KF Lai, CEO of BuzzCity, explains how effective use of mobile social media can help marketers reach new audiences and become an essential part of the marketing mix.

Tapping into social media has become an integral part of marketing campaigns for a growing number of brands, and with good reason. There is huge value to be gained from reaching these users due to the personal nature of the information exchanged on the various sites and services, allowing marketers to execute relevant, targeted campaigns. While this has become a mainstream approach among brands online, it is still maturing on mobile. However, this is beginning to change as marketers continue to recognise the value of reaching this potentially lucrative audience.

WhatsApp gives you and your contacts the power of telepathy! It is a fast and simple way to inform other users about your mobile status. Thanks to this application, you and your friends will always know how or when to best get in touch. Say goodbye to poorly timed phone calls and those irritating games of phone tag.

WhatsApp only works among users who have the application, so after you download WhatsApp, make sure to use the “Tell a Friend” feature under 'Settings' to share this App with other iPhone users in your contact book.

Funji, Inc., an iPhone application company, launches the first avatar-based social networking application only for iPhone and iPod touch on May 23. While some avatar applications allow users to customize characters, Funji is the first to blend avatars and social networking only for iPhone/iPod touch users. Funji users can decorate their own avatars and rooms to show friends, save as wallpaper or publish to Facebook using FB connect. They can visit strangers' rooms to see what they have created and initiate friendships.

We teased you a bit the other day with video of the latest version of Kinoma Play (albeit in Japanese), but now it's ready for the rest of us, in English.

This is a major upgrade for Kinoma Play that they're dubbing a "Social Media Browser," and new features include customizable Kinoma home pages, Facebook integration, direct access to the Mobihand app store, Twitter integration, Last.fm, a built-in RSS reader, a free gigabyte of space from Box.net, the already outstanding Yoututbe player and support for Flickr and Picasa.

Social games firm Playfish has announced that its Who Has The Biggest Brain? game is now available for Android handsets.

It's the second mobile platform to get the social brain-trainer, following its release for iPhone earlier this year. It started out as a Facebook game, which has racked up 15 million players on the social network.

The Android version is fully integrated with Facebook, so you'll be able to compare your cranial capacity with your friends just like you can on the iPhone version.

Good Technology(TM), the world's leading provider of push mobility solutions, today announced it has acquired Intercasting Corporation, the leading mobile social networking connectivity company in the U.S. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The acquisition of Intercasting solidifies Good's position as the leading provider of mobile communications solutions across the broadest range of devices and platforms to the enterprise, government, and consumer markets, sold through mobile operators and device manufacturers worldwide.

Good's patented underlying technology is the cornerstone of the enterprise and consumer mobile email industry, offering the most versatile and open real-time synchronization platform for a broad range of applications, including innovative collaboration and social networking solutions. Intercasting's technology and award winning ANTHEM platform, coupled with Good's Good for You(TM) solution, enables Good to extend its reach beyond the smartphone market and into the billion-plus feature phone market.

Bebo has partnered with mobile phone company Samsung and production company Endemol to create an online music show.

Beat will take the form of a daily magazine show and will launch on the social network on 19 June.

The show is part of a wider partnership between Samsung and Bebo which will see the former provide content on a range of Bebo channels.

Centrl is a smart-phone application that lets you see which of your Facebook friends are around. You can spot nearby buddies on a screen-based map and send them instant messages. You can even mark a map location to let them know about a good restaurant or nightclub. Retailers can send you a coupon if you're near. And you can share that coupon with your friends.

Mobile handsets are much more versatile tools for social networking activity than desktop PCs. While the market may not yet have provided a perfect vehicle for this aim, conditions are improving and the potential is undoubtedly there. Phones have distinct advantages over laptops and deskbound PCs. Mobile devices are not merely portable, but their media capabilities tend to be more readily accessible.

1. Mobile is with you when you’re in the moment (improved status)
2. Mobile devices are a creation and capturing tool (richness)
3. Location. Location. Location. (proximity and discovery)
4. Mobile is built for bite-sized consumption. (bite-sized consumption)
5. It’s a communication device (targeted)
6. Lends itself to quick-hit communication (easy)

Read my fully articulated piece on INSPIRE.

Samsung Mobile UK, one of the leading mobile phone providers, on May 27 announced a strategic partnership with AOL owned Bebo, launching Samsung’s biggest social networking collaboration ever.

"The partnership will include a number of core strands including: the opportunity to provide content for the Bebo music homepage, eight monthly live events, ‘Samsung Bebo Nights Live at the Gibson Guitar Studio’, a Samsung music profile and ground breaking original programming with new music show ‘Beat’, produced by Endemol.

