Inappropriate times to use Facebook Part 2

Calling your child Facebook is wrong. Even when it's to mark the role the social media giant played in overthrowing your government. Still wrong. How long before little Facebook is asking a judge to change her name by deed poll?

Will 3D mobile change how we use social media?

One of the big trends at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week was 3D mobile. I admit it was the trend I was most intrested in as I was at the event with Movidius, a 3D multimedia coprocessor company.

LG were the talk of the show with their Optimus 3D demos also of interest was the fact that YouTube made a joint announcement with LG about the launch of YouTube 3D, due to be launched alongside the mobile handset to ensure there's a catalogue of 3D content available for users once the handset hits the market. Both companies had the foresight to see that for 3D capture and playback to take off, users need to have an outlet to share 3D user generated content.

There was also a lot of talk around 3D being an incentive for users to share their 3D video and images with their friends through social media. This is not a new message for the mobile industry. Mobile networks are of course keen to push social media and the sharing of UGC as it drives billable traffic - 3D even more so.

Looking at the end user - will 3D mobile change how we use social media? The answer is not until social media can support 3D content generated on 3D enabled mobile devices. 3D content could be a creative new platform for UGC so it sounds like YouTube is on the right track aligning with LG and kickstarting this new wave of purpose filmed 3D content.

Must see at MWC - social media for mobiles

I'm off to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week with work. This is the Big Daddy of mobile events and a great barometer of what's happening in the mobile industry. While I'm there providing PR support for Movidius, the company driving cool new 3D multimedia features in mobile devices, I'll also be keeping an eye out for interesting developments related to mobile and social media.

 

I've never been a heavy Facebook user but having a smartphone has really changed that in recent months. Being able to upload photos and links to Facebook on the go makes it a much more convenient and real time tool and I doubt I'd be using Twitter so much if I couldn't use it any time, anywhere. Who wants to log in from a desktop once or twice a day and catch up on hundreds (or thousands) of tweets?

 

 

 

At Mobile World Congress, I'll be keeping an eye out for any announcements about social media apps for portable devices. A whole list of social media companies are on the list of attendees and the press list is padded out with both traditional media and Twitter savvy bloggers. I'm also hoping to hear more about improvements to positioning technologies and improved multimedia features which I believe will have a huge impact on the effectiveness of Facebook Places, Facebook deals and other location based social media apps such as FourSquare, Gowalla et al.

 

Everyone tells me MWC is a great show so I'm very excited to go along and see it for myself. Oh, and Barcelona's not bad either... Bring on La Fira!

3 reasons why location based marketing apps fail to live up to the hype

Location based marketing apps are consistently hyped as 'the next big thing' but there are three main reasons why they have so far failed to live up to the hype.

1) 30% of the time my phone 'cannot find current location'
Trying to get around in London involves dipping in and out of mobile coverage and more often than not, the time I really need to know where I'm going is the time my HTC refuses to cooperate so I don't see this proving very effective for regular check-ins.

2) There's not enough incentive for me to share my personal information

I don't have to tell you where I'm going or who I'm with. My personal data comes at a premium and I'm not prepared to share it with everyone who can access my online network just so I can be called 'mayor'.

3) Location based marketing is still the poor cousin of social networking apps

FourSquare issued a lovley infographic this week proudly claiming 3400% growth in 2010 - http://foursquare.com/2010infographic. But look at the small print. That's about 6 million users worldwide so I think I'll hang on just a bit longer until I get a personal recommendation from a social media savvy friend before I believe the hype.

Inappropriate times to use Facebook part 1

Flying is not what it used to be between delays, baggage restrictions and security checks. The one thing I do enjoy about flying is switching off my phone and staring out of the window to engage in the good old fashioned passtimes of day dreaming and cloud gazing.

That's why I was horrified to read this story on Mashable - http://on.mash.to/fFhjY0.

That's right. Facebook on planes, for people who can't switch off, even at 10,000 feet. There's a time and a place for Facebook and on a plane is most definitely not it. For now, it's just a free trial in the US so lets hope that once passengers have to pay for the service they'll put it down to another airport rip off and that'll be the end of that!