Ten Predictions for the Future of Social Media

Text: Andy Walker | Photos: Óscar Ramos
CATEGORIES: Arts & Culture, Business Life

Ask any technology expert if they can predict the future of social media, and the wise ones will laugh. It’s not an easy thing to do, because social media, as a category, is not yet a decade old. “Twitter launched five years ago, and no one would have predicted that every major media outlet and celebrity would rush to use Twitter,” says Boston-based social media expert Chris Brogan, author of the book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.

Social media changed the face of the Internet when it emerged in 2002 in the form of the Website Friendster. This approach was adapted by a series of Websites including MySpace, then Facebook and Twitter. It’s now a set of technologies that allows anyone on the Web to easily create and share content with friends.

So what’s the future of social media? Here are ten predictions:

01. Mobile is the future

Social media connects people, and it will become increasingly powerful when it connects people using smartphones and tablets in their lives away from their desks. Expect many of the innovations in social media to show up on mobile platforms in 2012.

 02. Privacy will be an ongoing concern

In the wake of heavy criticism about how it safeguards and utilizes information provided by users, Facebook has struggled with its privacy controls, running through several redesigns. People clearly take their privacy very seriously, and this is going to be an ongoing concern.

03. Will Amazon go social?

Amazon.com is not just an online store any more. The Kindle – the company’s e-book reader – led Amazon into the tablet business. There’s a rumor Amazon will produce a smartphone in late 2012. Can an innovation in social media be far away? The experts say: It’s highly possible.

04. It’s in the cloud

There’s a trend to storing and sharing content and accessing software on the Internet. This is referred to as “the cloud.” How that impacts social media is still to be seen, however, keeping your music and videos in the cloud and using social media to choose it, rate it and share it will be a key trend in 2012.

05. Show me the money!

Profitably in social media is going to become a focus in 2012. As companies continue to invest in social media strategies, they will be asking for returns. Look to Google+ to create opportunities to make that happen, says Brogan. His new book, Google+ for Business, explores that topic.

06. Shop Social

Shopping in retail stores with a mobile, location-aware device has all kind of exciting potential. For example, Amazon’s Price Check app lets shoppers scan a bar code, take a picture of an item or conduct a text search while in a store to find the lowest price online. Paired with a social media function, this could prove to be a potent new twist on shopping.

07. Location, location, location

Where you are will have a huge bearing on what content and services you see on your mobile device. Location-aware social media is inevitable. “In the next three to five years, there will be a new wave of social media services that depend significantly on location-based information. In other words, it’s not so much about what you’re doing but where you’re doing it from,” says Amber MacArthur, a Toronto-based social media expert and author of the book Power Friending.

08. Don’t count out Google+

Google launched its own social media experiments including Google Wave and Google Buzz. They both failed. However, Google+, a rival to Facebook with Twitter-like features, launched in the summer of 2011, and it’s starting to gain traction. “It’s important to remember that Google has hundreds of millions of users of its popular products, such as Gmail and Google Documents. Since their new social networking platform integrates neatly into this ecosystem, they have a leg up on other social services,” explains MacArthur.

09. Say hello to voice and gestures

On the iPhone 4S smartphone, Apple recently introduced Siri, a virtual concierge that you can talk to and ask questions. Microsoft also recently debuted a control system called Kinect for its Xbox 360 game console that reads gestures and can understand spoken commands. While not yet explicitly integrated into social media, the experts say these features are likely to have an impact as they develop.

10. Million-dollar idea: Free!

The most important trend in social media in 2012 (and 2013) will doubtless be synergy. The entrepreneur who finds a way to integrate into one package all of the trends you’ve just read about stands to make millions. Future innovations are often in plain view, but only when you look back. They are harder to see looking forward.