Mobile should be at the center of any customer-centric service: panelist

By Rimma Kats

December 3, 2010

Mobile and social go together

MIAMI - Social media is growing in the mobile medium and will transform the way customers consume content, services and goods, according to panelists at the MEF Americas 2010 Mobile Content & Commerce conference.

Panelists during the “Best Bets from the Social Media Experts” session discussed the current social media ecosystem and how it’s evolving. The panel was moderated by John Orlando, executive vice president of worldwide marketing and business development at RateIntegration.

“You have companies now who are scrapping the social Web now,” said Sanjaya Krishna, information communications and entertainment principal at KPMG LLP and vice chairman of MEF North America, New York.

“The Twitter API is open for them and they’re consuming it,” he said. “It’s this digital residue that we leave – everybody wants on that residue.

“Social media monitoring tools are interesting.”

Take the risk
According to Mr. Krishna, there’s a risk angle involved.

If companies plan to use social media in their initiatives and get users engaged, there is a certain way to do it.

Although location-based services are vastly growing, Mr. Krishna believes that it will be big in 2011.

“Location-based technology is really the intersection where social and mobile intersect,” Mr. Krishna said. “If you look at Best Buy, they’re using [location-based services] as a customer vehicle.

“It’s interesting to see all of this going on,” he said.

Mobile changes
Gianluca D’Agostino, CEO of Neomobile, agrees that location-based technology has a lot of potential in the mobile space and companies can take advantage of that to reach their consumers – both existing and new ones.

“It’s clear that there is success in location-based services,” Mr. D’Agostino said. “Especially in Brazil – we see the cultural proximity. 

“Mobile can do a lot and it should be at the center of any customer centric service,” he said. “I also believe that the future of mobile commerce and payments is really important.

“There is incredible potential there.”

There’s potential
According to Carlos Silva Ponce de Leon, senior alliances manager at Research In Motion, Mexico, there has been a coloration of massive adoption of smartphones.

“We’re working a lot with our community of developers to go deeper in engaging capabilities,” Mr. Leon said. “We want [to create] a social element.

“Essentially, we’re asking our developers to embed social capabilities,” he said. “Carriers in Latin America have seen social media as a key communication channel for subscribers.

“There’s a lot of opportunity for carriers to be enablers that consumers need to access social media – there’s more opportunity there for them to promote those communities so that they can monetize new revenue.”

Mobile evolution
Mobile has help many companies grow and social has played a role as well.

For PlayPhone Social, mobile has help evolve the company’s platform, as well as help expand it into the social gaming area.

“What we ask is how can we drive our business in a meaningful direction,” said Anders Evju, senior vice president and general manager at PlayPhone Social, New York. “We believe mobile has entered a new era.

It’s all about social
Social media will be more impactful than the Internet, per Stephan Croix, vice president and head of global marketing partnerships at Sony Ericsson, Miami.

“Mobile and social allow us to talk to consumers – sometimes it’s positive and sometimes it’s less positive,” Mr. Croix said. “On our Facebook page, we have more than 4 million fans, it’s becoming a critical mass for us.

“You have a community there that’s talking about the hottest app, what accessories to buy and for us it’s a fantastic marketing opportunity,” he said. “It’s always the question of what the next big trend is and for me, it’s location-based services.

“It’s where social and mobile meet.”