Mar
28
Top 5 Social Media Trends for 2011
As social media matures and the technology behind it becomes ever more powerful, here’s my subjective take on the big trends in social media to look out for in the year 2011:
1. Micro location
While location has long been a topic in social networking, this is the year when specific (micro or niche) location will become important. Providers like Foursquare have revolutionized location based services, which enable businesses or organizations to offer special discounts or offers to customers just-in-time. At present, only 4% of the Internet population is using location services, however the possibilities for creative, location based promotions in the future are endless. And while the existing services have managed to rouse some interest, look to no other than Facebook, launching its own competing version called “Deals”, to bring the wider benefits of location specific marketing to the masses.
2. Smartphones Rule
As we all increasingly e-mail less, ditching our laptops in favor of texting via smartphones and tablets, proliferating exactly because they are increasingly affordable, more consumers will be plugged in 24/7 in more meaningful ways than ever before. Mobile marketing and accepting payment via mobile will soon become the new normal. Services like Cellit already enable small business owners to test out potential mobile marketing campaigns. To add to the mix, 4G will soon become the new standard in the US, enabling even more demanding high bandwidth applications to be created to the benefit of all in the very near future.
3. Groupthink
While it may seem a bit kooky, expect more people to begin making real purchasing decisions based on the advice of, or in tandem with virtual strangers. Sites like JustAnswer will make it easier for people to ask questions and get answers (Q&A), while sites like Groubal will increasingly drive consumer interaction, making it easy for user submitted complaints or reviews to be aggregated and then presented to businesses who will have to account for their actions. Sites like Groupon will make it effortless for consumers to band their purchasing power together, while marketers will increasingly use these tools to collect quality feedback from groups of consumers, as opposed to individuals.
4. LinkedIn
While most people think of Facebook or Twitter when they hear the words “social media”, this is one of the best sites that I have been using for years, though it features no video games or dating apps. It simply delivers, pound for pound, the best professional networking/interaction available online. Just last week, the site announced that it had signed up 100 million professional users (see their nifty infographic) and while this may not sound like much, consider the fact that as of three years ago, the average LinkedIn user had an income of $139,000 a year and that as of today, a whopping 95% of companies use the site for recruiting, making this the premier social media destination for business networking.
5. Social Search
Don’t be so quick to write-off Google, the data behemoth completely out of the social media game… While everyone’s busy “Buzz”-ing about how the company’s DNA supposedly renders it incapable of doing well in social media, the folks at Google are busy doing what they do best – indexing! Expect Google to plug in to the social media revolution by archiving and making all interactions on sites like Facebook and Twitter searchable. Guess they figure if you can’t beam ‘em, join ‘em. Will they still manage to get left behind? Only time will tell…
Tags
Blogging, Global trends, Marketing, Social Media
Foursquare is a service, not a site. A cellphone has no browsing capabilities, a smartphone does. And you missed out Quora (the hottest social Q & A around) and Groupon (group buying, which will also be hot in the future).
You’re right to point out my error in using the term “cellphone”, I will make that change to the post immediately… as for Google we shall see, I wouldn’t count them out yet, even search can be relevant socially… and Groupon could roughly be included under 3., que no? Perhaps I will have to rename that one…
