Social Media in 2010

November 11, 2009 by Steve Schultz @GeniusbyOsmosis · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Social Media

I read a great article yesterday from the Harvard Business Blog about Social Media Trends for 2010. The author, David Armano, talked about six key things to look out for in 2010.

“Social media begins to look less social”: He talks about two things here. First, we are all so used to the “something to do for everyone” sites like Twitter and Facebook that as more niche networks emerge the exclusivity brings out an image of being less social. Second, and this one we all can relate to, as more and more people join networks, more and more of us are going to block, unfollow and hide those high school classmates we never spoke to for a reason.
“Corporations look to scale”: Very few companies are utilizing social media beyond a person or two in their marketing department. He cites Best Buy’s “Twelpforce” which “leverages hundreds of employees” who provide customer support via social media. With the coming of 2010 more and more corporations will be entering the social media era for cost saving measures and greater efficiency in providing customer service. They are realizing they need to communicate with you the way you want to be communicated with.
“Social business becomes serious play”: He mentions a newer networking site, Foursquare, which is an interesting shift in “network models” for these social site. One thing all social networks suffer from is attrition. They lose people and it’s often hard to keep users active in the long-run. We’ve all seen the numbers on Twitter and how long they keep their average user. Foursquare actually incentivizes their users to stay active with prizes, contests and rewards. I would not be surprised to see more networks taking this approach to maximize their user activity which, inevitably, increases ad revenue.
“Your company will have a social media policy (and it might actually be enforced)”: Keep your eyes out. This past year there have been numerous instances of employees getting fired for posting things on Facebook and other networks. For protection you will see companies defining what type of online conduct is allowed not just while at work but probably even at home.
“Mobile becomes a social media lifeline”: Companies are coming down hard on those that are using social media while on the clock at work. They are blocking sites like YouTube and Facebook and have consequences that compell employees to avoid participating on networks while at work. That said, that’s why we have phones. Every major network, and even many of the smaller ones, have mobile apps for any kind of smart phone. These mobile apps keep people involved in ways that their employers can’t monitor as easily, thus, being their lifeline to the online world.
“Sharing no longer means email”: For years now whenever you would click on the share link it would pop up your email or a submission form to send a message via email. Now when you click the share button you get a list of a million different networks you can share on. You can tweet about it, link it on Facebook, bookmark it on Diigo and share it in many more locations. Seldom do I get an email anymore, but rather, a message through a shared network. While e-mail is still a growing method of communication it is definitely not always the preferred method of sharing online content.

Social networking didn’t stop changing this year and won’t next. As more and more people find niches, apps and other methods of communication we will see so much happen in 2010 across the board.