This chart was published today via the Business Insider.  It just justifies and indicates how Facebook is so well positioned to become the first cloud OS based on Social Media.

As they say, “the calmness after the storm”, but as it is several days before the F8 conference to take place this Sept 22nd, I could not help thinking about how we are basically experiencing a certain “calmness” before the storm to hit this Thurs in the mobile/online world.

We have all settled in a bit and have felt the war on mobile is basically the OS war between Google Android and iOS.  As Apple prep’s to make their announcements this coming October with iPhone 5, it is not serendipitous that Facebook is looking to make an announcement 2 weeks prior.  Over the last 5 years there has been a massive shift in behavior online to social.   The Google and Apple fight seemed to pass by Nokia without even a battle.  Nokia abandoning Symbian has now embraced the old online incumbent Microsoft with the Win7 platform as their next generation strategy of smartphones.  In my mind, this was such a strange decision as there was so much opportunity still to focus as a first priority with Meego, and not throw the “baby out with the dishwater” in the panic attack to enter the market again Google ( now Google-Motorola) and Apple.

However, I think the game could have been played out much differently if Nokia kept to its guns and supported Meego first and foremost with these two major strategies moving forward.

1) Web OS  ( getting rid of all native Apps for an HTML5 Responsive based ecosystem first)  *More on this in future posts

2) Taking a bolt step with Facebook, to make Meego the right open-source lower level  architecture with UI integration, and working with Facebook as the entire Application level OS as a strategy.   This thinking would be very US focused, but a plan nevertheless for a global competitive position for the next generation Social OS.

Instead of trying to develop an OS to compete with Apple and Google, give a strong ownership position of the Meego OS over to Facebook.   Not only has Facebook been the #1 App of choice across Android and iPhone, given the fact that mobile has always been about communicating and sharing ( the core DNA of a mobile device to begin with)  partnering with a company like Facebook at that strategic level several years ago would had been a unique position for even the likes of Nokia to bridge to the next shift in the future of mobility and just about everything- Social.   I am convinced the next generations of OS will be a Social Operating System, and there is no better then Facebook to make that happen when Nokia was the #1 in Smart phones several years ago.   We are seeing Google come back into the game with Google+ that in my mind will be the core to Android devices in the future.

With Nokia now dependent on Microsoft and Win7 now to drive the strategy, how will this be an advantage? Especially since with Social as a core strategy, it does not leave Nokia with much.   The right relationship with Facebook, would had been a strategy that could had given users the best position for this next wave.

Now that Facebook will be potentially launching Spartan at F8, It seems like that ship has left that station now even for Nokia, and the future opportunity to grab the “bull by the horns” with the next generation OS might now just be a drawn playing card.

I am excited to see what Facebook announces this week at F8 as well as the future of SPARTAN.    I have been a big believer in the future of the Web standards of HTML for the future of applications and connectivity cross-media.   Having a platform that works cross-mobile, online, tablet and social with HTML5 is an exciting future to be laid out with the Social Media OS.

Although, maybe Facebook will do this on its own? Have they enticed Device Manufacturers to join the camp such as HTC, Samsung, and others that are now looking for other options since the Motorola Acquisition by Google?  Nokia is still sitting in a good position with its patents, that the Nokia-Facebook Alliance ( even the Blue-Logo’s and the Connecting People expression make sense together) would make sense?  Could we even see Facebook buying Nokia before Microsoft does? That would be an interesting twist of events.

In any event these are all just thoughts that came to my mind before Facebook’s big F8 event on Thurs…. Here is also a modified Comscore chart with Facebook added.

Here is some good commentary on the “Social Media Wars” on ABCnews

It seems like it has been quiet since we heard that Facebook hit the 400M Mark in beginning of 2010. Well, they now are about to hit another amazing milestone… 700M! The Trajectory does not appear to be slowing down and they keep getting larger and larger. I followed the Trajectory, and it looks like the 1Billion mark will come around Q4, 2012. How will they keep this momentum going and get there?

Well, there is not a lack of news about the Middle East these days. China is a challenge as they grow their own competitors to Facebook….. so my gut tells me that the “Arab Spring movement” should be an important convergence that will be a continued asset for Facebook. How about South East Asia or the Africa region. This will require more and more strategies around mobile and possibly some acquisition targets for Facebook to keep getting users.

In any event, this is a big day for the Facebook team. A big congrats at getting to this next level.

We have entered 2011 and I have to say the first decade did fly by rather quickly for us in the mobile industry.   I am a big fan of JWT and their things to watch deck.  I thought I would share it and highlight the top 10 in my mind for those realigning and creating a  mobile strategy this year.

In a recent article by Geoff Ramsey, President of eMarketer ( See below), he definitely hit the nail on the head! In the wake of  the financial crisis, will we see a similar media crisis spurred on by the overflow of more and more content, while users still expecting to downloading it for free? We are in an age where everybody is creating, and the world has become  flat for media.  There is just so much out there and it is really becoming more and more available as we envisioned….the on-demand via multi-screens scenario.  I do believe in social recommendations of compelling content, but the market is there for the taking if you do something stimulating and original that really catches the eyes of the consumers. This then could potentially propel it with immense social velocity.

This is why it is critical to have all of your media ducks in a row.  As I say, your RIOTPM ( Radio, Interactive, OOH, TV, Print, Mobile) all working like a purring Ferrari ready to hit the road with your creative “eye-catching, ears-ring”, “Taste buds-swelling” “Fingers-itching” campaigns. The industry word has been coined “Earned-Media”, but I like to think of it as “Emotional-Earned Media”.

If as a marketer you can deliver on this kind of compelling promise to consumers, the last thing you want is for them to try to open that campaign on their mobile phone and the site does not work due to lack of preparation, or poor layout….. Mobile has to be there as well as Social media with the right strategy in place from the start, with its own creative twists….

