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Customers, investors and the media have fully embraced the mobile web and the opportunities the platform presents. We've covered much of this in great detail in previous posts.

But new research, released last week, shows that the majority of the corporate world has yet to wake up to this change in consumer behaviour and realise the potential mobile presents for their business.

The report, the first of its kind and published by Magus and Investis, has some sobering statistics about just how ill-prepared the FTSE 100 is to meet people's needs in the changing consumer landscape.

Despite mobile website traffic being predicted to overtake desktop traffic in 2014, it's startling to know that 80% of the FTSE100 currently don't offer support for mobile devices. Of that 80%, it is reported that user experience on mobile is further worsened by, on average, 4.25 compliance issues per webpage.

Corporate sites don't matter on the social web

Attitudes towards the importance of corporate websites vary from business to business. Many brand owners prioritise digital investment at both brand and consumer level; whilst others prefer to invest 'on platform' in a bid to be more social.

Marketers must be mindful though that not everyone who matters to their business is game for being social – or likely to believe the upbeat advertising message. Consumers, investors and employees increasingly want to know what a business stands for; not just just what they do, make or sell.

• Sustainability has moved from the margins to core business strategy

• Mobile web browsing will outnumber desktop browsing within 2 years

Tying these two realities together is this: people who really want to know about the business behind a brand will find the info they need in many places online, including the corporate website. And increasingly, when looking for this information, they'll be using a mobile device.

For the small percentage of corporate websites that do offer mobile support, just 4% have dedicated fully mobile sites. The remainder "typically cover investor relations (IR) information such as news, press releases, share price performance data and corporate contact information, and are updated simultaneously with the corporate website".

Olympian misjudgement

For mobile users trying to access corporate content online, the current experience is generally poor. But, as the new report states in its conclusion, there is huge opportunity to "reward early adopters with competitive advantage and increased audience share".

In a year when many FSTE 100 companies are sponsoring the London 2012 Olympics, another once in a lifetime opportunity to engage new audiences and maximise return from their investment might be missed.

Serving the right content for the device

Mobile devices have specific functional capabilities that suit particular content and user experience. Smartphones are particularly well-suited to delivering easily digestible content in bite size chunks. Tablets, on the other hand, are better for more immersive experiences and richer content such as video. Corporate web managers must do more to understand the basics of the mobile web – but, according to the research, none of the surveyed corporate sites have been built using responsive technology.

What is clear is that those companies take the opportunity of mobile and future-proof themselves with useable, mobile-friendly content will reap the benefits. Hoop recently completed a fully mobile-optimised responsive website for PepsiCo – who have seen (year on year) website traffic increase by 275% (iPhone) to 484% (Android) and an astounding 1040% on iPad.

Download the report and get in touch if you'd like Hoop to help you go mobile.

2. Path

There's only ever been one major digital social network. Think about that bold statement for a second; pre-2007/8 had Myspace, the then most-visited online social network in the world. The post-Myspace era has Facebook marching towards an IPO in early 2012, accompanied by an astounding $100bn valuation and its 850+m userbase. There are, and always have been, alternatives to these social behemoths – but it's rare to find one special enough to to tempt users away from their 130 "friends" posting an endless stream of cat videos.

Path is one of those rarities. Path's astoundingly stunning iOS and Android app (no web integration; Path is purely mobile) is designed to enable its users to share their lives in a digital journal with 150 of their closest friends (Path pitch themselves as a "Personal Network"). If you do have an urge to share your life publicly (some people do); Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr connectivity will allow you to do so.

Founded in 2010 by the co-founders of Napster, Facebook Platform/ Connect and Macster, Path are a remarkable success story waiting to happen. Their first iteration, based around documenting your life with photos, caught Google's eye at the start of 2011. Google tried to buy the company with a rumoured $100m. Path turned Google down, welcomed a new round of investment, hit their first million users in October (up from 500,000 in June) and launched the updated 'Path 2' a fortnight ago.

So if you're on an Android or iOS device (a tablet app is on its way) and your nearest and dearest are too, download Path from iTunes or the Android store. Start sharing your path and you won't look back.

