units will not only appear in users’ news feeds (a huge announcement on its own), but also in mobile news feeds. Considering the many users who access Facebook from a mobile device, marketers now have a big opportunity to embed sponsored advertisements within mobile feeds. The challenge is how to make this work with your existing Facebook marketing program.

The most effective way to integrate Sponsored Stories into your marketing is to work them into an editorial calendar. Since Sponsored Stories stem from the activities of users on a business  brand  Page, create a calendar of activities that translate well to the Sponsored Story format. For example, a local retail store could plan its weekly status updates, featuring in-store specials and colorful coupons as Sponsored Stories. Just make sure to use eye-catching images to help your promoted posts attract attention. Read More→