Immediacy triggers growth in mobile social networking
January 28, 2008
Social networking ad spending will have reached $865 million in 2007
Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube will strengthen their presence in mobile as consumers increasingly are charmed by the immediacy offered by social networking on the phone.
These sites will use texting primarily as an alert system so that users can ensure that their community knows when they have added a new picture, uploaded a favorite video or that a new friend has accessed their site, according to Ron Galardi, vice president of mobile strategies for online ad network CPX Interactive, Westbury, NY.
“One thing I have not seen, but would be great for social networks is to offer reverse auctions to their subscribers using SMS,” Mr. Galardi said.
As better technology goes into play, such as 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi, marketers will be able to run more effective and efficient marketing via mobile social networks. For example, location-based services (LBS) will allow for geographically targeted ads.
“It’s going to come down to the technology in the handsets,” said Ryan Babenzien, vice president of marketing at social media portal eCirkit. “On my HTC Tilt, I can do everything I need from my phone via a real 3G connection on AT&T or switch over to Wi-Fi if a 3G signal is not available.
Ron Galardi, CPX Interactive
“So managing my eCirkit profile would be simple from my phone,” he said. “We’ll be seeing more and more of this across all social networks. Facebook has done a really good job at this.”
Social network sites will take advantage of mobile technology to expand and even brand their properties apart from purely Web-based competitors.
Mr. Galardi said that if wireless carriers in the United States revise any of their restrictions on the type of content that can be sent via SMS, mobile social networks will experience growth opportunity.
Social mapping is going to be huge in 2008 as well. ECirkit is looking at a variety of options in this space, Mr. Babenzien said.
“We trust our friends and associates more than a company promoting itself,” Mr. Babenzien said.
“When you say this restaurant is good and you map it from your phone via a geotag, that shows up on your friend’s phone when he’s near that restaurant. That’s a very powerful message.
“Marketers are going to try and get into that space,” he said.
Mr. Galardi expects to see more niche communities designed for middle-age or young social site users. For example, a host of family-oriented social networking sites has cropped up already.
So who is ruling this space?
Both Mr. Galardi and Mr. Babenzien agree that Facebook, MySpace and YouTube are doing a good job.
“The Google guys are going to be the 800-pound gorilla here,” Mr. Babenzien said.
“With their OpenSocial project already launched, their new My Location feature in Google Maps for mobile phones and them buying their own wireless spectrum, it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out,” he said.
New data from Jupiter-Research shows that 48 percent of advertisers will have invested in marketing on social networking channels in 2007, up from about 38 percent from in 2006.
Also, social networking ad spending will have reached $865 million in 2007 and nearly $2.2 billion in 2010, according to interactive marketing research publisher eMarketer, New York.
“The phone is now just a small TV, phone and computer all in one, so you can imagine how powerful a tool that is and what marketers will pay when trying to reach someone,” Mr. Babenzien said.
Challenges for 2008
• Interoperability will be a challenge.
• Making sure that kids don’t get swept up in the mobile marketing blitz. It wouldn’t be good if a 15-year-old kid got a message or a video clip for discount porn at a shop he was walking by
• Stringent carrier requirements
• The perception that carriers are limited in what they can offer subscribers on mobile.