Mobile Monday - The Conversations Flows

Following on from last week's Mobile Monday, some interesting debate has come about - both in the comments of my write up on the event and in the group's mailing list.

Chris Morton questioned if the fact that “SMS in this country (UK) alone exceeds worldwide Google searches in same period of time” was really true.

In the true spirit of the group (one where a lot of useful conversations take place and where everyone freely shares their knowledge), Nick Gyles of WDS Technology answered quickly:

"The short answer seems to be no. Comscore’s latest figures (http://www.comscore.com/press/data.asp) have Google’s unique visitors at just over 6 billion per month – so search hits it way over that. I’m sure the average user must do in excess of 50 searches a month. The Mobile Data Association shows UK text messaging at 6.3 billion SMS for January ’08."

But then quickly followed up rectifying his mistake:

"Actually Google seems to be 600 million users, so it’s a bit closer.

Should have realised that 6 billion would actually be everyone on the planet ;-)"

James Pearce then pitched in, with a rather dry but witty response:

"3 computers, each with 2+ browsers, 2 VMs, 2 phones (one of which toggles to WiFi), 1 Wii, and a Google Maps mashup.

Um. At least 10 of these humans are me :-)"

Helen Keegan, the chair of the Mobile Monday event, then stamped her authiority on the debate, compelte with a humble acceptance of human error and a link to an article with stats to back up her arguemtn:

"The google search quote was from Mike Short (I checked with Robert Thurner) and he stated this at the SMS Birthday Party last December held by Airwide Solutions. So we can blame him if the maths doesn't add up! But actually, I think the maths probably does...
More stats from Mike Short here

http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2202766/uk-sending-billion-texts-week"

Giles replied again:

"Search engine watch reports 2.7bn searches a month for Google in 2006. The Vnunet reports claim 2007 figures of 4.6bn SMS are 25% up on 2006, which would give 3.4bn SMS in the UK in 2006. So UK SMSers beat worldwide Googlers... at least back in 06.

For figures source see here: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156461"

So it seems that UK SMSers beat worldwide Googlers -at least back in 06.

But what have I learned from all of this debate - both at the actual Mobile Monday event, blogging about it afterwards, and the ensuing debate on the Mobile Monday Yahoo Group?

Well, apart from learning more about the future of mobile marketing, I've learnt that niche social networks with open, fair and intelligent debate are an incredibly useful tool for professionals - whatever industry they are in.

Luckily, the PR world has a few social networks specifically catered for our industry - PR Open Mic and The PR and Communications Network to name a couple.

The only problem is that not everyone knows how to use these tools or is sceptical of their usefulness. It's up to those who are confident in using those tools to teach those who aren't their worth. Users also need to meet up in the real world to network and discuss the various issues face to face - like the Mobile Monday events. Real world networking and debate is as improtant as the online version.

The Mobile Monday group is a perfect example of how a niche social network should be run, even with the fact that it is now a world wide brand. Here's hoping it continues the way it has done so far, that the debate and conversation continues, and that other niche social networks follow the group's example for their own benefit.