2008 Predictions for Social Media

I’ve got and I’ve found it…rather I’ve found the person who have surpassed me by a great deal! Someone who is my age and has already done so much with social media in both his personal and professional life…Dan Schawbel.  His main focus is BRAND…and he recently gave his predictions for Personal Branding in 2008

In the light of the new year coming and my attempt to add value to Dan’s contributions, here are my own predictions for 2008’s world of Social Media:

• Corporations will move past “community” and work to create CUSTOMER UTILITY
  • Yes, corporations should concentrate on providing their customers with a service; whether that be an interactive knowledge base, variety of web 2.0 product interfaces, or a network of online consultants available around the clock
  • Everyone is creating a community, but investing in the customer is important. Common questions to ask: What can they actually use? What’s missing in my industry? Why should customers invest their time with my company?
• Users will challenge corporations to become transparent and real
  • Open-communication is not enough; every leading corporation will have 2 faces (the CEO and the Community guy)
• Job openings in social media will explode - will we see CCOs (Chief Community Officers)?
  • We’ll have two versions of the story, two different types of Press Conferences. One will be on TV and in front of reports, the second will be on a blog “translating” into real terms what’s going on. Nowadays, CEO’s messages are lost in translation…its the CCOs job to keep it real.
• Blogging and Facebook will lose its value and utility
  • I’ve seen it with Facebook already, I’ve been bombarded with way too much SPAM and I’ve lost interest in it. I see other profiles, who I used to frequently visit, and they are filled with so much extra stuff that makes it look like one big blob of junk.
  • Blogging…people are trying to make a living through their personal blog? Too many adwords, too many attempts to make a $1, too many people why to become e-famous. What happened to true, passionate blogging for the love of writing and sharing one’s ideas?

What are your predictions for 2008? Am I on the right track or do you have some objection?