We got a question this week from an ITSMA client asking about developing a business case for creating mobile applications for their website content. I said that I haven’t seen any of those business cases yet. And I don’t think I ever will.
We’re seeing mobile be part of an integrated approach to social media, not as a standalone. In fact, I’m working on two case studies this week of websites that have mobile applications, but the mobile applications are a small part of the whole. And they both lead to content that benefits from being mobile.
The attributes that seem to matter so far are:
Location. Could other users of the application get value from knowing where others are?
Continuity. Do they feel that they will miss something by being away from the content for even a short amount of time?
Timeliness. Will content appear in the application that needs to be acted upon immediately?
One company’s mobile application is tied to a wiki-based sales enablement website that lets salespeople generate actions and updates and get updated information from the road.
The other company has a mobile application for its private, gated online community so that mobile members can keep up with message boards and forums that change frequently (there are over 100 subject-oriented communities within the site).
Creating a mobile application that leads to static content on a website isn’t going to build much interest or loyalty because there’s no real urgency to connect. The only reason I can see for creating a mobile application in this context is if the application makes the content easier to look at and interact with than on a web browser. Apple claims the iPad will make content look better than it does on a web browser. If that’s true, then it will be worth making an application that connects to static content. But not until then.
What do you think?
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Mobile app that links to static content? I'll pass. Now if I'm visiting an area where I'm unfamiliar, and that mobile app knows my home base and knows what I usually like and pings me when I'm near something that is interesting to me, I might be game. I think you're right though, there's little value in directing me to static content.
Hi Brian,
I agree that location is going to become more and more important. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Thanks for the comment.
Agreed. If mobile in B2C is about either entertainment or utility, in B2B it's overwhelmingly about utility. As a B2B tech agency, we're always on the lookout for mobile plays for our clients that make sense. We've come up with a few (like an alerting app for a security company) but not many.
Hi Doug,
Good point. Utility is king in B2B. To the extent we can marry utility with community I think we will have success, because in B2B peers want to make connections with each other beyond the trade shows and private events. Thanks for the insightful comment (as usual)!