10 Ways Social Media Will Change in 2011

4. Video will be everywhere

With plummeting video delivery costs and highly accessible and flexible video management platforms (like Brightcove, Ooyala, and the open-source platform Kaltura*), custom-use of video by enterprises online, on mobile devices, and across screens is on the rise across all sectors.

Consumers’’ engagement with video will also continue to rise. In October alone, 5.4 billion videos were viewed – 2 billion of these on Facebook. “People today can shoot and share HD videos from their phone. The user experience is getting to the same level as broadcast or professional media from an image quality standpoint. Image acquisition is entirely changing content production,” said Brett Leonard, renowned writer and director and pioneer of “frag” technology in the movie industry.

In the coming year, gaps in our video experience will be filled with the integration of filtering, tagging, editing and locating tools into each and every video feed. Both companies and consumers will increasingly rely on video to provide information and behavioral cues that are not otherwise present in texts, tweets and status updates, making video a critical component of the value chain for its impact on shaping people’s’ perception about companies and about each other.

5. The next big Online Social Network will not be a network at all

Social networks have transformed human access capabilities much like modern transportation and the telephone did over 150 years ago. But they are also changing the very structure of our relationships— – flattening our naturally varying levels of intimacy in real life.

In the coming year we will see the rise of dynamic, engaging, easy-to-use community platforms and applications like Diaspora, Path and Looppa* that will better mimic and facilitate the innate way people seek to manage relationships. “People today look for more personalized, authentic, private information (where we make) a ‘social contract’ around a topic or context that is beyond the reach of search engine results and Facebook crowds,” said Dave Blakely, director of technology strategy at IDEO.

For consumers, this means the ability to create smaller, more intimate, context-specific communities using their existing social graph and livestreams. For companies, this means the ability to facilitate a custom-branded, dynamic and engaging experience on their online properties in ways not possible on Facebook. “Every company should think of itself as a media company,” said Tom Foremski, journalist and thought-leader.

As they become more social, on their own turfs, companies will once again own their customer relationships and brand in a whole new way, —ultimately building greater community value for both the company and its customers.

6. ROI will be redefined

When it comes to ROI, it seems that companies want to cook gourmet risotto but most are still busy washing the rice: Despite 2010 being a year filled with ROI discussions and some strong case studies, Forrester research shows that most companies still have no clue how to meaningfully measure ROI.

As brands move this year from being on social media to using the social media ecosystem, ROI metrics will finally evolve beyond counting ‘likes’ and comments. Aligning with actionable business objectives and their corresponding metrics will be critical to being able to demonstrate repeatable contribution to the bottom line. Companies who hire social media strategists with proven marketing analytics background and business strategy experience will have the upper hand and will place first in the race to cracking the ROI code.

Next page: 7. Psychology is shifting

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