Everyone is putting their predictions out. Mine are always partially based on my work as well as the trends.
1. Companies will expect ROI from their Social Media efforts.
Social Media will shift from being experimental to mainstream. Larger organizations can't justify embracing it without having it meeting their business objectives. It has to increase their bottom line. I have been working on an ROI series and that will kick off in January. It is possible to establish metrics around your efforts and measure progress! Can you afford not to? How will you grow your program and justify the resources if you're not showing the progress & return? Olivier Blanchard has a great slide deck on Social Media ROI!
2. The Social Media Specialist (Community Manager) position will become mainstream.
Companies are going to quickly find that they need someone to guide their efforts externally and internally. Social efforts should be extended across the board.Jeremiah Owyang had a great post on how companies should plan a holistic approach and use social beyond marketing. My series will address that and it's the foundation for my work at Alterian. My list of Responsibilities and Goals for a Community Manager continues to be my most read post.
3. Cultural shift inside of companies.
This is going to be a challenge for many companies. In order to be successful in connecting with customers, organizations are going to have to have communications channels in place and the openness to utilize the information. I shared a diagram of how a community manager can increase sales & the many departments affected. Management is going to need to have a level of trust for their employees interacting online and understand that the risk can be mitigated by education & training.
4. Social Media Monitoring will be a necessary component
My colleague, John Tonini, made the prediction earlier this year that the market would shift from brands wondering if they should be monitoring social media to ‘What tool should we be using?'. 2010 will see a huge shift in the adoption rate of social media monitoring. January of 2009 kicked off a wave and I foresee that growth in the industry continuing. The tools are going to evolve quickly too. Our customers are driving that process.
5. Agencies and companies will hire data analysts
A new position is emerging. My favorite title is Social Media Metrician. Social Media monitoring tools don't drive themselves. They need more than a human touch. They require people who enjoy digging into the analytics aspect, looking for patterns and trends. Web analytics people will be able to expand on their roles. Brands and agencies are going to need this new specialized position to drive their marketing intelligence. Marshall Sponder lists many predictions in regard to the role of the data analyst in 2010.
6. Integration of platforms and processes will be critical.
My job as Community Strategist at Alterian has me cognizant that marketing is going to be radically changing. My CEO listed our top 10 predictions at Alterian. One of them is:
There is a proliferation of things to monitor, measure and manage, making it very difficult and time consuming for marketers to pull together the overall picture for integrated campaigns. There will therefore be a move towards single integrated software platforms so that campaign planning and management are integrated with web and email.
Forrester is also looking towards the integration of platfroms too.
7. I will be meeting more of YOU in the new year!
The first six were very serious so I needed to lighten this up! The amount I traveled in the second half of 2009 made me quite aware that I no longer work with a startup! One of the exciting things about 2010 is that my calendar has me on the move! I love the TripIt feature in LinkedIn. It reminds me of who in my network live near my destination. And even more amazing, it shows the trips that coincide. I came close to meeting a friend from Spain when we were both in NYC! So if you use TripIt connect with me and I look forward to meeting you next year!
What would you add to my list?
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StephenDebruyn said:
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Thu, 2009-12-24 21:17 — Stephen DebruynTimMoore said:
Another great article, thank you. I have sent this on to a number of company leaders for their review. You are spot on. (We knew this day was coming!)
Again, well done!
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Wed, 2009-12-23 14:55 — TimMooreDougMcSorley said:
Happy Holidays Connie. I look forward to talk again sometime soon. Cheers, DM
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Mon, 2009-12-21 08:40 — Doug McSorleyJDeragon said:
What I find disconcerting is that the world of "marketing" wants to apply old thinking and old models to this thing called "a conversation". Just maybe the model and methods of "marketing" are under going a transformation and to be successful the thinking must change.
Marketing methods of the past reflected the process of deliberately enticing a person to engage in some sort of exchange, buy this. The social web has become the place by which people and organizations try and seduce us into an exchange. The word seduction stems from Latin and means literally “to lead astray.â€
Most people would tell you that the purpose of engaging with others is to converse, learn and get to know one another. That being said just maybe the real value that can be created by using social media is to “converse, learn and be relationalâ€. The problem is that most business mindsets do not think in terms of relational rather they think in terms of results. (Social Media ROI)
On-line and off-line success comes from serving the interest of others. Results come from service. There is plenty of opportunity to serve if you are listening and learning correctly. To serve however we must have a presence which reflects our intent in the marketplace waiting to be served.
How Do You Measure Intent?
Engaging in the marketplace of conversations has become main stream, expected and simply the new market of how markets should operate. Since the process is still new many are trying to apply old methods and old thinking with the ability to engage with many for difference purposes. Markets are now trying to measure the benefit of engagement and screaming for an ROI on the investment of time and expense.
The irony of current behaviors is that the intent is transparent. Marketers want to produce results from us and don’t realize how transparent their intent is to the new marketplace. Intent is the real measurement of effective engagement and the measure of intent is reflected by how well you serve the market of interest.
Does this make sense?
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Sun, 2009-12-20 11:04 — JDeragonwww.conniebensen.com said:
Hi Jay, Thanks for your very thoughtful comments!
About this comment - If we think about leveraging this thing called “social†and do so in context with what we think we know we will not learn what we need to know.I think that's what is so disconcerting for marketers... having their customers teach & guide them in what they need. This new experiment nature of marketing is going to make many nervous. It breaks from the traditional paradigm.
And I look forward to meeting you too!
Connie
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Sun, 2009-12-20 10:51 — www.conniebensen.comJDeragon said:
Thinking and planning will be critical. Planning to serve is the critical factor that has to be woven into everything you do on-line and off-line. An intent to serve draws human nature to the communications which reflect that intent. The reality is that we have to unlearn everything we’ve learned about markets, relations and creation of results.
If you plan includes chasing, forcing and “pushing†for results the intent will be transparent and not considered relational, social or worthy efforts that create value. Value is created from intent. Intent is reflected in behavior and communications. Today our intent is transparent and when it creates a negative experience the world is listening and learning from others. Stay tuned for Doc Searls new book "The Intention Economy".
If we think about leveraging this thing called “social†and do so in context with what we think we know we will not learn what we need to know. Listening and learning is a precursor to thinking and planning by learning what we don’t know but need to know. Only then can we think differently and plan with a new aim, to serve.Thinking and planning effectively ultimately means things need to change. What will need to change first is how we think about markets, relations, business models and service. The technology is the easy part. The thinking and planning is the hard part while at the same time the most important part.
If your travels ever bring you to Nashville I would love to buy you lunch and exchange ideas.
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Sun, 2009-12-20 08:26 — JDeragonPost new comment