The year 2010 proved to be a big one for Social Media. As predicted, geo-location and mobile saw huge spikes in popularity increasing the demand for tools such as a FourSquare and Gowalla while causing the launch of others like Facebook Places. Additionally, 2010 saw Facebook reach 500 million users, Twitter reach 20 billion tweets, and FourSquare reach 100 million check-ins making the popular 2009 saying “Social Media is a fad” a thing of the past. There will be continued growth for Social Media in 2011 as more individuals and businesses will have a more active presence. Below are a few Social Media predictions for the 2011 year.
1. Improvements in Social Media Analytics – Social Media has always been a valuable marketing tool, but many businesses have been hesitant to invest in a Social Media campaign because it was always thought of as a marketing strategy that lacked measurable results. There will always be aspects of a Social Media campaign that cannot be analyzed via hard numbers / metrics (i.e. turning an angry customer on Twitter into a happy one), but at the end of the day Social Media marketers are held accountable if they can’t show meaningful results. Facebook and YouTube have improved their analytics platforms over the past year and even FourSquare now has data that’s worthwhile to Social Media marketers. In 2011, we should expect Twitter to launch a comprehensive (albeit one that will likely have bugs) analytics platform while Facebook will continue to improve its insights for pages. Additionally, there will likely be a rise in 3rd party vendors providing meaningful analytical solutions to Social Media marketers.
2. Facebook Will Continue to be King – Looking at once popular Social Networking websites such as Friendster and MySpace might foreshadow that Facebook will meet the same fate within the next year or two. However, based on Facebook’s enormous growth over the past year it is highly doubtful. Facebook has proven to be the king of Social Networking websites as it continues to grow and change with its user base while never shying away from its mission: “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.” Facebook will continue to grow this year and might possibly reach the 1 billion user milestone by the end of the year.
3. More Businesses Will Offer Deals / Discounts – One of hottest Social Media stories of 2011 relates to GroupOn and how it was almost acquired by Google for a staggering $6 billion. For most businesses (especially restaurants), using a service like GroupOn is a no brainer. The additional revenue and brand awareness that are often seen through the website are substantial (plus many businesses have reported long term customer acquisition through GroupOn and similar websites). In 2011, there will be even more businesses tapping into these services to a point where it will be almost fiscally irresponsible for a consumer to purchase something at its regular price. Besides GroupOn, similar websites such as Living Social and KGB Deals will also see increases in their popularity.
4. Social Media Will Have an Even Bigger Influence on Search – Google and Bing have proven the importance of Social Media on SEO as Twitter, Facebook, and Wikipedia have all been dominant forces in search engine rankings. As Social Media continues to grow in its popularity and as a source of information, search engines will increasingly continue to incorporate tweets, Facebook pages, blogs, etc. into their algorithms.
5. Social Media Success Will be Harder to Obtain, but More Rewarding – Once again, this year will see a significant increase in businesses using Social Media as a marketing tool. While many will see the value of using Social Media (increase in traffic, sales, communication tool for current and potential consumers, etc.), it will be harder to “stand out from the crowd” in 2011. More businesses on Social Media means more tweets, more Facebook posts, and more choices for individuals to decide where to spend their time and energy when it comes to Social Media. However, the #1 video on YouTube in 2011 will certainly reach a lot more people than it would have 3 years ago as will the #1 Facebook campaign, #1 Twitter campaign, etc.
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