This recent report from the Harvard Business Review by David Armano is a Senior VP at Edelman Digital, gives insite on expected social media trends for 2011.
It was a banner year for social media growth and adoption. We witnessed Facebook overtake Google in most weekly site traffic, while some surveys reported nearly 95% of companies using LinkedIn to help in recruiting efforts. The use of social media through mobile devices increased in the triple digits.
The past year also saw some brands go full throttle on Foursquare's game-like geo-location platform, attempting to reward mayors and creating custom badges for the network's power users.
In other areas, such as social media policy, I was less accurate. Conversations around the topic did begin to take place, but a global survey indicated that only 29 percent of companies even have a social media policy. That's not as high as I expected.
So what could we see happening in 2011? I'll take a stab at six trends again. In no particular order:
Social Functionality Makes Websites Fashionable Again. After several years of being told to "fish where the fish are," businesses realize that users expect social integration to existing Websites. Sites such as AMEX Open forum serve as a model for how networks such as Twitter can integrate with the Web experience. Websites will increasingly serve as "digital hubs" that integrate social activity from many platforms. For example, Apple's music social network, named Ping, recently integrated Twitter. While the integration has kinks, it demonstrates that even the most iconic of brands realizes that they do not exist in their own walled garden. They must integrate to be relevant in a socially connected world.
It's The Integration Economy, Stupid. From Ford, to Dell, to Starbucks, to Jet Blue, and a host of other companies who have pioneered early uses of social media for business, 2011 will be the year these companies take a serious look at integrating social media, not only regionally but globally. Don't be surprised if the same companies that piloted programs such as Ford's "Fiesta Movement" and Starbuck's Foursquare programs also become the first companies to take on the huge challenge of integrating social media into all facets of business from global marketing to crisis management and beyond.
Mobile Wars Create Ubiquitous Social Computing. As competition heats up in the form of cheaper, smarter phones and an assortment of tablets that may hit the market (a $35 Tablet in India?), technology consumers will come one step closer to being connected 24/7, and in more powerful ways than previously possible. Social networking will be on the go, out of the house, and out of the office. More competition, variety, power, and affordability in devices will fuel the increase of ubiquitous social computing.
Facebook Interrupts Location-Based Networking. If 2010 belonged to Foursquare and its playful, competitive and sometimes addicting ecosystem of badges, mayorships and specials, it's likely that Facebook will rain on Foursquare's parade in 2011. With tons of data and the architecture behind Facebook's response to Foursquare about to be rolled out globally, Facebook is well positioned to actually make location based services useful to business.
Average Participants Experience Social Media Schizophrenia. While social media schizophrenia (the overload of multiple social profiles) is nothing new to tech mavens, it will become something that more and more "average" users experience as they tweet, Facebook, G-mail, chat, Skype, BBM, SMS, and Tumble their way across the social web. While many mavens have adopted ways to manage and cope, average users may find themselves at the beginning of the curve in need of a 12-step social identity program. This may lead to increased demand from typical participants to have a more integrated and simplified social graph and an opportunity for platforms and companies alike to meet this demand.
Google Doesn't Beat Them, They Join Them. In 2010, Wired told us that Facebook could beat Google to win the net. But even at the end of 2010 after failed attempts to create their own networks such as Buzz, Google could prove that the best way to beat Facebook, Twitter, and the rest is to do what Google does best: Index them to pieces. Indeed, I've already noticed Google's algorithm has become smarter about Twitter data. I only have to type in a few words to locate old tweets. It's possible that by sticking to what Google does best, they may be able to take advantage of the social web by indexing any and all social data they can get their hands on. Expect the Googleplex to "strike back" in 2011, and perhaps demonstrate that they may figure out their role and relevancy on the social Web.
Where do you see social media going in 2011?
Interesting 2010 statistics on the top 10 most visited websites in the US just released by HitWise.
The top 10 Websites accounted for 33 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010, an increase of 12 percent versus 2009.
People's high connection with social media is show by the majority of the top website visits being social media sites, or sites which incorporating social media into their site to engage people.
Interesting. All of these sites signficantly rely from content contributed by the public.
This gives these sites 2 ongoing competitive advantages:
Facebook was the top-visited Website for the first time and accounted for nearly 9% percent of all U.S. website visits between January and November 2010. This is a significant jump from third place last year.
Google.com ranked second with 7% percent of visits, followed by Yahoo! Mail (3.5% percent), Yahoo! 3.3% percent) and YouTube (2.65 percent).
Some of these sites are owned by the same company. The combination of Google properties accounted for 9.85 percent of all U.S. visits. Facebook properties accounted for 8.93 percent, and Yahoo! properties accounted for 8.12 percent.
Experian Hitwise provides daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Websites.
As a business user, what are the websites that you most frequent most that didn't make it to this list?
What are the things that you would want to incorporate into your site to improve your website rank?
Social media is continually adding interesting new means of connecting and communicating with both friends and customers.
This hilarious tongue in cheek video looks at how social media, web and mobile tell the story of the Nativity.
Christmas story told through social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google, Wikipedia, Google Maps, GMail, Foursquare, Amazon...
And see below. The marketing impact is just as interesting as the video...
This video added to YouTube only 10 days ago has already:
- had an amazing 4,107,058 views!
- PS. This jumped to 5,152,665 in the 10 minutes it took to write this.
- 2,018 took the time to add their comments to this YouTube video!
- 74 more people added comments to this YouTube in the time it took to write this.
- 13,117 have clicked on the Facebook Like button to share this video with their personal contacts!
Times change, the feeling remains the same. It's great connecting!
Many business owners have told us that Facebook or LinkedIn was something that they had invited to. They looked once or twice, thought just for talking about your weekend and pet photos, so left.
Pretty powerful stuff, low upfront cost, direct customer feedback and with ongoing return.
What are your thoughts?
What could the power of tapping into social media do to help your business for 2011? Add your thoughts and comments below.
All the best for 2011 from the team at Synergy!
Kathy Woolverton (35)
Juan Lopez Valdez (34)
Kathy Woolverton (12)
