Even during tough economic times, the mobile social networking phenomenon is generating revenue through advertising.

Mobile social networks Brightkite, mig33 and Mobiluck have chosen Clickatell as their SMS provider to deliver text messages to millions of their community members worldwide. Clickatell delivers advertising for social network communities via SMS, as well as non-ad based messages such as account activation, new user-generated content and new community member notifications, and ?your friend is nearby' location-based notifications.

"Clickatell provides immediate ease-of-use with messaging management applications and access to our global carrier connectivity to more than 775 mobile operators in over 200 countries around the world," said Chuck Drake, executive vice president of marketing for Clickatell, Redwood City, CA.

"With the click of a button to register for an account, social networks everywhere can rapidly incorporate mobile text messaging to initiate a broad range of programs aimed at further extending community growth, supporting increased end-user interaction and advertising aimed to monetize the social community," he said.

Delivering mobile messaging services since 2000, Clickatell specializes in SaaS messaging services and Bulk SMS gateway connectivity to small, medium and large enterprises in a variety of vertical markets.

Clickatell serves 8,300 customers including the BBC, Continental Airlines, First National Bank, Metropolitan Life, Oracle and Shell.

Clickatell partners with all of the tier-one carriers in the U.S., as well as many regional operators such as Cincinnati Bell and Cellular South.

Brightkite, available independently at Brightkite.com or via Facebook, is a mobile location-based social network, which allows friends to be found or find others.

Finding the best party, meeting up for dinner or meeting new people are some of the reasons customers use Brightkite. Users can keep track of friends, explore and discover new places and annotate places with notes and photos.

More than two million people use Brightkite's free service every month.

Mig33 is a mobile community with more than 18 million users worldwide, providing a choice of communications and entertainment services for consumers to connect on their mobile phone.

In more than 200 countries, members engage in the chat community, instant messaging, email, photo sharing, virtual gifting, profiles, as well as cheap voice calls and SMS.

Mobiluck, which claims to be the world's fastest growing mobile location-based social network, now has one million mobile members with 5,000 new people joining daily from all over the world.

Mobiluck lets consumers find nearby people, places and events, sorted by distance.

Individual consumers and businesses can create a free mobile Web page in order to be found on the mobile Web.

Members receive free Clickatell-powered SMS alerts to inform members of interesting events such as nearby friends or recent profile views.

Mobile social networking on the rise
People want to stay connected and in touch while on the go, and the addition of text messaging to social networks makes it possible anywhere, anytime.

Especially in times of high job loss, people want to stay in touch with friends, colleagues, past employers and others to keep up to date on job status and conversations regarding possible work opportunities.

Immediately opened when received, text messaging is the fastest growing communications method in mobile social networking today.

As Twitter bursts into the mainstream, the social networking phenomenon continues to astound Wall Street with billions of people engaged, yet little monetization.

People won't pay for services to connect with peers, but companies are highly interested in reaching these people in new ways.

Growing three times faster than the overall rate of Internet growth, social networking applications stand to attract many customers as they connect and interact with friends, family and business associates around the globe.

Research has shown that SMS is surpassing voice as the preferred way to communicate.

As social sites continue experiencing phenomenal growth, they are introducing mobile advertising and location-aware services via SMS, according to Clickatell.

For example, if a restaurant or retailer sent a text message offering a free beverage or point-of-sale coupon to someone passing the physical store, chances are many customers would stop in for a free drink and maybe also buy other items as well.

They might also text friends, further extending the value of mobile communities.

Sent via mobile social networking, retailers can use SMS advertising to drive traffic into their store during slow times, reaching new customers through these circles and ultimately increasing the bottom line.

Clickatell's social mobile messaging services include seven API choices, developer tools and provide one central point to quickly integrate new SMS capabilities into existing or new offerings.

The uptake in social networking is being driven by popular global sites, including MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5, Orkut and Bebo.

Further, the social networking sector is undergoing a rapid transformation as these and other community sites are embracing mobilization strategies of their rapidly growing communities to facilitate even more member interaction and collaboration.

eMarketer predicts that more than 800 million people worldwide will be participating in a social network via their mobile phones by 2012, up from 82 million in 2007.

The global social networking market will grow to $28.9 billion for revenues generated from all business models in this industry by 2012, according to Informa.

Within that market, SMS is rapidly being used to mobilize the social networking experience to create greater member stickiness, usage and community growth, as well as to achieve monetization business objectives.

Advertising within mobile social networking is fast emerging.

"The opportunity at hand is to identify ?relevant' ad insertion moments based on understanding the end user's situation and interests," Mr. Drake said. "This is not typically a broad-based ad campaign market opportunity for all advertisers, since it has been established in research that the majority of social community members prefer relevant social connections that largely go uninterrupted by intrusive display ads.

"Rather, what they want is to have relevant and timely ads, so for example, at a social community meet-up with friends at a local establishment or restaurant, it is very appropriate and welcome to receive a mobile advert that is relevant within this scenario," he said.

Marketers should be able to think of dozens of examples and offers that would be appropriate given this context.

"In addition, we are seeing that ad insertion campaigns on the back of SMS involved in social communications are also effective and appropriate given the right advertiser message," Mr. Drake said.

"There we are seeing some of our clients achieving good results for things like pre-paid cell phone top-up offers, mobile coupons and more," he said.

Another marketing opportunity at hand via mobile messaging is the ability to better understand the behavior of these social communities via mobile.

"Social network communities often create strong ties within individual relationships," Mr. Drake said. "The peer-to-peer dialog activity via all forms of communication -- email, SMS or otherwise -- can be quite active and strong.

"This is the perfect scenario for viral marketing opportunities, as evidenced by the popularity of certain products, celebrities and even politicians through services like Twitter, for example," he said.

"Think of the Obama SMS campaign and all the activity and inspiration through various national and local social communities and you can see the potential power of SMS in viral marketing via social communities."