2011 is the dawn of the new media creative that maps across all the different screens in that unique special contextual way… we are excited  to be part of this…

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2011 Trends: Content Marketing Is Critical

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Geoff Ramsey—CEO, Co-Founder

Next year, marketers will need to rethink their approach to advertising and marketing and intensify their focus on creating magnetic content that will naturally attract consumers, rather than relying solely on the interruption model of advertising, which consumers are responding to less and less. Think pull vs. push.

Magnetic content can include anything created on behalf of a brand—be it an ad, YouTube video, online game, Facebook page, Twitter promo or mobile app—that consumers genuinely want to engage with and pass along to others. This content entertains, amuses, informs, serves a function or satisfies a consumer need. It’s welcome instead of annoying or interruptive.

Marketers, especially those working in social media, have seen the proven value of branded content, sometimes also referred to as “earned media.” Nearly three-quarters of US companies with a social media strategy used such content in their campaigns, making it the most common type of content used, according to a June 2010 study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42.

Creating effective, breakthrough advertising has always been a challenge for marketers, as well as for the agencies charged with the task. But the classic interruption-disruption model of advertising is moribund. Marketers should ask themselves five questions about the magnetic content they are seeking to create to determine whether it will be truly attractive to their audience:

Is the content unique?
Is the content useful?
Is the content well executed?
Is the content fun?
Does the content make good use of the channel in which it appears (e.g., social, mobile, video)?
Marketers should base their magnetic content ideas on well-researched customer behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles. This entails altering your emphasis in marketing from “selling product” to identifying and solving a consumer need or want that transcends or complements the physical product or service you are selling. Ask yourself this critical question: Besides your product, what can you do for the consumer?

I have been involved with mobile from all aspects since 1995. Over the last 15 years we have seen significant change in the overall world of media and today Social Media and Mobile are two major drivers that are affecting everybody’s business across the board.  Now with the massive shift to smartphones, the world of mobile as it was designed by the different platform companies and incumbents of the 90′s and the early 2000′s are all hit with this new wave of convergence that is causing a unique form of disruption that it is only obvious that companies would need to start to re-think their mobile strategies once again.  Forrester’s Thomas Husson has recently released a report that has grabbed a lot of media attention across the board as to the fact many companies lack a mobile strategy.  In there finding that claim that 75% of companies still do not feel comfortable with a mobile strategy.

This new wave is what prompted me to launch MXM: MediaCrossMedia as not only an event series, but a start to a unique education series  geared to the issues surrounding media convergence in general where mobile is a key part of this overall new wave that is affecting publishing, marketing, and general advertising.

1995~2000 Age of proprietary mobile specific entertainment content ( Ringtones, Wallpaper and basic games)   * Content was created in a unique form  proprietary to Mobile for distribution through the different mobile specific channels such as the mobile operators and mobile platform companies

2000~2010 Age of Mobile Channel ( Mobile Marketing via SMS, Growth of silo’d mobile sites and dedicated mobile content: Apps) * The massive growth of mobile specific content utilizing the cloud techniques to deliver and reform content for a small user interface and dedicated applications.

2010-2015 Age  of the Converged Mobile Channel ( Cross-media Content distribution, Full HTML Browsing,  Convergence of media and publishing)  * Where all of the existing online companies begin to extend their offers to include  as part of a full-turn key extension of  their existing strategy. HTML5 will be key to this with Java script magic on the web!

I have recently put together a 5~7 hour workshop on what it means to create a mobile strategy and build the right mobile marketing plan.  In the course of the next several blog posts, I will begin to share insights and experience over the course of my 15 years in Mobile and Media what it means to build the right mobile strategy for this new era.

As I was on Facebook quite early, I was able to bring a lot of my friends into my space. When I first joined I valued Facebook as a very private area to share information.  However overtime, I opened up to accepting less intimate friends, more business colleagues and light-relationships as well.   This definitely changed my style of  posts to more non-private discussions.

Here is a chart that shows how the privacy setting were from 2005 to April 2010.  For the information that you add to any of these areas,  it may be shared if you are not careful.  In many ways, they have also changed the privacy settings with new releases, that might have not caught your attention to the new access availability.

My 10 rules of thumb for using Facebook

1. when you post something, take the perspective that the entire world could see it anyway, anytime in the future.  i.e like when you recommend a restaurant to a stranger  ( the Definition of a Friend on Facebook may be different then a real life Friend)
2. Thinks that may help you or your business are good to post on Facebook. Leverage the viral nature as a business tool between you and your friends.
3. If somebody pastes something personal about you, you do not like, delete it and then send a private message to explain way!
4. If you do create controversial discussions, please note that these will always be there and may haunt you some day.
5. Becareful with your birthday, and contact information as they are the only two things that they keep between you and your friends
6. As Facebook adds location information, be especially careful.
7. All of your pictures will potentially become public and owned by Facebook, so becareful
8. Your “likes” will be shared, it is now part of the social web as Facebook calls it, so only “like” something if you want it shared
9. Facebook is becoming a very powerful search engine, so use it that way and to get advice on things that you are looking for
10. Throw in about 10~20% of your posts some kind of humor…..so then it makes it unclear if you really meant that or not?

These charts are from Matt Mckeon.  I have not done the research to check if these are accurate, so I am quoting him and you can go directly to his site.  I just thought this was a very interesting thing to share….. and “liked” the visual very much.

In this recent chart published by Einstein Research, user behavior is show in a variety of ways that links back to a search usage case.  Besides the 42% that are looking to learn about new products and services, users are also creating content that in fact makes the search so relevant with over 40%( 41%) contributing to the overall stream.