This past weekend, a friend of mine showed me her new iPhone 3G device. This is the first time that I have seen the new 3G "in the wild" and I of course started to play with it. My friend showed me not only the functionality of the phone itself (which is extensive... GPS navigation, integration with email, high quality photo, etc. - oh yeah, and it can be used as a phone too!) but also the Facebook for iPhone application that she downloaded for it. I browsed around for a bit and saw what was going on in my virtual world and saw my own profile on the device.
If I'm a marketer looking at this, and I'll be many including myself are, they are probably thinking to themselves: "Wow, this takes the social networking space to an entirely new level... 24/7 access through an iPhone (or Blackberry, there's an app for Blackberry too)... How can I use this to get the word out to my fans?" Social networking is, but may not be for long, confined to instances where a user is "at the computer." However, with the iPhone handy (this isn't an iPhone ad... I swear!) their Facebook and social networking gossip is only a button's click away which makes the medium much more real-time for the user. This could spell out opportunity for marketers that are smart about it.
... and I say "smart about it" because the consumers (including myself) who use social networking sites like Facebook are not the types that want to be overtly marketed to. Even though, as a marketing aficionado I love listening to/watching commercials, they usually go through my analytical, "what message/positioning are they trying to convey?" mind, versus the moldable consumer mind that most advertisers want to sit and be influenced through these 30 minute spots. I want to be sold on my terms, as do many in Gen X, Gen Y, etc..
Consumers today are much more independent minded in terms of commercialization than previous generations and the backlash on early marketing push efforts by Facebook is evidence. They want to be informed about products and services that they care about, but at the end of the day (and research supports this), they want to be advertised to on their own terms by trusted people like them. This spells out an opportunity for Facebook, Myspace, and companies that would partner with them, especially as the technology moves beyond the web browser and into the everyday "iPhone" device. Those companies do need to be careful... but if they are it could be very successful.
Especially since... people only watch commercials during the Super Bowl nowadays. For all other occasions, there is TiVO.
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