In a recent study by Openwave referred to here by FierceWireless, it shows that most searched made with a mobile phone is for a social network. Facebook and MySpace being the top ones. This is backed up when analysing behaviour as well, with plenty of page views per user for the same social networks when measured on a major US carrier portal.

A few years back I had the same expeience when Openwave analysed another US carrier’s deck. In that study the community Lifestylers was deemed the most sticky service on the entire deck. 

So communities/social networks hit it off with the mobilistas. Unfortunately the advertisers are slower to warm up to the mobile social networks. The big brands, and marketing budgets, are not comfortable with an environment they do not control. By definition you do not control a place built entirely on user generated content and interactions. This limits the options in business models somewhat. If you have eCPMs below 1 USD it is difficult to carry a company entirely based on advertising. It can be done, but it’s a struggle. 

Do we need braver advertisers or should we accept the current state as a fact? The very involved user in a social network might be hard to reach with ads at the moment they are engaged in communicating with others. However, if the brand or product can become part of the conversation we have a totally different ball game.

At the moment I think what we lack the most is good creative work in the campaigns that the advertising gurus come up with. This will not change until mobile becomes an integral part from the start in a campaign. There has to be a story and interaction features that speaks to the users. A high frequency exposure in a mobile social network can become a “scavenger hunt” part of a broader campaign for instance. When mobile is seen as a value adding component that can make a difference in a campaign we will start to see very powerful campaigns. We will also see ad-funded mobile services flourish.

Disclosure: I am the co-founder of Acemob, the company behind Lifestylers.