It’s safe to assume that the majority of people are exposed to current news and events via the Internet, whether it be through social media or digital news outlets.  While online presence has essentially become a necessity for many companies, including news outlets, a recent report by Pew Research Center suggests that companies need more than just a website to stay on the grid. With society as a whole becoming more attached to their smartphones and constantly on the go, it is increasingly becoming more important to not only have a mobile version of your website, but be active on social media as well.

According to the Pew Research Center’s report, “More visitors to Yahoo, NBC, and other top Internet sites are getting their news from mobile devices than from desktop computers”. This trend towards mobile doesn’t mean that regular websites will become completely obsolete, but it does imply that more news sources should have websites that are mobile friendly. In fact, Google’s latest search algorithm update, which went live on April 21, will favor “mobile friendly” websites in searches – all the more reason to optimize your website to be mobile responsive.

The move towards mobile in terms of internet browsing also brings up another concern – how will this change the way people connect with the news? According the Pew report, people are more impatient on small screens than they are on desktop versions of a website, and this is only accentuated if a website is not mobile friendly. Because of this, major online news outlets such as Yahoo, ABC, and NBC should consider if longer stories are actually being read by mobile users.

With mobile access growing, so is social media. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to get quick updates on everyone and everything going on around them. In fact, the Pew Report states that “nearly half of Web users learn about politics and government from Facebook, roughly the same percentage as those who seek the news through local television and double those who visit Yahoo or Google News”.

From these statistics, its safe to say that mobile and social media presence go hand in hand, and the importance of both is growing. The way people are getting their information is changing and companies should adapt to this in order to be where the majority of traffic is.