30 January, 2014 6:06PM AWST

What's new and appening in social media

Big, little and screens in between. A web presence needs to work on everything from mobile to desktop says a social media expert.

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The Director of Blondgorilla, Ryan Malone is one of the creatives giving a talk at the Emergence Creative Festival in Margaret River.

The Festival is an incredible information exchange, says Ryan.

The digital space moves very quickly. Sharing ideas with other people, allowing them to jump onto your ideas does nothing but help, he maintains.

"We're really at the beginning of a round of new things, particularly in social and mobile.

"The only thing that sharing can do is help further it quickly."

What's new

The engagement with social media will rise to a new level, Ryan predicts.

Over the last year, he says, "clients were receiving 50 per cent increase in traffic transferring to mobile."

The engagement will be driven by integration across platforms.

Not so long ago, plain text was what we shared. Today, tools like HTML5 make possible rich, engaging web applications which integrate with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

As handsets improve, that richer content - photos, video - becomes more easily accessible and shareable.

As mobile networks become faster and faster, this convergence should also speed up.

Adaptive versus responsive

The difference between social, mobile and web is disappearing, says Ryan. "Everything must be available on all screens.

That was manageable when most people had one particular brand but with the advent of android and a proliferation of screen sizes, web designers are scrambling.

"It's creating a hell of a storm in my industry."

Customers are confused about what they should be aiming towards, Ryan feels.

There are two streams of thought on the solution to offering a widely accessible web presence; adaptive versus responsive.

Adaptive is an interface design for a specific screen or a specific set of technologies, explains Ryan. Responsive is one design to fit everything from desktop to mobile to tablet.

"Responsive seems the way to go and is the way everyone is pushing at the moment.

This works well for the average corporate "brochure" site which is essentially information, he states.

"As soon as you add interaction...it starts to become boring."

Regional opportunity

There's no divide between city and country when it comes to understanding the importance of a mobile presence, says Ryan.

Regional business may struggle though with access to creative people and big marketing budget.

"How can I?" is one of the most frequent questions asked of Ryan. "I don't have 20 grand for a social media app."

The answer he says is to take the first step. "There are lots of things you can do on the cheap to get started."

One of the common misconceptions about social engagement is that the response will be immediate, says Ryan.

"If I do have a social media presence and I create a mobile app, immediately I'll get customers."

Instead, effort has to be ongoing and the reward is access to "a huge amount of potential".

Ryan hopes that his involvement in the Emergence Creative Festival will give people "useful, reasonable strategies to implement social media tactics within their business".