The application’s concept is simple. Once you’ve created your account, the application checks your address book and suggests friends that you may know who have already downloaded it. Like instant messaging, the service is asynchronous, which means that Kik lets you see messages almost instantly, as well as notifying you when the person is typing a message. Much like BBM, Kik also lets you know when the message was sent, delivered, and read by showing an S, D, or R next to the message you just typed.

The one thing that BBM users have come to love so much about the BlackBerry service, no extra cost in using it. It’s a free text messaging platform if you will. This is the biggest advantage (so far) with Kik – it’s free and smartphone agnostic. What this really means is that Kik has the potential to replace text messaging plans – saving the end user a few bucks a month and possibly hundreds of dollars a year depending on the users particular text messaging plan.  Shhh, don’t let your mobile carrier know about it

We did say so far. Provided that Kik can build out its community, the possibilities of the program are endless. Lead developers have indicated that later versions of the viral messaging app could contain features such as streaming music or videos from one phone to another, or taping into your phones camera and allowing other users to see what your camera sees.

As the community grows we’ll start to see some of the aforementioned enhancements. In the meantime, what are you waiting for? Get Kik-ing!

Marketers in the United States often note that mobile marketing is the next big platform to blow up in the United States. In terms of mobile phone capability and use, we Americans are far behind Europe, Asia and just about every other corner of the globe. However, the booming use of BlackBerrys, iPhones and other smartphones has marketers salivating at the potential of this new frontier. With this emerging technology still new to us, we can’t seem to hide our excitement and curiosity around the seemingly endless uses of our smartphones. Tapping away on a BlackBerry keyboard has become as commonplace as chatting with the person next to you. In fact, our obsession with our little electronic friends is spilling into the workplace in very obtrusive ways, the New York Times recently noted.
In general, the workplace often has lax rules on phone usage, and people are taking advantage by finding the latest Twitter chatter, sports scores, or email updates far more interesting than the meeting they are sitting in. It seems to be getting to the point where we all decide whether to just accept this lack of focus, like we have accepted the guy rambling into his Bluetooth as he wanders around the grocery store, or fight back, like the bars and restaurants which refuse to take your order until you hang up the phone.

Have these distractions become such a problem that productivity and creativity are now being affected? What is your corporate policy on phone usage during meetings, lunches and brainstorms?

I’m automatically hooked because I’ve been feeling somewhat of a burden, guilt, “need some time apart” with my faithful partner in crime of the past 6+ months, Twitter!  I just got to reading the link that Justin shared and it talks about the guilt and burden of having to share information on your various social networks but then feeling like you aren’t contributing enough.  Why is it that some of our friends can share every photo from this weekend while others update their status every 2 months?  This guy talks about feeling like a parasite…a skeezy voyeuristic parasite!

My reasons are a bit different from his.  He feels he isn’t contributing enough, and yes, while I sometimes do feel that I don’t contribute enough in terms of “awesome marketing articles” and the like, I feel (and so do my friends) that I contribute so much of my personal day-to-day, real-time minutia.  Every time I am out at dinner with family and friends, for example, they also/always ask, “Are you going to tweet that?”  I smile and go on with my thumbwork because it is what it is. Plus, some of them are tweeting at the table too!  Granted, my sister has already made me promise to stop tweeting when we are at the table but I digress…

However, when I was at a party a few weekends ago I overheard some friends in the distance:

Guy 1: Why isn’t Liza putting her blackberry down?

Guy 2: Oh, she, like, tweets everything. There is probably a play-by-play of this party right now if you check her profile…

And it actually hit me a bit. These guys who I’ve only met a few times through my sister were calling me out for tweeting a lot!  That is when I reluctantly placed my BB back into my purse under the table. Friends are starting to think of a name for us Twitter-folks’ addiction!  It’s sad but isn’t this the point?  Reveal myself in this moment in 140 characters or less?  I remember when I first heard about Twitter, or even the Facebook Status feature when they first came out – I thought it was weird and sick!  “Why would people care to share random shit like what they had for lunch? And why would people want to read about it? Who cares!” And here I am documenting my every move.  I mean, once you get a BlackBerry people refer to it as a CrackBerry and now THIS? BB AND TWITTER issues?

I have turned off my Facebook status/Twitter synch feature to stop hearing that I update my status too much.  And now I try to space out my tweets.  But what IS our fascination with sharing so much information?  Is it the camaraderie with the community of friends I have formed on both Twitter and Brightkite (oh lord, people freak out that I check-in and announce my exact locations on this network!  Oh how both of these have ruined people’s relationships but I digress…for now)? Is it us sharing advice, recommendations, photos, last minute concerts and sending out a flare that someone has an extra guest list spot or ticket, etc.? Is it the notion that I am young and I want to document my youth and shenanigans…as proof that I lived? Or because if I don’t tweet on the weekend, doesn’t that mean I am not exciting? So it gets me off my couch to visit a museum or ride my bike through the cemetery? Because I don’t write in my personal blog anymore and this is a way to document my condensed thoughts?  Because I have my blog, NosesInBooks.com and I want to help create awareness and drive traffic?

Yeah, I shouldn’t apologize. So what if I am connected to this network?  It still gets me out and about and living life!  I’m not some weird chick in a basement with no social life. J I enjoy my immediate Twitterati group.  We’re freaking awesome.  Watch our conversation in real-time!  It’s no secret.  Yes, it may be creepy to others seeing my tennis-match banter with certain people, but hey, we all do it on some level or another right?  I go to networking events and people approach me and reference “lizadujour” (omg I know right?)  Are we the new weird cult?  Oh well, this is my own Twitter burden…for all to see.