1. Catvertising

This morning, here at Hoop towers, we were talking about how best to control our recently discovered rodent situation. After an intense discussion, we had a collective epiphany; we could simply follow Toronto's John St.'s lead and open a catvertising arm. Visit YouTube to understand what we're on about (trust us, it's worth it).

2. Canvas & HTML5 with 9elements

What happens when you combine HTML5, tweets mentioning "love" and "HTML5", a bit of music and some serious development talent in the form of 9elements?

"HTML5 experiment" is the wonderful result. Beautiful work!

3. Mobile optimisation with Conversion Conference London

If we were to summarise this year in two words, they would be "Go Mobile". We've been going on about being ready for the mobile revolution for the majority of 2011 – and 2012 promises to be no different.

If you still need convincing (although if you follow the Hoop blog we hope you don't), SEOptimise has a great list of 20 tips you should be thinking about when joining champions of mobile first. Well worth a read.

4. "Hi, I'm Google and I'm a (shopping) addict"

It's technology conference Le Web this week. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt had the 2pm slot on the main stage yesterday and delivered some extremely interesting tidbits. It turns out that, on average, Google are buying one company every week – they bought 57 this year!

As usual, TechCrunch has the lowdown.

5. A hero with a pen, pencil and RSI

Multi-talented web developer Miguel Endara appears to have a serious bit of skill with a pen and pencil. He recently spent an astounding 210 hours creating 3.2million(!) dots on a piece of paper.

That may sound a little pointless – but when you see the finished product you'll be as blown away as we were. You can watch the video on Vimeo.

1. We all knew it was popular, but this popular?!

We're all huge fans of Angry Birds here at Hoop – you'd be hard pushed finding someone with a smartphone who isn't. And it seems that 500 million other people agree with us. Rovio, the company behind Angry Birds, announced this week that the app had been downloaded by half a billion people. A truly astounding feat!

2. Going fishing (on Facebook, with a botnet)

Facebook are well known for having an odd view on their users' privacy. Google's results for the query 'Facebook Privacy' make for some interesting reading.

But when we read that researchers from a Canadian university used a botnet to steal 250GB worth of Facebook users' data, it looked like the boot was on the other foot. Facebook's security and privacy teams have some explaining to do! TechCrunch has the details.

3. Telling tales with Twitter

There's something wonderfully succinct about a tweet; it's amazing what you can get into 140 characters. But sometimes, the character limit means a tweet just isn't enough. For those occasions, you could use Shortmail, standard email or simply pick up the phone.

But when a tweet is enough, it's pretty awesome what a message on Twitter can achieve. Which is where Twitter Stories comes in. Well worth a look – another example of the power (for good) of social media.

4. Bob

It wouldn't be a true 5 top finds if we don't include at least one video. Lovely hamster Bob and his global travels gets this week's honour, just don't forget to watch the end credits. Watch Bob on Vimeo.

5. #gomobile

As it says on the site, "mobile isn't going to be a medium. It's going to be the medium". Good to see Google trying to get everyone up to speed on what is set to be (one hugely important aspect of) the future of the internet. Go mobile!

Businesses that ignore the growth in the numbers of mobile using customers are in danger of being ignored.

If you've been following the Hoop blog over the past few months, you'll have seen how important we think mobile devices are. Smartphones and tablet devices are changing the way businesses market their content, advertise to consumers and are leading to a more user-centered approach to digital strategy. That is, one that recognises the change in human behaviour and doesn't fight against it.

But if you still need convincing that you should be thinking mobile first, we've compiled a selection of awesome infographics that might just bring you round. Simply click the links to view the full infographic.

The size of the mobile market should not be underestimated (via iStrategy)...

Mobile devices are changing the way we buy things (courtesy of Microsoft Tag)...

They're changing the way we interact with each other on social networks (thanks Flowtown)...

And (American) small businesses are relying on mobile devices and connectivity to survive (via Intuit for Mashable)...

The markets are increasingly embracing mobile technology. And if Econsultancy's recent Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing is anything to go by, businesses are starting to realise that if they don't start thinking mobile first they'll be left behind.

We recently applied this 'Mobile First' methodology to a new client website with a design that is responsive to the end-users' device. Feedback so far has been fantastic. If your business needs help developing a digital strategy that puts mobile first, why not get in touch?