By Mark Cooper In 2012, consumers spent 76 percent more time on social applications than the previous year, and 50 percent of Facebook users accessed the network from their mobile devices. This makes social networking the fastest-growing mobile app category out there. Want to run a successful mobile marketing campaign? Your strategy better include social. Here are some easy, actionable tips to help build a mobile-friendly social media presence. Run mobile-ready campaigns Your brand’s social promotions, sweepstakes and campaigns should support mobile navigation from a number of devices. Try implementing mobile-friendly Facebook apps on your brand page that are easy to view and scroll. Make sure they allow mobile fan-gating – Facebook’s native environment does not currently support it. Make it visual Posts that feature photos drive more engagement from mobile users than text-heavy ones. They are eye-catching and take up more real estate. Create incentives for users to upload and share their own photos. We have noticed that approximately 35 percent of participation has come from mobile. Hit all the key channels Ramp up your engagement by running campaigns across all key mobile channels. For example, luxury clothing brand Rent the Runway engages its audience with photo contests across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest, making it easy for fans to snap, submit and share photos from wherever they are. Turn up the content Mobile users spend a lot of time scrolling their feeds for the latest news. To stay in front of them post frequently about your campaigns and content. Make it easy for your fans to spread the word by including share buttons in your campaigns. For an extra boost, try running Sponsored Stories and Tweets to build a bigger audience. Keep it lightweight How many steps does it take to participate in your mobile campaigns? You should know the answer. Campaigns and contests with too many steps make mobile participation a hassle. Combat this by running campaigns with straightforward user flows. The entire experience should not take more than 60 seconds. Be direct with your fans. Include clear, concise headlines and calls-to-action. Entry forms for sweepstakes and contests should be four fields or less. Get smart about couponing When offering Web-based coupons and promotion codes to mobile users, make them easy to access through a lightweight action like becoming a fan of your brand. Use social to offer deals that are easy to redeem in person. Prompting a user to print out a coupon after going through your mobile campaign will dramatically decrease conversion rates. Step up and use scannable bar codes to drive easy purchases at the counter. Bring in real-world experiences Create real world experiences for your fans. Have them take a photo near a cool in-store display or live tweet a concert. And do not forget to promote your campaigns in-store, with sign-up forms, signage and hand-outs for your customers. Ultimately, a sound mobile strategy will help your brand reach a huge audience on social networks. Just remember to make experiences simple and fun. Also, keep looking for new opportunities to capitalize on emerging social trends and tools such as Vine. The right strategies can take your brand content viral. Mark Cooper is cofounder and chief marketing officer of Offerpop, New York. Reach him at mark@offerpop.com.