Last year, several social media critics predicted 2011 would be the definitive year when the social media bubble will eventually burst. On the contrary, I strongly put forward my opinion that businesses will get more social in 2011. Subsequently, I provided several insights such as the 5 biggest challenges for social media this year and how you can benefit from social media tools such as Twitter and Foursquare this year.
With June approaching, we’re nearly half way through year 2011. So, what to expect of social media for the rest of 2011? Here’s my take on the changes on social media front for the rest of this year.
Facebook rules in Social Media
Facebook is fast approaching the 600 million user mark and I would expect the world’s leading social network to continue to grow exponentially for the rest of the year. More importantly, I see Facebook growing exponentially amongst business users over the next six months. Facebook ad prices have peaked in recent times and I anticipate the demand for Facebook advertisements to be strong for the rest of the year.
Stable Twitter will boost Social Media
As much as I love Twitter, I absolutely hate the blue whale image and the rather annoying “Twitter is overloaded” message. I have no doubt that Twitter user base will expand during the next six months. More importantly, I expect Twitter to offer improved performance and much more stable environment. Twitter’s performance blues have been its biggest criticism and I feel it’s high time to put an end to that debate.
Evergreen YouTube and Evergreen Social Media
Facebook may be the blue-eyed boy of social media, but YouTube is definitely the evergreen flavor for all seasons. I’d expect video and YouTube to continue to play a vital role in business advertising and marketing campaigns. More businesses will setup their dedicated channels on YouTube and videos will continue to rule the roost in online advertising and product demos.
Social Media and Politics
Libyans experienced the power of social media earlier this year. Twitter proved to be the undoing of a major political powerhouse in one country and led to public uprisings in several other countries. I’d expect Twitter and Facebook to continue to play a key role for oppressed people to find their voices and raise their opinions for the rest of the year.
Disaster Management
I pray to God that there are no more disasters such as the Haiti and Japan earthquakes for the remainder of this year. At the same time, I expect Twitter to continue to play a significant role as a disaster management tool. And it’s not just countries and governments; I expect businesses to finally look up to social media as an effective disaster management mechanism.
What do you expect from Facebook, Twitter and the whole of social media world for the rest of this year? Please share your success story with us by leaving a comment below this post.
Great post. I just thought that as so many sites getting punished by Google Panda update, now the focus is on social media sites. These sites are forever and ever green and looks like that their importance will be increased more in upcoming days.
It’s also the responsibility of the users these platforms to prevent abuse because it would not be long from now before the “social media sites” start dishing out hasher punishment to abusers just like Google.
Social Media Monitoring by businesses going to become more prevalent in 2011 and beyond. Marketing wants to see opportunities as they happen…which could be inexpensive, home videos of product use that could be shared to a company’s YouTube Channel or Facebook wall…and customer service wants to meet the customer where they are talking and become proactive in protecting/growing brand loyalty. Customers no longer pick up the phone or send an email to rant.
We believed this trend enough to create Pulse Analytics…
I couldn’t agree with your predictions even more @twitter-211656222:disqus You’re spot on!
thanks a lot for the post) it is so interesting) will see if it is true)
Stable Twitter. Oh yes please! You’ve got some great predictions here 🙂
I think there’s a big difference between B2C and B2B businesses and brands. Certainly for consumers, friending on facebook is a lot more likely than signing up and registering at each corporate site that you might be interested in. The low barrier to entry for signing up for offers, deals, new products etc is a huge benefit to getting 1 million “friends”. Much easier to click the “friend” or “like” button than fill out a registration form. Would you move your whole e-commerce catalog on to facebook? not yet!For deep B2B relationships with suppliers or customers of non-commodity products or services facebook is not preferred. Businesses still look at facebook as a consumer or personal technology, not as a true business toolI also expect to see more local social networks engaging and interacting with their local customers.
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