A lot of love on this panel for the mobile Web v. iPhone apps. The basic argument is that people accessing the mobile Web via feature phones offers much wider reach than iPhone apps. Cellufun's Edwards said the company developed a game called Orion's Belt for the iPhone, which was hard for people to find and which had no sales after they started charging for it. He called the 2 months' development time for the game "a waste of time." Other panelists including Casey Jones, VP, Business Development at Mocospace and Sean Rosenberg, VP, Mobile Business, RCA/JIVE Label Group, chimed …

When mobile social network Cellufun wanted to launch content that would attract new users, it came up with a game called “Made Off,” which just happens to be a homonym for a certain infamous financial swindler.   “It’s kind of a parody of Bernie Madoff,” noted Cellufun CEO Neil Edwards, during OMMA Social’s “Adding Mobile to Your Social Strategy” panel.   Why Bernie Madoff? Edwards …

On the mobile meet social media panel kicking off the afternoon sessions, virtual currency was mentioned as an increasingly popular way to monetize social activity on cell phones. Neil Edwards, CEO, Cellufun, said the mobile social gaming community, said he thinks virtual currency and virtual goods (sold within games) will "dwarf" traditional banner advertising on mobile b/c it's better suited to the medium. In games, marketers can pay companies like Cellufun to get users to take certain actions, like filling out a survey, to earn virtual currency to be used in games. He said the company is on track to …

for brands, according to Barbarian Group CEO Benjamin Palmer, during a panel on social media buying. Small conversations among lots of people that don't add up too much. "The problem with the Internet now is that there's no big content," he said, affecting a Stephen Wright-like air of ambiguity. He seemed to say that TV, by comparison, has a lot of money involved in creating content and the advertising running against it, so a lot is at stake on both sides. But in calling for "bigger Internet stories" he didn't really define what he was talking about. Original video hits? …

Highlighting the importance of using data to determine ROI on social media campaigns, Mayar pointed to Burger King's highly-publicized "Whopper Sacrifice" campaign on Facebook that allowed people to delete friends in exchange for getting a free Whopper. While the effort generated controversy (for violating Facebook TOS) and a lot of attention for Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Mayar questioned what the ROI was on the campaign. Did Burger King have increased sales? He says the campaign didn't have enough ROI measurement to determine how effective it really was.

In his talk on social media metrics, Vipin Mayar, EVP, Global Director of Data and Analytics, at MRM Worldwide, points to eMarketer research showing that among different groups, friends and family rate highest in terms of recommendations on products and services while advertisers and telemarketers rate lowest. A 2008 Gallup poll found only 10% trust advertising practitioners. Ouch. The promise, and paradox, of social media marketing is to bring together advertising with the the trust associated with friends and family. That's a very delicate matter, b/c as soon as someone percieves that you've hijacked them or their friends to …