Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

Back in May of 2009 I commented on a video from Jeremiah Owyang about the future of the social web. In the video, he theorizes that the web will go from social relationships (simply connecting with people via facebook, twitter, etc) to social functionality (apps) and onto eras of social colonization and context where your friends will go wherever you go and the messages you receive are tailored to your likes.

In one of the final phases of the social web he talks about social commerce. In that he means that communities will come together to define the products and features they want and companies in turn will bid to fulfill these needs. In essence flipping the current model of a company bringing a product to market and encouraging/hoping that you’ll buy it.

Well, that era of social commerce may be official upon us. Today, Walmart Labs (the digital division of Walmart) is launching an initiative which crowdsources a handfull of the products it will stock on its shelves. Now, it’s just a start, but can you imagine how this could evolve? You could have pop-up stores that only carry items that their followers have requested. Inventories will get smarter based on sentiment and what the crowd wants. You could even eventually see PR agencies representing large groups of people rather than large companies.

I’m sure social commerce will move quickly through various phases and iterations as the web continues to evolve. What comes next though?

A few weeks back, I spoke to the Memphis PRSA Chapter mostly about using location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla for business. But as an added bonus, I threw in 5 digital marketing and social media predictions for 2011. Here’s what I think will happen over the next year.

1. Everyone becomes a media company
Wow, Bob that’s pretty broad. So, here’s where I’m coming from. Consumers are adapting to the way businesses are using social media. When they feel like they’re being sold or that the information is no longer relevant or valuable to them, they move on.

Companies are falling back into their old media ways of business. The companies that evolve and ultimately win are those that will be able to create original, non-salesy and valuable content that speaks directly to that individual and not a mass market. Status updates, videos, email, tweets, etc will all need to be on target.

Content is king may be cliche, but it will be ever so true in 2011 as companies show greater focus on the what rather than the where.

As a side note, watch the “social media gurus” of 2008 become the “content gurus” of 2011.

2. Privacy
Facebook had some small issues in 2010 about user privacy, but I think you’ll see larger groups exposed in 2011. I see this as a blow-up from a major social site that could expose lots of user personal data. The technology is evolving too fast and users are naive and overly trustworthy.

You may even see the government step in ala the “Do Not Track” regulation to help protect consumers. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, hide yo data.

3. Question and answer sites will be the break out stars
People are making real/major decisions based upon what their real/virtual friends think. The sites you’ll be talking about this time next year are question and answer sites like Quora and Facebook Questions.

4. Group buying gets better
Groupon hit mainstream in 2010, but they still have a lot of opportunity to grow. I think you’ll see better personalization in Groupon deals such that they won’t be necessarily city-wide offers but rather deals that appeal to the demographics and psychographics of their audience. For example, a man living in downtown Memphis who likes football won’t necessarily see the same deal as a man living in East Memphis who enjoys baking.

5. Hot sites to watch
Sort of miscellaneous hodgepodge of predictions at #5.

• I think VYou.com has lots of potential in the social space and fits nicely with prediction #3 above. VYou is a mix of twitter, youtube and a dash of chatroulette (the good part).
• Watch for big developments from Google  in 2011 and maybe in Q1.  In 2008, I wrote that I thought Google had the biggest opportunity and the best pieces in place to really blow the doors off of social. Even though some of their latest ventures have fizzled out, I still think they are better positioned than the likes of Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Apple. Rumors of their +1 project have been swirling in the recent months.
• Niche and personal sites like Path and Instagram will flourish.

By the way, if you’re interested, check out my predictions from 2009 and 2010.

One of the keys to getting lots of new badges is to follow major brands.  See the complete list of Foursquare badges.

New developments over the weekend from Facebook will give publishers the ability to communicate deeper with their likers. For example, let’s say you like this article.  Well, with these new options, I could possibly send a news feed item to all likers with a link to my follow-up piece, a thank you video or even a coupon to go and purchase my book.  This goes beyond the likes on facebook.com as well; it expands these interactions to all areas of the web.  Facebook even offers publishers the ability to track these interactions. Check out the documentation here.

This option really opens up more of a 2-way dialogue with publishers and fans of their content.  I’m looking forward to seeing how smart brands take advantage of this new option.