If you haven’t heard the term yet, then you need to say it one more time. SoLoMo. Why is SoLoMo so important that it requires repeating? Because SoLoMo is becoming the number one practice that consumers use to find a local event, a local business, or local information. If your business or organization has a local consumer base, then SoLoMo needs to become your new best friend.

So, what exactly is SoLoMo? It stands for Social Local Mobile, or more specifically, Social Local Mobile search. It is the recent phenomenon of people taking to their mobile devices to do searches mainly directed towards local information. A recent study found that 95% of smartphone users said they use their device to perform a local search, and that 88% of those users take action with that information within a 24 hour time period. With 46% of Americans now using a smartphone, and increasing at a rate of nearly 20% per year, SoLoMo is quickly becoming the central method by which consumers find local information.

Let us consider a few real world examples of how SoLoMo is changing the behaviors of consumers.

1. Let’s say that “Jane” is visiting a relative in Kenosha and realizes she left her cell phone charger at home. Jane might go directly to her mobile device, click on her Yelp app and type in “cell phones.” Well, if you own a local cell phone store it would be beneficial to you for Jane to be able to find your business. If Jane doesn’t even see your business listed, she will never have known you exist.

2. Later that evening Jane wants to surprise her relatives, so she decides to take them to a local restaurant. Jane wants to make sure the restaurant has really great reviews, so she heads to Urbanspoon on her mobile device. What happens when your restaurant has a rating that is 10, 20, or 30 percentage points lower than your competition? Jane most likely won’t even give it a look.

3. Before Jane leaves to return home, she decides to purchase a gift for her relatives. Again, Jane takes to her mobile device and does a Google search for “gift shops in Kenosha.” She finds many different websites and clicks on several of them. However, only one of them has a site optimized for her mobile device (making it easier to read and navigate). Being more pleasing to read, she searches around this site and finds something she is looking for. The sites that weren’t easy to navigate on a mobile device weren’t even considered.

These are just a few examples of how SoLoMo is changing the behaviors of consumers. There is a million different examples of how consumers are searching for products and services at the local level – all day, every day. The consumer demands access to instant information and the business or organization that can provide that to them, via a mobile platform, will be where that consumer ultimately goes.

If your business or organization is looking to increase your visibility on mobile devices, please contact KN Digital Media (a division of the Kenosha News) for information on how we can help you achieve better results in the SoLoMo marketplace.