Is mobile the future of the social web? A recent study would indicate that it is.

PR firm Ruder Finn’s Mobile Intent Index survey showed that 91% of people use their mobile phones to socialize online, compared with 79% of traditional computer users.

That’s not all. The study also showed that 62% of mobile users manage finances on their phone; for desktop users, it’s 39%.

And 67% of mobile users are likely to rally support for a cause, versus 47% of desktoppers.

“Mobile phone use goes beyond instant gratification,” said Ruder Finn Insights director Marty McGough in a press release. “Our survey data shows that people use their mobile phones out of necessity for instant access to the Web whether it’s to conduct business with the most recent information or advocate on the spot on issues of pressing concern and breaking news.”

The Intent Index chart above reflects the answers to 295 questions about mobile use. The mostly full Socialize wedge includes the sub-categories Be Part of a Community, Discuss, Share and Connect. See it up close here. And find out what else people are doing on their mobiles via the press release.

Why are so many more people using their phones for social networking applications originally built for computers?

ReadWriteWeb suggests that mobile platforms are more accessible for regular people (i.e., non-tech-geeks), who “spend more time offline than on.” And when they’re online, they’re doing business.

I would add that many people’s workplaces block social networking sites in the name of employee productivity. If you’ve got a 3G smartphone, though, there’s not much your boss can do short of making you check your iPhone at the door, which is probably illegal. Or at least should be.

Furthermore, this study shows precisely how important it is for brands to consider mobile when it comes to their online strategy.

Making sure that your website is viewable to mobile users is a must. And from a social media marketing perspective, it’s time to begin thinking about what messages will be most effective to mobile users and people on the go, including people who use geolocation-based networks like Foursquare and Gowalla. (Further reading: Mashable posted today about how small businesses can take advantage of geolocation.)

But to return to the survey: Were you surprised or not surprised by the numbers? How do you prefer to connect to the social web?

When you think of the Grateful Dead, things like acid trips, hippies and four-hour-long blues jams are likely what come to mind. You probably don’t associate the legendary psychedelic truckers with concepts like customer value, social networking and strategic business planning.

But a new article in The Atlantic titled “Management Secrets of the Grateful Dead” shows why the Dead got such a massive, loyal following: business savvy.

Occasioned by the Dead donating its massive archive of memorabilia to the University of California Santa Cruz, the article touches first on the ways the Dead inspired academics to study the band, especially nerdy ethnomusicologists who would risk their reputations to travel with the band and write scholarly articles.

The band’s music and style of purveying it, as well as all the physical goods — posters, bootlegged tapes, records, merch — resembled a galvanizing corporate entity cranking out products that people couldn’t get enough of.

Here’s a graduate thesis topic for you. iDeadhead: How the Grateful Dead was the Apple of the Late 1960s. Go!

The most exciting revelation, however, is the idea that the Dead employed radical intuition when shaping its business policy. Namely, it put customers first. That sounds like common sense today, but back then, few American companies, period, were doing it.

Without intending to—while intending, in fact, to do just the opposite—the band pioneered ideas and practices that were subsequently embraced by corporate America. One was to focus intensely on its most loyal fans. It established a telephone hotline to alert them to its touring schedule ahead of any public announcement, reserved for them some of the best seats in the house, and capped the price of tickets, which the band distributed through its own mail-order house. If you lived in New York and wanted to see a show in Seattle, you didn’t have to travel there to get tickets—and you could get really good tickets, without even camping out. “The Dead were masters of creating and delivering superior customer value,” Barry Barnes, a business professor at the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Nova Southeastern University, in Florida, told me. Treating customers well may sound like common sense. But it represented a break from the top-down ethos of many organizations in the 1960s and ’70s. Only in the 1980s, faced with competition from Japan, did American CEOs and management theorists widely adopt a customer-first orientation.

Pretty amazing, huh?

And for anyone who thinks the exchange of free music is killing the industry today, the Dead were doing it decades before the MP3.

They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.

It’s hard to think of any brand, band or entrepreneur who couldn’t learn a lesson or two from the Grateful Dead.

Over to you: If the Grateful Dead were a band just starting out today, what kinds of things would they be doing and what web 2.0 tools would they be using to market themselves? Tell us in the comments.

So what to do about this Google Buzz thing that appeared in your Gmail inbox yesterday like a giant, digital insect and demands you pay attention?

Well, first of all, you can swat it. Scroll down to the bottom of the feed and click the teeny tiny link that says “turn off buzz.” Gone.

