Last week we mentioned Mobile Search Week at Search Engine Land. Beyond their efforts to promote a mobile conference in Denver, it has revealed some interesting trends concerning social networking and the mobile space.

At Texperts, we have been using various forms of social networking, in terms of both concept and technology, as a way of communicating with our customers - and of course our team of wonderful Texperts. Keeping in touch with this technology has helped us develop the service and our ability to interact with our customers.

Social Networking
Social networking is being touted as the Next Big Thing in making money from the mobile space. At Texperts, we love Facebook (check out our blog on the subject here) and are big on useful resources that develop the potential of the social networking phenomenon.

We’re fans of TrustedPlaces, a great social networking site that provides genuinely helpful reviews by like-minded folks that can give you valuable assistance in running your life.

User reviews are seen as a crucial factor in mobile search, where destinations and services are rated, discussed and mulled over. Think Local, Act Social by Michael Boland presents a good survey of the central issues in this area. He rightly notices the “clear demand from searchers who increasingly expect user reviews as part of their local search experience,” and backs this up with some convincing data. However, he gives the following warning:

“The expanding universe of social media will lead to a state of ’social fatigue.’ Think of the many log-ins and profiles an average social media junkie must manage across Facebook, MySpace, Yelp, Yahoo! Local, Google Maps, ShopLocal, and others. Worse, mainstream, non-power users likely won’t be interested in getting lost in this sea of social media.”

Mobile Giveth, Mobile Taketh Away
In The Pros And Cons Of Mobile Marketing, Paul J. Bruemmer provides similar warnings about peoples’ tolerance thresholds, and adds further caveats about outstanding regulatory issues, limited uptake of 3G devices, and the scarcity of mobile websites. However, the list of upsides is impressive, and mostly has to do with the potential for growth and, crucially, the relationship that users have with their mobiles.

The thing to remember is that every opportunity in the mobile/wireless sector is tied to that last caveat - peoples’ demands become more personal in the mobile space, and what works online may not necessarily work there. But there are clearly lessons to be learned from the social networking phenomenon that you ignore at your peril.

Texperts and Social Networking
At Texperts, we’re obviously keen to develop social networking opportunities within the service, and we’re looking for the right consumer proposition to take our brand further into this field. In the meantime, I’ve got a poll running on Facbook that I’ve really got to get back to!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 by Thomas Roberts and is filed under Buzz. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.