No matter who you talk to in the fast moving world of Social Media, all seem to agree that one way or the other many things will change in 2011. Lets take a look at a few areas in social media I feel there will be changes made in 2011. Or at least should be made.
Mobile Take Over Continues
In 2011, the social media takeover by the Mobile world will continue with more and more apps and even more Social Networking tools that actually are worth using. The cost of smartphones will stay about the same which will keep the growth of mobile social networking down but more people will migrate to them so they can keep in touch with their social network while out at an event…yaw, go figure.
Some see the mobile craze getting more annoying with so many people who attend offline social gatherings using mobile devices instead of physically socializing. OH Well, there are some positives in using a mobile device.
Social Networking Expansion
In 2011 we should see even more expansion of the Social Networking arena. In 2010 the niche group concept grew with Meet-Up.com finally realizing the world extends further than the East Coast. Next year, more specialty networks will be created pulling more and more people off Facebook who are really looking for something more than knowing what Justin Bieber is doing every minute of the day.
The change in the way social marketing works in social networks will be in the increase volumes of videos. Private social and business clubs will continue growing with an even greater purpose and more than likely less fanfare since they attempt to keep the popularity of the clubs private and undercover so as to a manage the membership level. Knowing who you socialize with will trend as social networking evolves in 2011.
Global socializing will strengthen as will the commerce that develops from the worldwide business connections. Social networking will merge with business networking bring with it a more balance method of socializing brought on by more offline events for the networkers to attend…YEAH!
Flat-Rate Ad Pricing
In 2011 the economy will finally push advertisers, large and small, to realize the placement of ads on trillions of sites in hopes of making a trillion dollars just is not working well. The fundamental change in internet marketing brought on by social media will continue to change the mindsets of advertisers to finally force them to see social media is the Real Deal in getting consumer’s attention.
The move next year to a more sound form of advertising will continue and will increase with advertisers driven to fine quality web-sites, blogs and social networks managed by a real live person. The sites chosen for their advertising will need to focus on the advertiser’s needs and direct their energy to connect to the market the advertisers are targeting. Pricing will be based on the ..yes, old fashion..flat-rate pricing. This method of pricing will offer up more incentive to web and blogs sites to create higher quality content to merit a higher flat-rate. The ambiguous unverifiable pageview or click thru method of pay will be phased out forcing large numbers of sites to have to produce more compelling content…yeah!
This means sites who have a honest managed online presence will be offered an opportunity to be monetized with a more sound method of payment. This also means the sites who are created to generate large amounts of traffic through deceptive measures will decline. 2011 could be the year sane advertising on the internet begins.
140 Characters Isn’t Going to Cut It
As the micro-blogging phase of social networking descends from its peak hit in mid-2010 other more relevant forms of quick online socializing platforms will develop in 2011. The invent of Twitter brought on a lot of copycat micro-blogging platforms that quickly fizzled. What was learned from those failed attempts to connect with people will result into a more realistic trending style platform to gain traction. The basic instinct humans have to control the way they socialize will be what drives many people to try new types of safer conversational micro-blogging platforms. Broadcasts of strange thoughts, announcements and..yes…product services…to the masses thru a quick unbridled post to tens of thousands people, places and things who have unknown interests will finally start to die away in 2011…it has got to or micro-blogging social networking platforms will be continually ignored by people looking to connect with a community of real people.
Attracting a Following Improves
The urge for those feeling they need to have thousands and thousands of Friends, Likes, Followers..or whatever..will subside in 2011. People will finally realizing they need to know exactly who the person is following them or who they are following. Even the celebrities of La-La-Land will eventually see that not knowing who they are following or is following them really is unproductive.
The way of gaining a following will be done through a balanced approach of online and offline gatherings. More online video gathers will be seen in 2011 to help increase the reach of followers beyond the local area. Even more offline Meet-Ups and social events will be scheduled…yeah! All this will take place in an effort to find out who the person is who wants to be a friend, follower, liker or whatever. The ability to attract a following will improve in 2011 through very creative offline and online gathers.
The change in social media will continue to steamroll through La-La-Land in 2011 and strengthen in its development of more sound methods of marketing online. B2B businesses will finally see social media does work for them as well. The millions of people who have endured the years of attempting to drinking from a fire-hose of information generated from yesterday’s social networking feeds will finally see tools developed to further throttle back the amount of unwanted communications.
Social Media is fortunately here to stay and social networking is finally starting to come out of its dark ages. 2011 will be another 365 days of change. I hope you are ready for it. Let me know how I can help.
