Walter Adamson

Catalog of 2010 trends in social media

You've no doubt caught up on many posts on trends, including one of the best by my friend Axel Schultze of the Social Media Academy.

Here are a few more, with short annotations:

• From the Social Media Club, on social media education and the option of open coursework;
• Sports and Social Media Predictions in 2010, an eBook, with 16 contributors, on Scribd - "email will decline as a primary means of communicating with fans";
• 25 Reasons Your Social Graph Will Matter [more in 2010], "78% of consumers trust peer recommendations – only 14% trust advertisements";
• 10 Ways Social Media will Change in 2010, via Don Peppers - "women will rule Social Media";
• Five Social Media Predictions for 2010 from Socialized - "Microsoft's Bing was the surprise hit of 2009, and has started to erode Google's share of search. Bing has some social features, but expect some big news in social search in 2010... Search won't be a separate function. Instead of going to a site like google.com or bing.com, users will receive meaningful, personally relevant search results within the context of whatever they are currently doing."
• Social Media Strategy: 6 Areas of Focus for 2010 from Sales Blogcast - this is actually the owner reporting his own plan for social media in 2010 and asking his readers for help - not sure I agree with all of his goals but his method is great!;
• What will Community Managers be doing in 2010: Community Management predictions, from FreshNetworks - "the community management processes will need to involve more people in the company than just the community manager";

and finally - Challenges Coming for Independent Restaurants in 2010, just for change of topic! - You must become mentally in tune with your guests. Who are they? Where are they? What do they want? How have they changed? What drives them to your door or your competitor’s door? Will they increase their restaurant visits if you …..? You finish the line!

http://xeesm.com/walter

| 09.11.08 | My weekly ramble in social spaces and places

Where I've been this week in the social web's places and spaces:

• Keen to get a quick update on Social Media Tools sign up for the Social Media Tools Week, starting November 16.
• Very level-headed article worth reading "the customer is the customer" and not necessarily always right.
• TeemingPod allows you to - share PPTs and collaborate around it - get user comments on each slide - tag slides with relevant keywords - recommend useful slides - through a "pod" or widget on your website.
• Linkedin Discussion: great case study from Australia "Zero to 40,000 fans. How Mudo built the largest and most engaged branded Facebook page in Australia" pdf.
• Cosmetics for a $1 - through a series of social media pushes and at home parties, cosmetic company e.l.f.'s business has exploded over the last few years.
• Mozy (online backup) won a social media award for their Twitter support and customer interaction - best business use of Twitter.
• Huffington Post - Andrew Cherwenka - The Problem With Social Media Agencies good comments.
• In a blog post, Twitter says it has started an experiment that will "show higher quality results for trend queries by returning tweets that are more useful".

http://xeesm.com/walter

A Follower isn't a Duckling

When I watched @thebrandbuilder Olivier Blanchard's vid Everyone on Twitter is a community manager it really opened my eyes to the meaning of follower.

Olivier has reframed the perception of followers, and also what a great concept that "everyone is a community manager" - that in itself causes reflection on the current mental models we have of ourselves and others in social media.

Anyway you can watch the vid and get the whole story.

My version, is that the word "follower" is a misnomer, and are not "things to collect", nor your ducklings following blindly on instinct. In fact followers have made some choice and usually it is not about looking for a cult leader either.

Other than those using an automatic follower-generator tool the folk who choose to follow you are actively creating their own Twitter experience, based on what matters to them.

So what a Follower truly is, is a patron and a potential advisor/and or promoter.

In this sense followers are very important social assets.

Viewing them in this way helps frame thinking about social media strategies, and how to treat these connections in the right way and how to communicate with them in the right language and with the right respect.

If you follow the Network Contribution Participation (NCP) model of social media analysis this new viewpoint adds to the network analysis phase of your thinking.

In summary, think of everyone as a community manager, and followers as patrons.

Thanks @thebrandbuilder.