2011: a big year for social media

It’s January 1^st and 2011 is shaping up to be a big year of rapid-paced evolution as we push toward that enviable place we know as ‘ubiquitous media’. Put simply, we’re a heartbeat away from always having the information we want…just a heartbeat away.

Ongoing rapid advancements by technology companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, the phone handset manufacturers and many others continue to expand the boundaries of ‘media’ as we know it. The things we want and need to know are always but an iphone, ipad, laptop or the blink of an eye away.

This year will see the maturation of social media for business and government, as various popular social media platforms become niche products (despite best efforts), and organisations and tech companies figure out new customised platforms and new ways to actually make sense of it – whether for open government purposes (aka Gov 2.0), or for getting customers ‘through the door’ so to speak. We’ll see something big happen with the flood of special offers sites (there’s too many of these – so something has to give soon), and we’ll see the growth of social media aggregators in various forms. Surely Google will have something big planned for how their search results reflect social media right?

As the life cycle of this most viral of professions – social media – passes the ‘early adopters’ phase and enters the mainstream of professional communication toolkits, I have no doubt we’re in for a big year and many exciting developments – watch this space!