The Burlington Vermont Social Media Breakfast put on by Rich Nadworny (@rnadworny) of Digalicious and Nicole Ravlin (@PMGNicole) of PMG Public Relations on Friday was fantastic.

The keynote speaker (Yes Darrell, you were indeed a keynote speaker!) was Darrell Whitelaw (@darrellwhitelaw), Creative Director of MIR.  The talk was entitled “The Nexus of Mobile and Social.”

Darrell talked about the mobile implications of social marketing, focusing mostly on his experience on the developer side.  I do not personally develop mobile experiences, applications, or browsing.  I do focus on finding ways to help people connect with their customers.  It currently appears, by all accounts, that the mobile experience is going to be a hugely significant portion of social marketing for businesses that are dealing directly with customers.  As this is the case, I am taking every opportunity I can get to learn more about the development side of the mobile experience.  I like that the talk is titled the “nexus” of media and social – this is great terminology for what’s actually happening.  Nexus is defined as “1. A connection, link, or tie.  2. A connected series or group.  3.  The core or center.”  All three are pertinent here.

I took notes and created a mindmap of Darrell’s talk.  The red highlights some key points I thought Darrell made, and the green bubbles are my editorials.

I had some overarching key takeaways from Darrell’s talk that I wanted to share.  Here are three things I think you absolutely need to know about mobile apps:

1. The first thing to do, before developing an application, is to ask yourself:  “Do we need an application?  Why?  Are we SURE we need an application?  REALLY sure?”
2. Developing “Applications” can be incredibly limiting.  You are giving up a huge portion of control and revenue.
3. Mobile absolutely cannot be ignored, particularly if you have a location-based business.

I was also really surprised about a question from the audience that focused on the “driving down of revenue” that occurs when you offer special deals to customers through mobile.  I clearly see that the offer does indeed drive down revenue – in the short term.  The benefits that you get from having an engaged customer base that loves you and talks about you with their friends and social graph are, however, innumerable. Focusing on the short term revenue loss that occurs when you give a discount to your “mayor” on Foursquare is, in my opinion, missing the forest for the trees (or, more accurately, using an old lens to view transactions with your customers.)  It was a great reminder that people are still grappling with the value/benefits and ROI of social marketing.

Time to sharpen up those “benefits of having an engaged audience” talking points.

What do you think?  Do the benefits of having an engaged fanbase outweigh the short-term revenue loss a biz is taking if they have a special offer?