3 ways we think social media will change in 2011

Social media has seen astonishing growth in recent years, with sites accruing huge numbers of followers in recent years. Just recently Facebook announced it now has a staggering 500 million users registered on the site, an increase of around 150million in only six months. Twitter now has 190 million users and is often referred to as one of the fastest adopted media platforms, these are both followed by Linkedin which has roughly 70million users (June 2010)
So with 2010 seeing such surges in growth across a plethora of social media platforms, what can we expect in 2011, and can it in any way surpass the innovation and continued mass adoption we have seen this year?

The Importance of Location
We saw foursquare launch in March 2009 but it was 2010 that saw this website and app experience huge success. As of March 2010 Foursquare reported 725,000 users, with a growth rate of around 100,000 every two weeks for the prior month. And only a few weeks ago on 19th August 2010 we saw Facebook launch their rival, ‘Facebook Places’, their geolocation check-in service which works on a similar premise to Foursquare by allowing their users to share their current locations with friends, enabling them to see who is nearby. We predict that this extension of the already globally adopted Facebook will massively increase the use of location based social media, and as accessibility increases we will see 2011 be the year of the Facebook and Foursquare show down. Although it’s interesting to note that on the launch day of Facebook places Foursquare recorded a record number of new signups, could this be a sign that Facebook places will not be the death of Foursquare but the making of it? Definitely one to watch in 2011.

Picture from: www.tnooz.com

Money Money Money

Well online currency that is. It’s already been suggested that Facebook are planning the launch of Facebook credits, their own payment method that would see them scooping a percentage of revenue for products sold within the games and apps on the site. Currently these apps use other payment methods such as Paypal, but we predict that in 2011 there will be a great focus on Facebook increasing revenue from current users, as they reach saturation point and the number of new users gradually beings to decrease.

I heard from a little birdie
Promoted tweets were launched in April of 2010 and we predict that as we move into 2011 that these will be rolled out and be available to the masses. With the growth rate Twitter has seen, why wouldn’t businesses want to capitalise on this? And with many companies becoming more Twitter savvy and using the platform in ingenious ways to reach prospective customers, this will add another string to any online marketing strategy; could promoted tweets be the social media equivalent of pay per click ads?