We’re not suggesting you do this right away. After all, you may find that Buzz contains the features you always wished Twitter and Facebook had, such as easier ways of sharing pictures and videos and FriendFeed-like integration with other social media profiles. Here’s a handy guide for getting started.

But watch out. Some say there’s a major privacy issue with Google Buzz in the fact that it publicly divulges who your top Gmail contacts are. So, when you start using Buzz, make sure the automatic social network it creates out of your contacts doesn’t include anyone you don’t want your boss, spouse or parents seeing.

So, with those big items out of the way, it’s time to ask: To Buzz or not to Buzz?

Personally, I’m ambivalent. I feel a bit invaded. I mean, fair enough, I use Gmail by choice. It’s basically my lifeline to the outside world, my main professional communication tool, and it doesn’t cost me a cent. If it were taken away, my world would crash.

It’s hard to imagine conducting my life without Google’s products, period, especially search. In my own non-romantic way, I’m kinda like the dude in the Parisian Love commercial. Google is a tool for navigating, like, everything. (And maybe it’s time to re-examine that.)

But if you’re like me, then the sudden arrival of a fairly complex new feature in your main communication tool demands immediate attention.

I’ve spent the last 24 hours — on and off, mind you — mulling over whether I should put forth the effort to integrate this product into my life. I’ve also been prompted to look at the mobile version, which with its Foursquare-like geolocation tagging system and integration with Google Maps and Reviews, could very well become more prominent than the Gmail/web-based product. And when Google launches a new product, it can and does change lives. Yikes.

Now, some of the nuts and bolts…

By only allowing me to interact with Gmail contacts — some 40 or so total showed up — Google Buzz presents nowhere near the networking powers of my Facebook and Twitter profiles, which I’ve built up and tailored over the years to where I’m interacting with hundreds of people.

Now, you can search for people to follow in Buzz, but the “find people” window just brings up names and thumbnail images, with the option to Add. It doesn’t allow you to click through and see whether you’ve found the right person before you begin following them. Search results for Barack Obama, for example, are downright weird.

Another con: Like with Facebook’s Top News feed, Buzz places the most commented-on posts at the top of your feed, messing up the chronology. Unlike Facebook, you can’t switch over to see the most recent posts firsts.

My thinking is that for now, I’m going to set my Twitter to feed into Google Buzz and just let the thing marinate for a while. The advantage (or, for some, further distraction) of Buzz is that if anyone “@ replies” me or comments, I’ll see it in my inbox. So the only things I’ll miss are my few and proud early-adopting friends’ Buzz-specific posts and Google Reader shares. Sorry, guys.

Until everyone I could possibly want to follow begins using Gmail, I don’t see Buzz taking the place of Facebook and Twitter atop my social network pyramid. But I’m not choosing to definitively commit one way or the other just yet. Things change.

One thing worth considering is the fact that kids don’t use e-mail. As VatorNews points out, “Less than one-fifth of people aged 13-17 use e-mail as their primary communication method with friends, compared with nearly 40% of adults aged 25-54. Instant Messaging and social networks are the preferred means of virtual communication among teens.”

Buzz is clearly Google’s attempt to get a chomp of the social networking fajita. Whether it will break out of Gmail will be interesting to see.

And I’m also very interested in what you think of Buzz. Yes? No? Not sure? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Lego comes from the Danish for “play well”: leg godt. But earlier this past decade, the toy building block company’s products were doing anything but in the marketplace. In 2004, Lego charted a $344 million loss.

It took a new strategy to rebuild Lego, one that involved designing products based on Hollywood blockbusters like Indiana Jones and Star Wars. These tie-ins saved the company.

And while more are reportedly planned, such as a Toy Story line for the June ‘10 release of the third sequel in the Disney movie franchise, Lego is still all about encouraging its customers to use their own imaginations.

Lego’s newly relaunched and rebranded site, Lego CL!CK, reflects this philosophy beautifully. And like the toy itself (and also like so many other companies that have rebuilt their sites to incorporate social networking) CL!CK encourages users to build their own experience by uploading photos, videos and blog posts and by tracking Lego-related tweets.

There’s also sharp original content, like this delightful stop-motion short. No X-Wings here.

And what would a relaunch be without a groovy iPhone app? Lego has one of those too — it turns any photo into a Lego mosaic. [iTunes link]

What’s best about this new approach is that it seems to be all about attracting young Lego fans by showing what old-school fans already know: Lego is a virtually limitless extension of the imagination. Sure, the Death Star has its appeal, but at heart, Lego is not George Lucas.

And that’s a good thing.

Via FastCompany

Lego lightbulb courtesy the Smithsonian