A recent Forrester Research report talks about social networking issues that need to be resolved in the face of the skyrocketing use of mobile social networking among consumers – issues that are in fact already being addressed by DiVitas Mobile Unified Communications (Mobile UC) on the enterprise side.

“People have separate identities in each social network they visit,” writes Dan Butcher, the author of a Mobile Marketer article based on Forrester’s findings that states the number of mobile social networking users has doubled in the last six months. Butcher also writes that the future of social networking for consumers will be one where “universal social IDs will enable a portable identity … mobile phones will become the hub of social computing activities—the glue that holds the social graph together.”

I think that’s a smart prediction, especially because DiVitas has already identified and addressed this single-identity need among business social networking users.  

DiVitas’ Enterprise Social Networking platform mobilizes the existing deskphone number to provide Business Voice on a smartphone – and ties it with secure Instant Messaging (IM) and Social Networking (Mobile Presence and Status) to give individuals a single business-number identity. Whether DiVitas users are seated at their desks, roaming the corporate corridors or standing in the security line at the airport, there is just one number by which they can be reached.
  • Mobile Presence is displayed on the DiVitas smartphone’s interface as an icon similar to Yahoo IM (showing emoticons to indicate if you are available, not available.) However, DiVitas' Presence icon also shows whether you are reachable by voice or IM chat, or maybe you are temporarily on a call and all together unavailable for communication (in which case Do Not Disturb calls go straight to voicemail.)
     
  • Status message is coupled with the Mobile Presence icon on a DiVitas smartphone, providing an additional level of detail to availability about where you are and what you are doing (i.e. at the airport waiting for a 5pm flight).

Indicating the window of opportunity for a call or real-time chat is powerful knowledge and a great contributor in the quest to reduce missed calls and connect on the first attempt. Adding to that, having a single business identity – your moblized business number – eliminates any confusion about the best number to reach and be reached.