What happens when social networks break free from the walls of your office or home and enter the outside world?
Looking around on the bus the other day, I was astonished at the ubiquity of smart phones. It got me thinking, what will mobile do to Social Internet Marketing?
With the iPhone being the #1 selling handset and every phone maker and carrier touting the benefits of a 3G connected device, the reality is that we’re in that world today. A world where our connections follow us and our inspirations can be real time, real world versions that are shared with a touch of a mobile button.
Leverage the Outside World
Just think of the power that your brand could leverage, the power of real world interactions that are shared digitally.
During a recent visit to Starbucks, I saw a Starbucks sign encouraging people to take a picture of their head in between the parenthesis in the (RED) logo and email it to Starbucks. Great idea, though they seem to have dropped the ball on making it easy to find (if anyone has a link please share!) Check it out here. Digital media creators are everywhere, and Starbucks is trying to leverage that.
The Future of Social Networks
Charlene Li, of the Altimeter Group, takes it one step further in the video below (seen on Six Pixels of Separation – a must read for us students of social media). She talks about the future of social networks as being “Like air”. Where our social graph (connections and relationships) are with us where ever we go. She talks about the power of seeing reviews from friends, people we know and trust, as being incredibly valuable when compared to a strangers. Li goes on to describe a world where:
the wisdom, advice and support of your friends are always with you.
Skyscrapers or Mud Huts?
It’s important to remember that we’re in the beginning stages of social networks. We’re in the quaint farmstead point in evolution, a step further than mud huts on the prairies, but far from the skyscrapers that are in our future.
The take away, start listening, learning and doing, or live in a mud hut, it’s up to you.
Photo cred: güneş in wonderland
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