3 predictions for 2010

What’s the next Twitter?

The traditional media’s social media darling of 2009 has to be Twitter. Sure, Facebook has seen staggering growth in adoption this year, but so has Twitter.

And until this year, many people were still debating the usefulness of a publicly available and searchable type of global instant messaging conversation (that’s my definition of Twitter).

If you still don’t find value in Twitter, may I suggest you try searching on Twitter for mentions of your people, products, brands and/or services? I’ll wager you’d be surprised to find that people are using Twitter to talk about you.

In my opinion, that’s the essence of social media:

Find out what others are saying, then join the conversation and participate.

Don’t just lurk in the shadows. And don’t wait until a crisis to begin using social media to tell your side of the story. If you do, you’ll be seen as a day late and a dollar short. Just ask Domino’s Pizza about their YouTube experience this year.

I’ll go on record with three predictions for 2010, for what will replace the rampant Twitter discussion and what will underscore the social-media-at-large discussion.

One : Convergence

This is more of a trend than a tool. I think we’re all pretty overwhelmed with the number of usernames and passwords we’re required to keep track of.

I’ll look forward to the technology that allows for one verifiable online identity that I can take with me from platform to platform — online banking, purchasing products, social networking, searching, publishing, commenting, etc.

I believe we’ll see more moves towards convergence and sharing of information between different online platforms in 2010.

Two : Video

I’m from the MTV generation. In 2010 Generation Y will outnumber Baby Boomers (at least according to the statistics offered by Socialnomics on YouTube).

Digital natives (those born after the appearance of broadband Internet) expect video content.

People searching online are more apt to view search results with images or video associated with their query than those results with just plain text.

And people are more likely to stick around and interact with you online when your site presents more of a multimedia offering than not.

I believe we’ll see more easily accessible video publishing and sharing tools and technologies in 2010.

I like what Real Player [real.com] is doing with taking online video and making it portable for the user.

Three : Location-Based Connection Tools

Remember the dot-com rush? People thought if you secured a dot-com and launched a business, you’d be rich.

What happened was that the Internet and dot-com sites were successful, usually, when they supported a bricks-and-mortar business. The Internet became a non-geographic extension of a physical business.

With social media, the trend I see is using technology to connect us physically, which requires proximity.

In 2010 I think we’ll see more use of social media tools that bring people together in geographic regions, whether at home, at conferences or out shopping. FourSquare is an interesting application along these lines.

Your Thoughts?

What do you see on the social media horizon for 2010?