The Future of Conducting Business with Social Media

In 2010 we saw majority adoption of our favorite social media platforms, as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn grew exponentially. Facebook changed its face more than the King of pop, and Twitter’s 145 million users pushed the platform mainstream. 2011 may bring a number of changes that will drastically shape the way people and businesses interact. We will look at a few current trends to help you and your business stay ahead of the social media curve.

Mobile
When you type in “social media trends” in Google its hard to avoid the word “Mobile.” What does “mobile social media” mean? It means that our phones technology offers an opportunity to interact with others easier and more often. The future will likely hold increased users with location-based platforms (Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places), mobile payments, and location-based advertising and promotions.

Social Media Optimization
Just as search engine optimization allows your content to be more easily found on search engines, social media optimization does this with your social media platforms. Ensuring that your social media outreach efforts are effective is the backbone of all social media optimization (SMO) efforts. SEO and SMO tactics are different in nature, but both revolve around your compelling content and the variety of networks your content is featured on. SEO and SMO are partners and can feed off each other as your content is shared on social media channels, links will help votes for SEO. Equipping your website with Facebook connect will be a step in the right direction while building your SMO strategy.

Business Functionality Tools
Many business software suppliers are incorporating social media applications in their offerings. With so much information being passed around on Facebook and Twitter it was only a matter of time before software companies like Salesforce.com would introduce social media functionality within it’s software. Salesforce’s chatter software allows companies to follow what others are doing and report on the consumer trends.

Ignoring that social media can be integrated with your business strategy is so last year. Your business needs to interact with its customers whether you are B2B or B2C, most companies can benefit from listening in to what people are saying and responding. Implementing strategies to increase content sharing is a growing trend and most companies are using fun tools to differentiate themselves from competitors.

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