I’ve been saying to anyone who will listen that mobile is – by definition – local. This is aimed at helping local media companies and journalists connect the dots and understand that what is happening today on iPhones and Blackberries is not frivilous (just because it’s called Foursquare or Gowalla).

John Battelle sees that in a recent post, and raises, adding other digital media phenomena to the mix to create an important new construct: local mobile real-time social. This concept is preoccupying ad agencies, global brands and big media heavyweights, not to mention local media companies who feel like their turf is suddenly so crowded that it’s considered the last white space on the Internet.

This goes beyond buzzwords, however. It’s a huge shift in our businesses and our society. “It’s not merely a marketing shift,” Battelle writes. “It’s not merely a media shift. It’s a cultural shift in how we use artifacts of our own creation.”

This is still “early days” of mobile. Think back to 1995-97 on the web. That’s where we are. “No one remembers the first 200 websites on the Internet,” one panelist riffed while speaking about location-based services in Seattle Tuesday. “There are about 67 companies doing mobile coupons today and about 64 of them won’t survive.” Indeed, most of the mobile services that are popular today will end up on the history shelf next to Geocities, Sidewalk and Alta Vista.

Do not confuse social as separate from local, or separate from mobile. Understand that our offline social interactions are mostly in real-time, so we want our digital interactions to be just as fast. Realize, too, that technology is just a tool and not a strategy. So as you plan content, advertising and marketing initiatives, the local mobile real-time social web must enable and enhance what you do. But it will not magically create its own return on investment.

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