I recently had a discussion about social media and how it was changing. Apparently there was a report on CBC Radio citing that usage of social media is on a decline. Granted, this is second hand news, but it did get me thinking about the future of social media.

Right now there is a number of players in the market: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google Buzz, LinkedIn and many other niche iterations of social media technology. You may have already noticed the growing fragmentation of social media channels. Very similar to what happened to TV with a sheer bloating of specialty channels to choose from. There are now literally thousands of channels, making it both harder and easier for marketers, consumers and everyone else in between. Let me explain.

Easier because with proper targeting and profile development marketers can REALLY dial into their consumers, while possibly keeping costs lower then before. These properly targeted campaigns with customized content will yield higher return on investment. Harder, because marketers are no longer able to easily blanket a mass market as they could before.

This same thing is happening with social media channels right now, with a slight twist. There is a rising number of services all competing for our social media mind share, each with its own specialty or appeal. For example, Foursquare is a great location based service where Twitter is a fantastic micro-publishing platform to flog your thoughts and links in headline format. MySpace is dying a slow death but has carved out somewhat of a niche with a music focus.

What I see happening, and perhaps very soon, is a consolidation of services. Once place to rule them all. Live geo-tagging, chat, contact covergence, threaded conversations, status updates, one-to-many and many-to-one, a place to give and receive recommendations and feedback in real time and probably a few other things we don’t even know are possible at this time. And all this will be fully mobile, living in a cloud, syncing seamlessly with all your technology from your laptop to mobile to desktop.

As a society, we are swinging back into community mode, as spoken about in the 80 year cycle theory (google it). If you combine that notion with the current pace of technology development, it’s evident  we will seek ways to be and stay connected with each other on a much deeper level. Social media allows us to do just that. Technology and names may change, which is what I see happening with this coming consolidation, but principles will remain the same.

Social Media is here to stay!

So how can you best prepare for this coming evolution? Don’t be stiff. Embrace the coming of a super-connected age and be willing to release control. Your customers are already defining your business through blog posts, reviews and geo tagging. Provide them with the tools and a story to tell about your brand, supported by careful and very subtle nudges. Embracing this evolution means being aware of what your customers are doing, how they are communicating and where.

Embrace and be willing to change. Because it’s coming.

- Ernest.

In May 2009, Google released a new browsing feature called Wonder Wheel. This feature allows users to change the way they search. It enhances the way we browse and interact with the search engine.

To access this great new tool:
1. Go to Google.
2. Enter your search terms
3. Click on “Show Options” right under the search field
4. Click on Wonder Wheel – close to the bottom of the options window.
5. Start Wondering!

Other then a great new way to find information, this tool is very useful in finding new keywords for your Search Engine Optimization and Marketing efforts. We have now integrated the Wonder Wheel in our SEO toolkit and are starting to experiment with some new ideas and uses producing great results.

OUR BUYING PROCESS is changing. The way we make purchasing decisions is changing. And technology is making that happen.

A few years ago, when considering buying a car, most people would check out several dealerships and quite possibly the “Consumer Guide” before making a decision. Dial the calendar a few years ahead and think… When is the last time you bought a pricey item (Car, TV, BlueRay player.. a book…) without reading at least one online review? Written by a person you probably never heard of and will likely never meet?

Amazon (Big fan!), cnet, epinions and many other sites have given consumers their voice back. Today, a crafty marketing message over any medium gets only so much traction. A consumer generated review wields much more power over the final buying decision. While this is nothing new by now, it’s still very important to note as we believe it will be a trend which will carry and evolve for a long time yet.

Entire businesses have folded over a hurtful forum thread, propelled by Google searches and pure number of curious eyes.

Power of a single person getting their opinion heard by thousands, even millions of others is the true essence of Web 2.0+ and the way things are going to be in the coming years.

While some marketers may be cringing at the possibility of having their efforts and ideas thwarted by someone unknown and out of reach, the savvy ones will see an opportunity to harness direct feedback and evolve. Create something remarkable with the help from their most vocal influencers. Click here to see a fantastic example of a local business taking stake in an online conversation about to take a bad turn. (scroll to the bottom of the page)

So, seek out what your customers are saying now and consider providing a way to open that direct communication through a blog or other social media.

FORGET ADS, we live in Age of the App now. Smart mobile devices with internet access are a communication norm. Most businesspeople and certainly a vast majority of youth are connected… all the time.

No longer just a phone, new generation of digital devices brings a powerful suite of capabilities which seem to be increasing by the hour. It is now entirely possible to use your phone as a video camera, blogging device, e-book reader, budgeting device and a gaming platform all in one.

Mobile marketing has rapidly evolved from SMS campaigns to fully featured application development for a true brand experience.

Although app downloaders currently skew slightly younger, developers have been busy creating business and productivity applications aimed at your regular businessperson, thus expanding the reach and breaking new ground for what is likely to be the next ‘it’ thing (it already is, but will be moving into the fatter part of the bell curve as you’re reading this)

Recently launched, Pizza Hut’s popular app has been downloaded over 100,000 times in its first two weeks of going live. Their strategy combined a valuable offer (20% off with iPhone orders), convenience (order from your phone) and smart targeting to create a wildly successful marketing tool. By placing an actually useful application into the hands (literally) of their consumers, Pizza Hut has leveraged this new medium to their advantage better then most.

Consider how your product or service could be transformed into a useful, well designed brand extension in the hands of your consumers

LinkedIn has recently added a new feature that allows its users to perform status updates from Twitter. It’s a great way to further optimize status updates and keeping your connections up to date.

To access it, log into your LinkedIn account, click on ‘edit my profile’ and close to the bottom of the screen you will see a ‘Twitter” area where you can enter your Twitter account name. In case you do use Twitter as a separate social media account, a suggestion would be to keep the updates at the default #in context option. This means that to update your LinkedIn status from Twitter, enter your status and include #in at the end of it: “This is a LinkedIn update #in”

Another option we recommend to our clients is using a status update service such as ping.fm to simultaneously update multiple accounts. You can even bookmark the page on your iPhone and use it as an app.