Social media and networking has become an international obsession, with Facebook accumulating more than half a billion users and microblogging site Twitter growing from humble beginnings into a powerful tool which can be used to build political movements or get its users in trouble with the authorities. Some analysts predict that social networking sites like these will soon overtake standard search engines like Google as the most popular means by which internet users discover information. People share news stories and links to interesting online content with their friends and people can become overnight stars just because they have become popular in the world of social media.
Dawn of the Smartphone
It is possible to draw a line between the growth of social networking and the dawn of the smartphone. Mobiles have become steadily more advanced over the years, but whereas in the past the focus was on ever-improving hardware, these days people are more concerned with the software and connectivity options offered by mobiles. Smartphones are no longer the preserve of the most affluent users, because even pay as you go models can go online and even connect via Wi-Fi networks using dedicated browser software.
The growth of social media on the mobile platform has been fuelled by the popularisation of applications, which in itself has only come to the attention of mainstream users thanks to the success of the Apple iPhone (and the enormous growth of Android) and its various iterations. Users of Facebook access the site in their hundreds of millions from dedicated apps or via mobile web browsers each and every month and it is regularly the most visited mobile site on the planet according to mobile browser developer Opera.
Multimedia on Mobiles
The multimedia features of mobiles are also taken into account by social networking functions, with most phones coming with built in cameras which can shoot video and stills that the user can then upload directly to their social networking profile or to video sharing sites like YouTube. This allows users to instantly transmit the latest information from their life in a visual manner, distributed to a potential audience of billions around the globe. Location-based social networking services like Foursquare, Google Latitude and Facebook places have also only become possible because of the GPS technology which is commonly integrated into even the low to mid range mobiles of the modern era.
Mobile phone manufacturers now choose to hardwire social media and social networking features into mobile phones, rather than forcing the user to rely on third party apps which must be accessed separately, disrupting the natural flow. The likes of Motorola`s MotoBLUR, HTC`s FriendStream and Sony Ericsson`s MediaScape are all examples of how the disparate threads of different social networking services are being drawn together so users can get all of their notifications and in a single place. It is also significant that the three examples of cross-platform mobile social media services given above are all built on mobiles running the Google Android operating system, which is fast becoming the go-to software for consumers who want a low cost way to stay in touch when they are out and about.
