Fast Lane: My morning addiction

What’s the first thing you did this morning?

I’d like to say I sprang out of bed and went for a jog or spent half an hour in contemplative meditation preparing for the day.

The truth is I reached over, turned off the alarm on my iPhone and quickly checked my emails and social media.

I’m not alone either, with research published by accounting firm EY today showing Australians are addicted to their smartphones.

The Digital Australia: State of the Nation 2014 report surveyed 1500 consumers and 167 of Australia’s “digital opinion leaders”, with one in five of those surveyed saying their smartphone negatively impacts their sleep.

This figure doubles for younger people aged between 18 and 24.

There’s even a term for smartphone addiction now, it’s called “nomophobia” (short for no-mobile-phone phobia).

Symptoms include feelings of panic or desperation when separated from your smartphone, not being able to focus on conversations or work, and constantly checking phones for notifications.

Despite these concerns, EY’s research found Australians’ relationships with their smartphone or tablet are largely positive, with 46% saying their mobile device has a positive impact on their personal happiness and 40% saying their smartphone has a positive influence on their work productivity.

Clearly whatever your marketing strategy for your business, it makes sense to make sure mobile is a key component.

SmartCompany and Crowe Horwath’s recent SME Directions survey found the majority of SMEs rely on word-of-mouth marketing.

Referrals are the preferred marketing method for 37.5% of SMEs but that still means your business needs to be easy to find through mobile devices.

This can be as basic as ensuring your business appears on location-based services like Google Maps and that your phone number is a clickable link.

Once your contact details are sorted the next priority is to ensure your business’ website is optimised for mobile.

With the increasing prevalence of so-called “phablets” and larger size smartphones, your best bet is to have a responsive design which can adapt to suit the mobile device your customers and clients are using.

At least when you check your smartphone one last time before you go to bed tonight (or is that just me?) you will know you are doing every thing you can to make sure your business is visible to other smartphone users.

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