For most mobile and internet shopping sites, the first step in using social media was to add a “Like” or “Follow Us” button to certain pages.

Not a bad start, but now there are much more powerful ways to use social media to drive mobile and online sales. This infographic looks at two key strategies for building commerce through social media. more»

Many people expected that social networks and mobile would be a natural combination, but now the numbers are in.

According to recent statistics from comScore, in the US during September, over 50% of Facebook’s and Twitter’s unique users logged on via their mobile device! more»

Market research firm comScore has released their latest MobiLens figures on the state of the US Smartphone market.

This new report shows that while Samsung continues to lead the US market with 26.3% share of US subscribers, Apple at 17.8% has managed to pass LG and now holds second place. more»

Over the past several years the diversity of media available to the average person has exploded.

Mobile internet enabled smartphones, tablets, social media sites, personal media players, Twitter - all of these are now used on a daily basis by a large sector of the population.

But who actually is using what media, and when? Ad Age, MBAOnline, and Magid GS produced a very interesting infographic which answers this question! more»

A new report by Canaccord Genuity has predicted that Google’s mobile ad revenue will reach US$14 billion by 2015 driven by smartphone uptake, growth of Android, and new services offered by Google. more»

App Stores are the real hub of activity in the mobile world these days, and having an up-to-date understanding of the key trends in this area can be crucial for a business.

Distimo is an app store analytics company built to solve the challenges created by a widely fragmented app store marketplace. This latest report from Distimo takes a look at in-app billing, as well as reporting the highest ranking paid and free apps from the Apple App Store, BlackBerry App World, Google Android Market, Nokia Ovi Store, Palm App Catalog and Windows Marketplace. more»

According to a recent report from Ground Truth, 60% of traffic on the mobile internet in the US is to Social Networking sites.

In addition, mobile specific social networks engage users more than online social networks. more»

Orange have released their latest “Digital Media Index” report for April 2010.

This report looks at consumer behavior related to digital media, and in this particular edition highlights the differing usage patterns that men and women have on the Orange mobile network. more»

In the past week there has been a lot of discussion on the internet about “Facebook Lite”, the new version of Facebook that has recently been released for beta testing.

Facebook Lite is apparently intended for users who have slower internet connections, for example on mobile. This may open up new opportunities for mobile marketing. more»

For those of you working in the mobile business, the market numbers change so rapidly that it is hard to keep up to date. And trying to get good historical information for comparison is almost impossible.

Now there is a solution - Tomi Ahonen’s Mobile Almanac 2009. Written by well-known author and speaker Tomi Ahonen, this almanac contains all the information you may want to find out about the mobile telecoms business. more»

Have you ever wished that you could really understand how people used the internet today, how they interact with various media, and what impact the trends we see today will have in the future?

For the past 15 years, the Center for the Digital Future at USC has been studying exactly these issues. In this interview, we talk with Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center on a range of topics, including the evolving media habits of teenagers and the emerging “new rules” for advertising and marketing. more»

David Rosenberg has written an interesting article over on CNET news.

He describes how the new Wii-no-ma service that Nintendo has launched in Japan is being used to promote a combination of gaming, family social networking, and advertising. more»

BuzzCity has launched a web-based mobile media planning tool to help mobile marketers get better returns for their ad spend.

The online tool includes traffic and demographic data from each of 200 markets where the ad network operates. more»

Orange has released the latest in their Digital Media Index series of consumer usage reports.

The study shows that despite the bad overall economic climate, consumers are rapidly increasing their consumption of mobile data, including music downloads, video downloads, mobile social networking, and mobile gaming.

And mobile data using dongles increased a phenomenal 4,125% in the past 12 months! (available for download)

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As reported in WebProNews, Forrester Research has released its projections for the growth of online advertising. Mobile and social networks are the hottest areas of growth, although all sectors of online show strong growth. more»

Openwave Systems has released a report that analyzes the behavior of US consumers on the mobile internet.

The study shows that Social Networks are becoming a preferred replacement for previous means of electronic communication, and Mobile Ad Targeting can add significant value to a campaign. more»

Social Networks are rapidly becoming one of the major destinations for mobile and online internet browsing, and a big question today is will the social networks be able to monetize their traffic.

BuzzCity is an interesting combination: it runs one of the largest social networks (mygamma), but it also has a very large mobile ad network for revenue generation.

KF Lai is the founder and CEO of BuzzCity. In this interview, he gives some insight into the synergies he has found from running both a social network and an ad network. more»

San Francisco based Twitter, the third largest social network globally, has recently made improvements to its search functionality in a move that many believe will lead to Twitter search ads and a new revenue stream for Twitter.

The new search function would let consumers and companies scan the feeds of Twitter’s 6 million members in order to get up-to-the-minute information about key topics and trends. more»

Airwide Solutions has commissioned independent research to poll operators about ‘what’s hot and what’s not’ in mobile messaging around the world.

The results include social networks, mobile advertising, and location services, and have been compiled in a white paper which looks at the opportunities and outlines operator investment plans for the next 12 months. more»

Flirtomatic, the UK based flirting and dating service, has decided to use the “social intelligence” solutions from Xtract to gain better insight into their customers, with the aim to eventually to offer more relevant advertising. more»

comScore, the digital measurement company, has reported that mobile social networks are a key factor in driving the growth of the mobile internet throughout Europe.

