Last month INB held its Executive Speaker Series and had over 100 guests and staff gathered for lunch and a presentation on how to connect with the “digital consumer.” As you likely suspect, the way people search for information and make buying decisions has changed, thanks in large part to social media.

Our speaker, Eric Cook of WSI Consulting, was a community banker for 15 years and has been consulting as a digital marketer since 2007. Cook kicked off his session with a video from author Erik Qualman that supports his book, Socialnomics. The video is here for you to enjoy and get some ideas of how social has changed the consumer of today.

Many didn’t realize that 50% of the world’s population is under 30 years old and more people own a mobile phone than a toothbrush. Certainly the population change with younger demographics making up the consumer market and their dependence on the mobile device are causing a shift in how businesses are connecting with their customers.

To help businesses prepare for this “mobile world,” one of the tools that Eric shared during the session was Google’s Mobile Testing Tool (link to http://bit.ly/g-m-t). This is a service Google provides site owners to enter their website address and “see how Google sees” the site if visited on a mobile device. If it doesn’t render in a mobile-friendly format, Google has resources for webmasters to help with the migration.

Having a mobile-friendly website for today’s consumer is important since more people are starting the search process on these smaller devices than on desktop computers. If your site is not mobile-friendly, visitors will click “back” and find another option that is easier to navigate on a smaller screen. And to alert searchers, Google even now includes “mobile-friendly” in the search result list, so users will know even before they click if the site will be a pleasant experience, or they will have to tilt, pinch and zoom.

As the consumer is evolving, businesses need to keep up with trends and technology. As you watch the Socialnomics video above, what statistic stood out the most for you?