Social Media Predictions for 2009

In the following video, Perry Belcher provides his predictions for changes to social media in 2009.  Perry Belcher has quickly established himself as one of the icons of social media with over 88,000 followers on Twitter.

Prediction #1: Twitter becomes the ruler of
“Fresh Information”

I agree with this prediction.  Twitter has already emerged as powerful tool finding emerging trends and breaking news. When the airliner crashed near Amsterdam, the first report was a picture taken by cell phone and uploaded to Twitter.

The information on Twitter is often of higher quality.  The information has been “pre-screened” and only quality information is shared with followers.

Prediction #2: Online Video Advertising will grow by 50%.

Video ads are more targeted and can be tracked to greatly improve ROI for the advertisers. Last year over 4.5 billion dollars were spent on online video ads.  With sites like HULU.com popping up, I see huge room for growth in video ads.

Prediction #3 : Companies will start using
“Spokes People” again.

This makes a lot of sense to me.  People want to interact with people. This is why we call them Social Media sites. Jared from Subway and the “Can you hear me now” Guy from Verizon give the companies a human face and make them seem more approachable.

If you are creating a company presence in Social Media, I recommend that you pick a person to lead it.

Prediction #4: Social Shopping will emerge big time.

Social media is built around relationships and influence.  Companies will begin to tap into the influence and share profits with individuals that recommend products and services to their followers. This is “word of mouth advertising” taken to the next level.

Prediction #5 Google will begin ranking influence.

Your influence will become more important then your page rank.  As your influence expands and your reputaion increases, you will have greater opporunities to profit from selling products, services or advertsing online.

Prediction #6 Google buys Twitter.

There has been a lot of speculation as to what Twitter’s profit model will be.  I think there is a golden opportunity
for Google to serve up contextual ads on Twitter searches and profile pages.  Millions of new pages are created monthly and organized by topic.  One of the co-founders of Twitter also created Blogger and sold it to Google.  I will be surprised if this prediction does not come true.

 I agree with all of Perry’s predictions and believe Social Media will dramtically change the flow of information on the internet in 2009.

John Hocking
Social Media Stategist

Technorati Tags: Google, Twitter, Video Advertising, Spokes People, Social Shopping