Mobile social networking & web 2.0

Social networking has been one of the most exciting areas of online growth in recent years.  However, these networks are increasingly moving from the web into the mobile sphere where SMS can act as a powerful tool to facilitate social networking interactions. As consumers increasingly use social networks as a primary channel of communication, simple SMS interaction has become a key requirement for social networking companies willing to provide networking on the move.

One option for social networks or online communities are rich mobile apps or web pages.  Yet whilst social networking apps or mobile web pages can provide attractive functionality to a relatively small group of smartphone owners, SMS can reach all mobile users wherever they are and whatever device they’re using. Only SMS can offer the universal demographic and geographic reach to provide mobile social networking to everyone.

Due to the international nature of social networking, using a service with global reach is essential. In addition, enterprise SMS can enable a broad range of functionality options for those without access to a smartphone or in situations where high-speed mobile data coverage isn’t available.

Social networking content is all about timeliness and so reliability and speed of delivery are vital in the provision of SMS-based social networking services. An SMS gateway provider can enable consumers to interact with or submit content to a social networking service and to contact friends on the move via web-based SMS interaction. Direct person-to-person (P2P) mobile communications between social networking friends using 2-way SMS is also possible.

High quality SMS can be applied in a wide range of use cases in the social media space:

• Virtual dating – Facilitating consumer-to-consumer interaction for online dating services, especially via real-time SMS chat

• Micro-blogging – Enabling consumers to update micro-blogs or receive friends’ updates via SMS

• Social networking updates – Allowing the updating of social network profiles via SMS, as well as providing text alerts and notifications

• Sharing – users can share preferences or recommendations with regards to restaurants, movie theaters etc. with their friends

• App downloads – it is possible to download applications via SMS (via WAP-Push)

Online communities, social networking, micro-blogs and virtual dating services can integrate enterprise SMS as a part of their mobile mix strategy, either as a standalone service or in conjunction with a rich mobile media strategy. In addition to pure social networking communities, any online and e-commerce companies can create a mobile social networking element by enabling customers to post opinions, comments, customer reviews and ratings for products and services via 2-way SMS interaction.