Social networking currently has about 12.1 million users in western Europe, with a year-on-year growth over 150%. more»

BuzzCity has announced that it will be opening up its popular mobile social networking site mygamma so that developers and advertisers can integrate their own applications into the service. more»

Just last week we saw the true power of advertising and social communities.

In an imitation of a popular T-Mobile ad, a flashmob dance was organized on Facebook, with the result being that one of London’s biggest train stations was closed down during a busy Friday evening! See the videos of here. more»

According to a recent poll by KPMG, media and advertising executives expect more than a quarter of media time and spending to move away from traditional channels. At the same time, they believe that mobile and social media advertising will be gaining momentum. more»

Azuki Systems recently released a survey of US mobile consumers which indicates a surge in usage of mobile media, as well as details about how consumers are spending their time on the phone. The study also highlights that there are still some common barriers facing consumers. more»

Bebo, the global social media network that was acquired by AOL, recently took a major step towards opening up their social network to the mobile world.

Bebo Open Mobile is a partnership program for operators, handset manufacturers and mobile software developers which will help them promote, distribute, and monetize mobile social media. more»

A thoughtful piece by Colin Gibbs over at RCR Wireless News discusses the expected future evolution of mobile social networks compared to internet social networks. Expect the mobile versions to grow in popularity and usage, but a question remains about their financial viability! more»

Virgin Mobile USA, which over the summer absorbed the MVNO Helio, has introduced some interesting new features which will make it easier for their subscribers to participate in mobile social networks. more»

itsmy.com just released what is probably the largest ever survey in the area of mobile social networks. More than 15,000 users took part from the US, UK, Spain, and Italy. Looking at consumer usage patterns, preferences, and statistics, this report really shows how deeply involved some consumers are with mobile social networks. more»

3UK has launched a new phone into the UK market, the INQ¹, which it calls the “world’s most advanced social networking phone”.

Features to access Facebook are integrated into the heart of the phone, as well as other communication and music services. more»

9 & 10 March, 2009
Olympia, London, UK

A two day conference dedicated to social networking and mobile social networking, featuring key speakers from social networking publishers, advertising agencies, industry analysts, plus many more. more»

Gofresh, the Munich based company behind the very successful social network itsmy.com has launched itsmy.biz, a “mobile social advertising network”. Basically it’s a focused ad network which allows advertisers to reach an audience of people that frequent mobile social network sites. more»

The Direct Marketing Association UK (DMA) has launched a series of a mobile marketing guides intended to help educate direct marketers about all the various commercial options available to them. (available for download) more»

Universal McCann has released an extensive report on the growth and impact of social media around the world. Surveying over 17,000 users in 29 countries, this paper is a detailed analysis that should be read by everyone whose business may be impacted by this major trend. more»

A recent media forecast by Magna Global - one of the world’s leading media service firms - predicts that mobile media, social media, and online video will be the fastest growing of the emerging media channels. Download the full study. more»

Vodafone has announced that it has agreed to buy ZYB for 31.5 million Euros. The Danish company operates a social networking and online management tool that allows mobile phone users to share their contact, calendar and location information as well as providing network back up capbility. more»

Opera Software, publisher of the Opera Mini browser, has released its first “State of Mobile Web” report covering the first quarter of 2008. One of the most interesting facts in the report is that social networks account for 40% of worldwide mobile web traffic, while accounting for over 60% in the US, South Africa and Indonesia. more»

Customers of Virgin Mobile’s Sugar Mama program now have a new way to earn airtime. Normally, the service provides free airtime when a customer listens to ads on their phone. But now, using a new Facebook application, users can have their Facebook Friends earn free minutes for them by listening to the advertisements on their PC. more»

Flirtomatic, the mobile and online flirting service, has announced that it has served its billionth mobile advertisement. This comes less than a year after serving its first. During Q1 2008, ad revenue increased by 31% compared to the previous quarter and ad impressions grew by 27%. more»

BuzzCity has revealed the statistics for its myGamma Global Mobile Advertising Index. myGamma is an ad-supported mobile social network service that is very popular in many of the markets outside of N. America and Europe. Download the full advertising index. more»

Kiwibox, a social networking site focused on the teen market, have announced a partnership with Burst Media. Under the terms of the deal, Burst Media will serve mobile ads on the Kiwibox mobile site which will launch in the second quarter of 2008. more»

Crush or Flush, the social network that allows its members to meet, chat and flirt with other members by browsing profiles and deciding whether to “Crush” or “Flush” them, has announced that it will introduce a new form of mobile ad. The new interactive advertising is a feature called Golden Ticket. more»

An interview with Pascal Thomas, mobile visionary and VP of Orange NExT (the mobile media division of France Telecom Orange)

France-Telecom Orange is one of the world’s leading tier-one mobile operators, and also one of the first true “multiplay” companies – offering not only mobile service, but also fixed line telephone, internet, and television (IPTV) to their customers.

Understanding the customer benefits of a “multiplay” offer and the evolving impact of social networks on advertising and revenue generation is one of the roles of Pascal Thomas. Pascal is one of the leading innovators in the European telecom industry, and was the lead initiator of Orange’s pioneering mobile television services. He now heads up Orange’s NExT group, which is responsible for “audience and advertising” as well as all things Web 2.0. more»

An article on PaidContent.Org reveals that Nokia and Facebook are in advanced discussions on a wide ranging strategic agreement between the two companies. more»