How Will Social Networking Evolve in the Year 2010?
The year 2009 was the year of slaps, smack and strict rules in the world of web 2.0. Social networking sites saw a mammoth rise in membership by marketers, followed by a surge of spammers and eventually got punished by Google for their leniency.
So their slap by the search engines is being passed down to you. Everyone has tightened their belts, restricted certain content, lessened the number of links you can use – and implemented any other rule to prevent Google from doling out the same harsh punishment in the future.
Social networking was once a way for peers to share information and opinions – it’s so much more than that now. It paved the way for marketers to immerse themselves in communities where targeted consumers were lurking, converting peer traffic into click-throughs and sales.
It probably would have been smooth sailing if everyone had done his or her part to provide great content and keep topics above the board. But it’s inevitable that when a good thing surfaces (like web 2.0), spammers and seedy characters will suck it dry of any opportunity it possesses.
Certain social networking sites such as Squidoo, Ezine Articles, Google Knol and Hub Pages have already learned their lesson when it comes to cracking down on spammers and unsavory marketing tactics.
The year 2010 promises the evolution of more niche-specific social networks for people – along with some broad web 2.0 creations that cater to many niche groups. It will be your job to infiltrate these membership areas in a way that helps the community with true value so that you’re branded as trustworthy and not a leech of their online society.
It’s estimated that blatant advertising on social networking sites (like Facebook for example) will reach a whopping $2 billion in the year 2010. So marketers may not have to be as stealth in their promotions as they once were, if they’re willing to pay for the right to be there.
Social networking will also play an important role in on-the-go advertising. Mobile Messaging will evolve into a new sort of social marketing. You’ll be able to designate ad groups that are shown to people while they’re away from, their computer, reaching them on their cell phones.
People are already social networking from their cells – logging into Facebook, Tweeting about their everyday actions. You’ll become part of the common mass marketing strategy already being tested in many markets today.