As the development of mobile platforms for social nets increases at a breakneck pace. EconSM’s first main panel of the afternoon sought to put current initiatives in perspective: Peter Adderton, CEO, Amp’d Mobile; Marco Boerries, SVP, Connected Life, Yahoo; Shawn Conahan, founder, Chairman, and CEO, Intercasting; Larry Shapiro, EVP, Walt Disney Internet Group;  and Cyriac Roeding, EVP CBS Mobile. The panel was moderated by Rafat Ali, publisher and editor of paidContent, and Staci Kramer, paidContent’s executive editor.

—The Opportunity and The Problem: The personalization of social nets is a perfect match for mobile platforms, the panelists all agree. But how do you make money from such initiatives? Roeding noted that use of text messages wrapped around “greeting cards,” allowing the opt-in function was a critical step for the company. He also said that since CBS is an entertainment company, it’s uniquely positioned to help marry social nets and marketers. Conahan said that in order to advance the medium, mobile carriers must be part of the equation. “The web is an established construct. The interface of mobile is not advanced.” Adderton disagreed, saying, users do not necessarily expect the same experience on their mobile phones as they do on the web. Boerries, seeking to claim the middle ground, noted that both sides need to reconsider the meaning of the “connected experience” as it relates to portable devices.

—Inspiring Greater Use: Roeding brought up a CBS Digital study that shows majorities of viewers have their phones with them when they watch TV. “We need to capitalize on this by doing cross-platform deals between TV and mobile.” He said he felt that this research points to an untapped use of mobile devices and accompanying content. Adderton said that the introduction of Apple’s iPhone will create new opportunities by inspiring users to view their cellular phones differently. When asked how will mobile carriers keep up with all the new platforms, such as WiMAX, Shapiro responded that if there’s more touchpoints for carriers, advertisers and content creators, the efforts of all will find support. Roeding also pointed out the difficulty of reaching consumers with content that is only directed towards one carrier. “It doesn’t make sense to say you can find this content on Sprint and this other content on Verizon. It needs to be seamless.” Adderton then challenged content providers to help defray the cost of offering seamless services by subsidizing the carriers’ marketing costs. “Any time Disney and Yahoo want to come to us and say we want to help subsidize the cost to carriers, they will get willing listeners. We’re the ones who always have to advertise ‘from CBS.’ The content providers never do that.”