Member Article

YMCA Derbyshire 'Go Mobile' Thanks To 'This Is

YMCA Derbyshire. The Derbyshire based independent Christian charity has joined forces with This Is Media to mobile optimise its website, to better their appeal to its target audience.

The move came after it was found that many of its clientele access its services online through their mobile device, in their quest to access supported housing, innovative learning and development programmes, various schemes for children and their families and other projects aimed at achieving sustainable community development.

Managing Director at This Is Media, Dave Morgan said: “We arranged a meeting with YMCA Derbyshire through a previous strong working relationship with them. It was established that many of the people the charity helps, access the YMCA Derbyshire website through a handheld device such as a mobile phone or tablet, and they were looking for a better way to get information to them.”

After an initial meeting, This Is Media created a mobile optimised version of their existing website and after the initial set up, changes were made to remove unnecessary content that wouldn’t be required for the mobile visitor and certain features were highlighted to increase mobile user activity. Such features involve -

Easy click to call button Easy to book/purchase rooms and courses Easy access to social media bar Latest updates & contact details highlighted Maps and GPS directions for easy access

The Mobile Engine can detect more than 13,000 combinations of handsets and browsers, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson. No matter how customers access your mobilised site, it will be updated and synced to the desktop website and be made to fit on all devices.

Dominic Baster, Marketing & Communications Manager for the charity said: “The feedback from the new mobile optimised version of the website has been extremely positive, we were impressed with the work This Is Media had previous done with Derby Homes, and felt that this would allow us to better appeal to our target market.”

The charity will now be looking at using the mobile version of the site to promote its furniture recycling project in Chesterfield, called New2U, encouraging those in the community to donate furniture and electrical items for re-sale and to create ‘emergency furniture packs’ for those in need.

Dave Morgan, from This Is Media added: “We were delighted to be selected by YMCA Derbyshire for this project and hope that many other charities in the local area will follow suit. Making sure your website is mobile optimised is a essential part of communicating with your audience and is becoming increasingly necessary as smart phone become more popular and affordable.

For more information on mobile optimising your website, please visit

www.thisismedia.co.uk

01332 253653

This Is Media is represented by Tina Clough at Poppy-PR, for more information, please contact: tina.clough@poppy-pr.co.uk

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Poppy-PR .