The latest research from Nielsen indicates that over 10.6 million people use mobile social networks in the United States and that popular mobile networks are trending with their online counterparts across a widening demographic range. While this mix is highly attractive to advertisers, members are resistant to advertising. Social networks contain highly personal and private data published by members, and the ad-supported model of traditional media simply does not apply. How do you protect privacy rights, promote innovation and create advertising opportunities? Enter mobile communities and carriers.

Moukas

Marketers and analysts are bullish on mobile social network growth. Informa predicts that mobile social networking will generate revenues in excess of $50 billion by 2012. TNS Media Intelligence reports that marketers will use social media to gain consumer insights, build brand awareness and customer loyalty. Marketers also put more value on highly targeted communities that include interactive commentary and viral marketing. Communities build on the natural grouping of people based on specific needs and interests.

Dr. Cameron Marlow of Facebook reports that the average number of “friends” in a Facebook network is 120, with 7-10 “regular response” friends, and 7-26 “leave comments” friends. This suggests that people engage with a core group. The personal nature of mobile and the consumer engagement of mobile marketing are a natural fit for social networks. In particular, communities will play a key role, because they engage consumers in relevant, meaningful and valued peer-to-peer dialogue.

Carriers are in the unique position of bridging advertisers’ needs and social network assets; whether that’s by developing communities for mobile users, providing data tariffs or messaging plans that accommodate social networking, or even data sharing with brands to create compelling mobile marketing or advertising campaigns for clear target groups.

Geo-location services are a great example of social mobile in action. There are a number of entrants in the space, Brightkite available via mobile Web, SMS and iPhone app; Loopt used by Sprint, Boost and available as an iPhone app; Google Latitude free to everyone on the mobile Web; and Whrrl 2.0, which interfaces with Facebook via Facebook Connect and Twitter. But there are no de facto leaders (not even Google), and new entrants will continue to fragment the space.

The question with any of these applications is the security of personal data and privacy. Searching the Lakers game schedule and restaurants by the Staples Center is very different than tracking your daily travel patterns: with whom you ate dinner, what you did afterwards, where you stopped for gas and what time you finally made it home.

Ironically, because the operator is subject to stricter privacy and regulatory restrictions than online social networks, they are in a unique position to become a trusted conduit by which users can help regulate what they want to share and not share with brands, social networks and other third parties. In addition, operators possess something else that social networks largely do not – a billing and customer service relationship with the consumer.

Mobile operators are in an unparalleled position to add customer value where no other player in the social network ecosystem can: by helping users manage the sheer number of personal networks via a single interface. Virgin Mobile USA is leading the charge with a customer experience that conveniently gives users the ability to manage multiple social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube) through a single interface. This is a compelling notion for people with more than one established social network and creates a unified social identity whether online or on mobile. Virgin Mobile also has Mobile Lounge, a mobile community that offers a place to see which friends are online, micro-blogging capabilities, discussion boards, chat rooms and profile creation tools – which are linked to a loyalty scheme for ongoing usage. They’ve also offered exclusive Britney Spears content, which pairs the top two mobile and on-line services, social networking and music.

Programs that successfully use these community aspects will reduce customer ambivalence and simultaneously increase average revenue per user (ARPU) from relevant and timely interactions either by SMS or the mobile Web.

The mobile operator is the axis point where hardware, software and consumer desire all meet. Communities are the way people are communicating with each other. Social network profitability will happen when these worlds come together to create a great user experience with easy ways to interact with favorite people and brands on the go. Mobile operators are central to this process: They hold customer relationships and when this knowledge is paired with consumer sanctioned brand insights on their customers, social networking takes on a new dimension, able to pinpoint needs and interests, even perhaps the ability to manufacture serendipity by pre-empting consumer desire.

Moukas is CEO and co-founder of mobile marketing company Velti.