To say the least, browsing the web has become quite a different experience. We’ve reached a day where we don’t think twice to pull out our cellphones to look up a quick piece of information. “Oh, I’ll just Google that,” or “let me check Wikipedia.” We can do this in the blink of an eye and a finger tap of a screen.

But where does that put us, the college newspapers of today. Many of our papers are just now getting online. Others are just now joining the social media craze. But how many of us have mobile versions of our web site?

Gladly, I can say that my college newspaper, The Ferris State Torch, does. This past year, after getting on the WordPress bandwagon, we have also pushed all of our content to a mobile friendly version of the site. It automatically detects what type of phone you’re browsing from, and even gives you the option to switch to the full version of the site. Commenting, search, categories, and even tags are all available and easy to use.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? Wrong. Thanks to WordPress having thousands of plugins available, we found one that is truly amazing for mobile publishing: WPtouch. After installing and activating the plugin, our site was ready for mobile viewers. The screenshot above shows a preview of our mobile edition.

What other benefits are there from adding a mobile version? Mobile doesn’t just mean phone anymore. With the recent rise of the iPod Touch (I see these all over my campus), there is a whole new market of college students to tend to. You want to be able to provide them with an easy, and fast, experience of your newspaper’s web site. The easier and faster it is for them, the longer they spend on your site and the more content they read.

However, setting up a mobile site isn’t enough. You have to promote it. Show an image on your regular web site, something along the lines of “be sure to visit our mobile site”. Heck, you could even put up an image of an iPhone, Pre, Blackberry, to help promote your newly found mobility. Run a house-ad in your print edition. Odds are, a lot of your readers aren’t sitting in front of a computer when they’re reading the paper, but I bet they have their cellphones on them.

With how quickly the web is changing, it’s not a bad idea to keep up with the trends. Who knows, maybe mobile will become the next big thing.

For more info on WPtouch, and how to integrate it with your WordPress-based online newspaper, visit the WPtouch web site.

Facebook

The most popular social networking site, especially amongst college students, is by far Facebook. You’ll find that a lot of your readers have Facebook accounts, so creating a Facebook Fan Page can yield you a lot of followers. You can use the fan page to share related links, photos, and to make quick posts about stories you’ve written in your paper. To create a fan page, check out Facebook.

Twitter

Twitter has been gaining popularity in the past few years. Twitter is a great resource when you want to send out a message letting people know of a new edition, late breaking news (for example, sport scores from a game), or general information that you want to get to your followers. Twitter can generally be linked with other social media networks, such as Facebook or tumblr, so you can update in one place and have it propagate down the stream.

Tumblr

If you are looking for something more than 140 characters, or if you don’t want to have your mom friend your newspaper, you may want to go with a “bigger” alternative. Using a site such as tumblr.com will allow you to post a larger array of content, such as embedding images and videos within your posts, without having to pay. Even better, you’re allowed to modify the theme to your own liking; so if you have a potential web developer on hand, you can make your tumblr look even more professional (and branded).

Tumblr also has great social media linking option. If you have a Facebook account or a Twitter page, you’re able to have updates from Tumblr automatically post, so any of your followers across those platforms will also be notified.

Overview

If you’re looking to reach the masses quickly, easily, and on the cheap, Facebook is the way to go. If you want more content, a more personalized experience for your paper, then I would suggest checking out tumblr. If you do all three, you can use social media to its best and reach the largest group of internet users.

How is your paper’s web presence? What have you done recently to improve it?