Via Twitter, I discovered this article about the 10 ways social media will change in 2010. Not saying I am a social media guru, but I thought it would be interesting to looks at these 10 possible changes and weigh in my opinion – and, more importantly, have this post a year from now on record so I can either brag about being right or know for sure just how wrong I was.
Ten social media changes for 2010 as predicted by Ravit Lichtenberg, founder and chief strategist at Ustrategy.com and commented upon by me (read his entire article HERE at Read Write Web)!
1. Social Media Will Become a Single, Cohesive Experience Embedded In Our Activities and Technologies
“From playing games to shopping to emailing and texting — nothing will be lost; everything we do will be gathered and streamed together, allowing people to view their world of activities as if it were projected in front of them.”
I have to agree with this statement. This week while on a ski trip in Keystone colorado I tweeted, facebooked and foursquared my entire trip, details from which slope I was on to what type of food I was eating and where gathered throughout the week. By the end I realized I had a comprehensive stream of information about my activities. People like this stream, it will only continue to expand.
2. Social Media Innovation Will No Longer Be Limited By Technology
“We will see a move to leverage existing assets — content and capabilities — in new ways, turning information to wisdom and insight to action.”
I am not really sure what limits we are facing now, so I don’t have a formulated opinion on this statement. However, I do think combining content and capabilities is an important idea. There are a lot of social media tools out there, now we must focus on which ones are effective for which goals. It is a lot like using multimedia in journalism – there is a lot of multimedia tools, but which actually tell the most effective story.
3. Mobile Will Take Center Stage
Duh! 2009 was the year of the i-phone and its subsequent competitors (ok, Verizon, we like the Android but I still really want you to get the i-phone). Literally we can walk around holding a phone with computer capabilities right in our hand. Social media will easily all be mobilized (isn’t really already there) and I am willing to say mobile will even become the most prevalent/most interesting way it is used.
4. Expect an Intense Battle As People and Companies Look To Own Their Own Content
“This means that content publishers will be able to determine where they make their content available and at what cost.”
I guess for a big established company, they do have the ability to choose how and where their content is distributed. So maybe for these companies this will be an accurate prediction for change. However, as a small unidentified, unimportant person putting content out “there,” I want my content to go everywhere! I don’t care who publishes it or collects it, I just want someone to be doing something with it.
5. Enterprises Will Shape the Next Generation of What We’ve Called “Social Media”
No comment either way on this predicted change, however here is an interesting statment to think aout.
“Having the need and the funds, enterprises will determine the next generation of social experiences. They will push enhancements that meet their needs, specifically around monitoring, automation, alignment with the sales cycle and integration with existing systems, expanding social “media” to encompass the ecosystem of social computing across solutions, and making them actionable for the company.”
6. ROI Will Be Measured — and It Will Matter
“Surveys show only 18% of companies say they saw meaningful return on investment from their social media activities while the other 72% report modest, no return or inability to measure the return on their investment in social media.”
For social media to remain relevant and matter it will need to produce more return on investment for the enterprises and companies pushing it forward. This will be solved simply because so many people are working towards this right now since so much potential for it is there.
7. Finally: Real, Cool and Very Bizarre Online-Offline Integration
“You’ll never need to ask for a business card again at events — and you may actually get promotions and discounts that match your interests.”
I hope so!
8. Many “Old” Skills Will Be Needed Again
“Expect to see job postings for social media managers, social media psychologists and social media executive administrators to help manage the infinite tasks involved with communities and social media campaigns.”
I agree with this and I think this is why you see a lot of college kids who are interested in journalism, PR, communication and even business spending a lot of outside time learning more about social media and self-educating on how to use it effectively. What do you think I am doing right now?
9. Women Will Rule Social Media
Women rule everything : )
10. Social Media Will Move Into New Domains
“Sites like I’m Too Young For This, and Know Cancer Community prove that no topic is too complex for social collaboration.”
Everything can somehow be integrated into social media. I agree with this and I think this is what will blur the line between social media and the cluster that we group “everything else” into. Social media has a huge audience, however once this line blurs the people who consciously choose not to participate in social media will have no choice and will, probably unknowing, do so.
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