The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success, Second Edition

Chapter 21. The Formidable Fourth Screen (Mobile)

What's in It for You?

Mobile telephones are the epitome of both digital convergence and social media, and have probably done more to advance social media than any other single digital device. One of the first major breakthroughs after the Internet was created was cellular technology. Today's cell phones allow people to download music; read from and write to a blog; surf the Web; receive their e-mails; take and share photos and video; Jott speech-to-text messages to themselves and others; tweet to groups in excess of 6,000 followers; capture a photo of a billboard with an embedded link that takes the user to a product web site; have a five-star rating of all Italian restaurants within walking distance of your cell phone; get step-by-step directions on how to get from here to there; access maps, art, and encyclopedic information; watch a movie; take a high-quality photograph; post that photograph to a social, web, or blog site; text message; update your web site; listen to a precast; organize your address book and calendar; record your notes . . . and, oh yeah— you can even make a telephone call.

Figure 21.1. Mobile Weather on a Mobile Phone

According to a press release from the research firm ID's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast (www.idc.com/home.jhtml):

• Nearly a quarter of the world's population— roughly 1.4 billion people—was using ...