Mobile handsets are much more versatile tools for social networking activity than desktop PCs. While the market may not yet have provided a perfect vehicle for this aim, conditions are improving and the potential is undoubtedly there. Phones have distinct advantages over laptops and deskbound PCs. Mobile devices are not merely portable, but their media capabilities tend to be more readily accessible.

If you're looking for in-depth interaction the desktop PC may be more comfortable since activities that require more configuration are often easier to manage on PC. But mobile devices offer significant advantages in a few key areas.

1. Mobile is with you when you're in the moment (improved status)
To that perennial question, What's the best camera? Photographers like to answer, The one you have with you when you need it! Mobile devices are the best way to both capture and share what's happening in the moment, when it's happening.

2. Mobile devices are creation and capturing tools (richness)
Connected to #1, mobile is a creation tool and more media capture options are readily accessible. The video and still camera and audio recording allow users access to richer media. Integrated microphones add potential for voice notes, or speech-to-text applications (granted few applications are taking advantage as yet, but Jott's note-taking apps and Google's speech-to-text search are nice first steps). Many PCs still don't have a microphone attached (though laptops are probably more likely to have a mic than other PCs).

Name: Coupious

Quick Pitch: A mobile marketing platform delivering on-demand, location-based coupons to smartphone users for savings at the point of sale.

Genius Idea: We all love to save money, but if you’re anything like us, you can’t stand the idea idea of clipping coupons or spending hours scouring the Web to find discounts in your area. Coupious, a free coupon application for iPods, iPhones, and Android (Android reviews) devices, is in the process of transforming the way we think about using coupons.

Their first product Roboto is a ‘Statusphere’ web service which combines your current status, video avatar, mood, location, and the latest from your favorite social networks together into a simple, portable view.

Visitors to your profile can quickly see how many Twitter followers you have, your latest Flickr photos, your current location and links to your other online

Social networks are rapidly becoming one of the primary drivers of mobile data traffic. The question for social networks, mobile operators and content providers is whether they will be able to monetise their growing user bases and increasing traffic?

A significant challenge for social networking sites in general is that the business model remains largely unproved. Mobile advertising was initially hailed as a promising revenue stream for social networks, but continues to generate relatively little revenue income for the ecosystem as a whole.

Today has been exciting for mobile phone enthusiasts. First, information on the HTC Lancaster was released. Details about the Lancaster include a 2.8″ touchscreen, full size slide out QWERTY, and will feature a unique HTC Social Networking integration client. Launch date on ATT is slated for August 3rd.

Mobile social network MocoSpace is more popular than MySpace among US mobile internet users, according to Hitwise data from April. MocoSpace, a social network designed specifically for mobiles, attracted 15.75% of all mobile web page visits, compared with 10.28% for MySpace’s mobile offering.

Scottish Avatar-based social network WeeWorld also made it into the top 10, attracting 2.88% of all mobile web page visits. Facebook Mobile failed to make the top 10 most-visited mobile pages, despite being the largest social network in the world.

Ringtone web pages also proved popular, with MyxerTones occupying third place in comScore’s rankings with 8.38% of all US page visits. Top-logo-ringtone.net and PhoneZoo were fifth and sixth, both with around 3% of the market.

Cellspin is a great free social media tool which allows one to contribute simultaneously to Facebook, MySpace, twitter and many other blogging platforms directly from your smartphone.

The app can deal with text, pictures, audio and video, and allows media to be captured directly from the app.

The application is cross platform but does not mean it lacks features on Windows Mobile, with the native image and video capture apps fully supported.

Advertising using mobile phones could continue to grow thanks to the popularity of social networking, it has been suggested.

Don Davis, editor of Internet Retailer - an online publication offering the latest news and trends in technology and e-retailing - said there may be ways in which sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace can offer a useful vehicle for marketers.

However, he said although it was clear such platforms would play a big role in the future of advertising, it had not yet been discovered how this will be done and how effective it will be.

"I think they are all going to be important but I don't think any will have a big impact on online sales in the next year or so," he explained.

The new generation of social networking products is one area where Yahoo needs to “drive harder,” said Balogh. He cited new status update features that will be introduced across Yahoo sites in the coming months as an important part of Yahoo’s social strategy.

Yahoo’s vast number of users gives the company an extensive social networking backbone. That means Yahoo can quickly build-out its social infrastructure with “tuck-ins” of interesting products being developed by other companies, Balogh said.

Zedge is one of the biggest and best mobile centric social networking communities in the world. Specializing in phone personalization and offer several unique and creative services through this website and on the WAP site. It currently have over 13 million registered members from all over the world.