Social media flourished in 2009 and this year it's going to become an even bigger player in the way we browse, consume and share information online. Below are my predictions for the biggest trends regarding social media's development in 2010.
1. Social Search. Google's dominating share of the search market will be disrupted further. Last year Microsoft mixed things up with their decision engine Bing which included some social features. Facebook and Twitter have been pioneering real time results for a while now and we’ve witnessed the search engines try to include their updates in the SERPs, not altogether successfully however. This year, rather than you going to a search engine, the SERP's will come to you.
We’re going to see personally driven, relevant data being pushed our way within the context of whatever else we're doing online. So for example if we're browsing for a new home, updates from sites like Gum Tree and Right Move will be forwarded to us directly. If students are completing their dissertations then links will guide them to works by related authors or material on similar subject matter. The web is becoming increasingly semantic and social media has the potential to aggregate pertinent data and make smart suggestions based on our online actions at any one time.
2. Social Media Goes Mobile. Smartphones are becoming all the more powerful, with Blackberry Bold 9700, iPhone 3GS and Google's own Android based Nexus One. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all have mobile versions already of course; however we hope to see these improve by better condensing and categorising of the data displayed and making it easier for users to upload rich media such as video while on the move. Advanced browsing capabilities and further innovation in the way of touch screens, voice recognition software and intuitive media interaction will make this area advance forward by leaps and bounds.
3. Google Buzz. In their attempt to jump on the social media bandwagon Google launched Buzz a couple of weeks ago, a service integrated with Gmail where you can follow friends, post updates and share rich media such as images and text. Many see it as a poor attempt to keep up with Twitter and Facebook; however some Gmail users do applaud its merits as an easy and efficient way to quickly turn Gmail into a social platform.
Even more recently Google has come under fire from the watchdog EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Centre) who complained to the US Federal Trade Commission that Google should be required "to provide notice to and request consent from Gmail users before making material changes to their privacy policy in future, and seek appropriate injunctive and compensatory relief".
Despite these teething problems the new service will prove valuable to Gmail users, email marketers and social media enthusiasts. Whether it’s going to be able to contend on the same scale as Facebook and Twitter is yet to be seen.
4. Google Wave. This service from the almighty Googleverse is going to revolutionise the way we communicate and collaborate online, by combining email, instant messaging, social media and wikis into one user friendly application that allows members to work together on projects and share rich media content in real time. There's also a brilliant playback feature that allows new members of any particular Wave to see how it has developed and therefore easily bring themselves up to speed with the conversation.
Wave is going to be a tool useful to almost every industry where people share ideas, documents and manage projects. From the newsroom to the classroom its applications are endless and invites to use the new service are already highly sought after. After a lot of hype it's still in beta testing and has taken a backseat to Buzz but its effectiveness will rely on the number of people who actually use it.
5. Social media gets anti-social. The trend for invites to services such as the aforementioned Google Wave and Spotify could just be a clever marketing ploy to rouse hype around a launch date; however it does signify the current fashion for exclusivity. Social networks are becoming increasingly niche, catering for specific interests, and so members of course feel more important when they belong to an invite-only service. This cleverly binds members closer together from the outset, being made to feel special and somewhat like experts in their own particular field.
Facebook newsfeeds can become far too busy from hyperactive influencers posting every five seconds, so the usage of features such as hiding, detagging and defriending are seeing a dramatic rise and as a result services such as the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine are developed. No doubt this year will give birth to a myriad of similar applications and exclusive networks to help users manage their contacts and the level of content from other connections, as well as shun the larger social media sites for smaller more focused online gatherings.
6. Video for Social Media Marketing. Here, we're not just talking about YouTube, video is an engaging medium and its usage is increasing exponentially. Forrester reported 46% growth in 2009 and this year it will continue. With video material being so popular, short videos are becoming great link bait for the hosting site and when they’re not attracting a plethora of inbound links they're going viral and disseminating across the web. So whether you want inbound links or to get your message or brand across, quality video content is a great way to do it.
In addition to this, video is doing very well in the SERPs. YouTube results often achieve high ranking positions (and not just when the word 'video' is included in the search term) so can act as a great traffic feed. Plus YouTube itself is the second largest search engine online, overtaking Yahoo way back in 2009.
7. Augmented Reality. Developers are doing interesting things with apps that superimpose computer generated data on to real life images in real time. So you could take video on your Smartphone of your visit to Paris, and the app will place text tags and labels on the content, informing you that that river is the Seine where you can get a boat ride for 30 Euros, that big church looking thing is Notre Dame completed in 1345 and round the corner you can find the largest museum of modern art in Europe, the Centre Pompidou.
There are versions of these applications already available; however in the following months we'll really see exciting developments that hopefully innovate the fairly bland AR on offer at the moment. Non-techy consumers are yet to be informed let alone impressed by the possibilities of augmented reality but 2010 promises to be the year that it’s brought into the mainstream market.
8. User-Generated Content. This isn't particularly new for 2010; however the attitude of companies attitude to user generated content is changing dramatically and it'll be this year that they try to make the most out of material contributed by their audience. Online, potential customers are far more likely to trust fellow consumers' reviews that are contributed by their peers rather than the word of the organisation itself. We will therefore see more and more brands encouraging their fans and buyers to contribute their own thoughts, feelings and content. This could be in the form of simple blog comments or literally outsourcing a certain project to the customers.
Increasingly we're seeing brands becoming more transparent, with selections of their data or resources, in order to tap into knowledge and skills that their audience may have and that could prove beneficial to the company. This sort of disclosure was previously unheard of but with the web and social media’s principle values of sharing and openness, typically closed-off corporations are showing signs of opening up.
These are just a handful of aspects of social media that are going to prove important in 2010. There are of course many facets that you might want to exploit for your business, but expect UGC, social search and video content to be some of the most significant for online marketers.
