Mobile phones have been a major part of our society for over two decades now. Over that time they have become smaller and smarter and phones such as the Nokia Communicator have been receiving e-mails and have been able to access the internet for well over ten years. However, the usage of mobile devices to access the net was limited to a few ‘Road Warriors’ and IT geeks; that was until the introduction of Apple’s iPhone. In one foul swoop, Steve Jobs changed everything back in 2007 and since that time we have seen an explosion in the amount of people who access the internet from a handheld device. Apple redefined this sector, but the competition has now responded with a whole raft of well-developed products. And what’s more, we are about to see another uplift in mobile internet usage as heaps of low costs ‘iPad type’ tables hit the market.

To put this usage into prospective, 97% of all Australian mobile phone users now access the internet via their hand held devices, in any given month.

So with a huge amount of internet traffic already happening via mobile handsets is there an opportunity for you to promote your practice to this audience? The answer is absolutely; and the good news is that it is simple and low cost.

If you have ever tried to view a website from an iPhone or similar device, may be even your own website, you will know it is a highly frustrating exercise. Sites are hard to navigate, almost impossible to read and the very best result you are going to get is possibly finding a telephone number on the site so you can call to have your question answered. This is because normal websites are simply too large and complex to be viewed on a screen half the size of your hand. However, there is an alternative, which is a ‘Dot Mobi’ website. A ‘Dot Mobi’ website is a website that has been specifically designed to be viewed from a handheld device. You may have already used a number of these dot mobi websites, as the leading banks have all developed sites as have other major companies such as Virgin Blue and Jetstar.

A dot mobi website is usually a simplified version of a current website. Buttons are large and easy to use and the site interacts with the hand held device making all the usual functions of the device work such as keyboards and calendars. This allows for the completion of forms, e-mail enquiries and even purchases to be very simple. Best of all when a dot mobi website is in place the handheld device will recognise this and display this site instead of the standard site.

The term ‘dot mobi’ refers to the specific domain name that has been made available for these sites. Currently there is only one worldwide domain which is simply dot mobi, similar to when we saw the release of the dot com domain. Because of this it is worthwhile purchasing your domain if it is still available. So if your current domain name is www.bestdentistever.com.au then your mobile domain will be www.bestdentistever.mobi. Domain names are very inexpensive, so it is worthwhile buying the domain to make sure you have it for future use and to avoid any competitors getting the domain. However, you don’t actually need a dot mobi domain name for the whole thing to work. The mobile device will pick up the dot mobi website no matter what domain name is attached to it.

If you are not convinced that promoting your practice via handheld devices is worthwhile, a simple thing you can do to find out is to review your Google Analytics report that tells you the traffic to your current website. One of the things this report tells you is how many people have accessed your current site via a handheld device in the past month. We did this exercise for one client of ours and were amazed that over 25% off all the traffic to his website was coming from iPhones and similar devices. Providing a meaningful experience for these people is important, so we built a dot mobi website immediately. Next time you are using an iPhone or similar, Google “Lane Cove Dentist” and look for the link to Apple Dental (www.appledental.com.au). You will find one of the first dental dot mobi websites and if you compare the site with the same site as viewed on your PC you will instantly understand the importance of creating these sites.

We live at a time where social communications trends are moving quicker than ever and creating new and exciting ways of promoting your dental practice. Dot mobi websites are inexpensive to create and manage and give a meaningful experience for the growing number of people searching the web from their mobile phones. Well worth putting on the shopping list for 2011.