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Mobile Social Networking Gets Boost

Hoping to give a boost to its mobile social-networking service, Boost Mobile has teamed up with West Coast Customs in a promotion to give away a free customized Dodge Charger.

Boost Mobile’s promotion is aimed at recruiting teens and young adults to its Hookt social networking service, AdWeek reports (via MarketingVox). Hookt’s 300,000 members can register for the contest via ads on the welcome screen of their cell phones.

Social networking appears ready to make the jump from the computer to the cell phone. MySpace has a deal with Helio to allow users of the service to access the social-networking site. Hookt, which Boost introduced last year, allows users to create profiles and find users with similar interests. The service costs 50 cents a day.

Fred Ghahramani, director of AirG, the Vancouver-based operator of the Hookt network, says advertising on the service won’t replace access fees. “Consumers right now are conditioned to paying on their phones,” he is quoted as saying. “On the mobile platform, the telcos won’t give things away for free. There needs to be an instant revenue accrual on these services.”

AirG says click-through rates for targeted promotions reach 5-6 percent. Deep user data like age, location, likes and dislikes, provides rich targeting opportunities for advertisers, Ghahramani claims. Mobile social networking offers immediate opportunities for possible growth beyong PCs, according to AirG, which notes that almost 60 percent of its mobile networking community members do not have computers.