360DigitalInfluence

It was only a matter of time before we went from using our phones to call or text friends and plan to meet in a certain location to using our smartphones when we’re in a certain location to find out which of our friends are already there.  Social networking, while already popular online, is one of the fastest-growing activities among mobile users.  In fact, eMarketer predicts that by 2013, 43% of global mobile Internet users will be accessing social networks from their mobile devices and 45% of the US mobile Internet population will be on social networks from their mobile devices.  It seems that even when we’re socializing in real life, we want access to our online networks. 

As our mobile devices get more complex, new social networks will launch to maximize these capabilities.  Right now, Foursquare, Loopt, BrightKite, and Buzzd are growing location-based social networks that may not have the user base of Facebook, but use mobile technology to bring people, places, interests, and content together in ways Facebook can’t.  With more and more people taking advantage of these services, marketers seek ways to target the right consumers with relevant offers when they’re in the right place to use them.  Finding the right way to match the right social network to the right consumer, offer, client, or “real world” location is the latest challenge (but greatest opportunity) for marketers.

This Friday, May 7th, Ogilvy Digital Labs will bring together top executives across these location-based mobile social networks and ask them what opportunities their networks offer marketers.   While they “battle it out” to tell us what’s best, we’d love to ask them your questions or raise the issues that are of concern to you.  Please post them in the comments below.

And stay tuned to Fresh Influence because we’ll post a video recap of the program with the answers to your questions later!