More companies will invest in social media.

As paid search traffic and conversion rates continue to decline and become more expensive, companies will start looking to social media to replace volume. Therefore, measuring the ROI of social media will become a top priority as companies consider expanding budgets and staff members for social media–related activities.

Social media will no longer be something the “cool kids” are doing.

Social media is something all entrepreneurs and businesses have to do if they want to succeed going forward. In the last year, we’ve seen many start to jump in and experiment with various campaigns on Twitter, Facebook and geolocation networks. Going forward, we’ll continue to see more of that and I see mobile and social media meshing even more.  There will start to be actual numbers and statistics to back up what works and what doesn’t.  2011 will be an interesting year during which creativity will continue to thrive, yet social media will start to gain solid support with evidence that it does in fact work.

Social media will become mainstream.

In 2011, the social media dust will finally settle and peopple will stop referring to it as ‘new’ media. Social media will take its rightful place on the editorial calendars and budgets of marketing departments. The calls to action will reverberate virtually and within the brick-and-mortar planning rooms of corporate marketing departments. Those who hadn’t before will report reading online news, magazines and books; and watching more full-length and short videos on a myriad of screens and devices than they did in 2010. We will catch up with friends and colleagues as we leap from one geolocation to the next.

Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn - the only business platforms.

The BIG3 will be the only viable social media platforms for business. They will continue to steal ideas from each other to where their services overlap and they’ll all become a bit homogeneous, leaving an opportunity for a disruptive technology in 2012 maybe. In addition, prominent schools and colleges will start promoting their social media courses, legitimising social media for businesses.

Social Shopping will gather pace

I have a vested interest in this with my startup Crowdbuy.com which is launching soon, but I believe that 2011 will be the year that shopping with your friends and other online connections will start to play a part in the wider ecommerce space. Customers will be able to leverage the power of their connections to demand great deals from retailers. 

Deals, specials and discounts will flourish inside of Facebook pages.

One of the best things about Facebook promotions is that they can spread virally inside Facebook and beyond quickly, cheaply and with few barriers. With the continuing sophistication and flexibility of Facebook pages, I predict we will see a huge rise of promotional hubs inside Facebook and businesses will continue to create even more opportunities to gain greater visibility for themselves while offering enticing opportunities via great deals to their customers.

And finally....

I predict that the soon to be announced BestofChester and Netdesk Social Media Seminars will be oversubscribed so be sure to get on one early :-)

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Thanks for reading,

Mike Georgeson

twitter.com/mgeorgeson
mike@netdesk.co.uk
facebook.com/mgeorgeson