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Social Media Trends for 2010 : The future of social media!
Think back to a decade or two when Amazon was a river, blackberries grew on briars and My Space was your college flat!
There are few certainties in life but one is certainly change and where social media is concerned it is all about growth and evolvement – just as we become familiar with one technology and adapt it another comes to the fore!
2009 was the growth year for social media – so what next in 2010?
In 2009 we saw a huge growth in social media. Twitter alone grew by 1,382% from February 2008 to February 2009. At the same time Facebook continued to outpace My Space.
In 2010 social media will get even more popular. It is my opinion that it will become more mobile especially with the launch of new mobile applications.
In lieu of writing an e-mail, the focus will be on writing on “your wall” for an instant response. E-mail will soon be a sign of your age and generation!
Social Media has become more important than ever for marketing strategists to embrace social media a fact which has been endorsed by David Bunworth at the Dublin Chamber Breakfast earlier in the month in relation to the marketing campaign of Bord Gais Energy.
What are we expecting in 2010?
Social media will begin to look a lot less social
With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular there will be an “exclusive” feel.
There will be the opportunity to hide more of the “updaters that update their momentary activities such including their dinner menu” in your newsfeeds. We will only read the information of value so that we can get more value from our networks. The focus will be on eliminating the “noise”.
Add value and make sure you are not being “hidden”. Focus on imparting valuable information.
Social media is now a mandatory marketing activity
The focus is now on making networking on line more local and mobile. It is also a great competitive tool to learn what your competition is doing. It stimulates competition.
Customers will provide support through Twitter and Facebook to name but two. It is a cost effective tool of communication being embraced by advertising agencies and sign of what is to come in terms of cost effective brand building and customer acquisition.
To facilitate the embracement of social media strategies, companies will start placing “usage policies” in place for the appropriate use of social media engagement in order to protect their brand. It is important that employees know how to participate and share views on social media.
The new tea break
With the Apple I-Phone and the Smartphone the new technologies will facilitate the “tea break” becoming the social media break. User behaviour will move from e-mail to mobile mail.
Research has already indicated that generation Y sees e-mail as being slow and dated!
And of course not to forget social media is all in “real time”.
Going International
With the growth in social media companies wishing to go International can do so with greater ease allowing a test bed for new products in different markets. With all the social media platforms gearing up on their language platforms this will facilitate global brand penetration.
The growth of “media” and storyboarding as a marketing tool
For me the biggest area of growth I see is with video and podcasting. It is dynamic and can be used not only in social media but to drive web traffic. Storytelling is one of the best marketing methods and these applications support it.
Social media is positively a new channel to market. It should be viewed as a form of on-line networking and used in conjunction with your other networking activities.
The days of banning access to social media sites at the place of employment must be coming to an end!
Caitlin O’Connor
Accelerating Performance, Profitability through staff motivation and marketing strategy
