45 Social Media Trends and Predictions

As I was writing this article about Social Media trends I remembered a quote that I had come across a while back from Bill Gates of Microsoft… 

“We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”   

So when you read the list keep the trends in mind and prepare for a very interesting web world by 2019.

Some rather influential  Social Media commentators such as Brian Solis’s rather insightful article on his Blog PR 2.0 says that ”social networks will become our Individual online Operating System“ with Twitter and Facebook and Apple amonst others are vying to be your “One” operating system for social networks. The Trend Spotting blog provided the inspiration, along with David Armano’s prediction in a recent post that “Social media will begin to look less social” and kicks off the the first 4 on the list.

1. Corporations will look to leverage their social media efforts
2. Social business becomes serious play such as Foursquare are touted for the focus on making networked activity local and mobile and has a game like aspect.
3. Mobile becomes a social media lifeline with people accessing social media via mobile phone during breaks due companies banning social media access at work
4. Sharing information no longer means e-mail
5. The Social Media  movement will desire to have quality, not quantity, as people cocoon in the face of the economic crisis.
6. Obama-maniacs both for and against will spawn a new age of activism.  
7. Exclusivity trumps accessibility  in Social Media
8. Everyone becomes a marketer 
9.  Facebook’s SocialRank algorithms emerge to drive the open social web 
10. Tools will develop to reduce noise and deal with RSS overload 
11. Friend synchronisation tools will develop
12. Friend list sanitisers will keep your list clean
13. Social Media tools will help you organise people based on location and business 
14. Organisations will continue to grapple with the social human web  
15. Social Media Indigestion will increase
16. Social Media will become more personalised 
17. There will be consolidation and shuttering of Social media businesses
18. Social Media Identity will become aggregated and segmented 
19. The social media gold rush won’t be as lucrative as everyone thought 
20. B2B goes social media 
21. There will be Social Media Multi-Channel Integration 
22. The transparency debate will continue 
23. Google will buy Twitter 
24. Blogger outreach from PR will get better 
25. Companies increasingly crafting content for Social Media SEO
26. Sputtering economy will entice companies into the social media space 
27. Blogging isn’t dead 
28. Social Media mobile marketing takes off 
29. Social search will become increasingly important 
30. Live as it happens content search will become increasingly important 
31. Better metrics for social media measurement will continue to develop  
32. Twitter will continue to develop legitimacy 
33. Online social media video will come into its own 
34. Customer satisfaction driven by social media communities uprising will make companies see the light 
35. Social media will create Ad Agency disintermediation 
36. With the rise of social shopping the ease with which people are able to see feedback .. with confirmed identities will change the eCommerce online shopping game
37. Social Networks Will Flourish As A Result Of The Economic Crisis
38. Social networking will grow to provide social support to victims of the crisis
39. Ranking The Influencers (the engagers) as a measurable tool for new media
40. Twitter Will Get Recognized For Its Social Search Assets
41. Twitter will start to emerge as a relevant and updated information source
42. Twitter evolves as the ultimate human search
43. Influence will be defined by measurable variables
44. Google will “pagerank” and “map” peoples influence
45. People will really become the media.

So what other Social Media trends will emerge over the next 12 months?