I have just completed a webinar on Mobile marketing and mobile social media.

Not an easy subject to talk on. Talking about mobile marketing campaigns is easy. That is my area of expertise. Social media, fine. Not my greatest area of expertise, but I know enough about it. Mobile social media? Well what is there to say about it? OK, Facebook has 65million of it’s 250million subscribers accessing through their mobile phones. That’s quite interesting. Orange’s Exposure 2 study also showed that many people are accessing social media through their phones.

What about mobile specific social media? Whilst there are many dedicated sites, they are tiny in their usage. The most successful ones are essentially dating sites.
So what about marketing in mobile social media? Hmm. There really isn’t alot to say because it just isn’t happening.

One problem is that social media, is having trouble making money. Facebook has only just turned a profit and that is way out, the largest social networking site out there. Myspace is loosing money, and Twitter has no revenue at all!

When it comes to mobile, the advertising opportunities in social media are limited. Facebook doesn’t have any on it’s mobile site, and again, Twitter doesn’t have any at all. The best way that brands can engage is through customer relationship and reputation management. Southwest Airlines are an excellent example of this. They have a team to look for dissatisfaction and contact those people to resolve the problem. But that is not specifically a mobile issue, that is just brands engaging well with all social media.

So, what is the answer for marketing in mobile social media? I really don’t know!