Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

Since writing my last post about how to win a Mac Air, I’ve been asked by journalists if they could have an exclusive and asked why I decided to run this little game. Here’s my response:

1. The exclusive has yet to be given. Although a national newspapper has it in Ireland specifically.
2. I’m running this little game to get people talking about my newest venture, wubud
3. I’m also doing it to demonstrate how the power of conversation with communities of people is the way forward. If it’s the way forward for brands then it must be the way forward for traditional media folk to embrace tools/communities such as Twitter in order to find out what’s happening in the world. I’m likely to announce what wubud is and who my shit hot team is, on Twitter at the same time as whoever gets the exclusive. Some of my team is known to every reader of this blog.

There are many social networking Web sites out there, but very few, if any, are social networks for mobile users. What do I mean by that? Well, from what I can tell, none of the sites provide a half decent user experience on an Nokia N95; one of the best non-iPhone handsets on the market for Web browsing. In fact, not one of them worked particularly well on the iPhone; a device capable of rendering just about any Web site that hasn’t been optimised.

Very few of the sites in fact, have been optimised for mobile phones. Some even have as many as eight options on the main navigation with a menu underneath that. That’s about the limit for users to comprehend when using a desktop to access the Web, never mind a mobile phone.

What’s the answer?

In short, I’m not entirely sure. However, what I do know, is that you either need a mobile application or a Web site that has been optimised for mobile phones. More importantly, a social network for mobile users should take advantage of the context in which users will access the social network.

For example, one of the first questions you sometimes ask a friend when you call them is ‘where are you’. So, wouldn’t it be useful to have the answer to that question before calling them? Location and presence deffinately need to be the base upon which to build a social network for mobile users.

I have two questions for you

1. What mobile social networking sites do you like/dislike?
2. What’s the one feature you’d like to see in order to get you to use one?