Socialforce Social Media Network

It looks like everyone is buffing up their predictions for another year of astonishing growth by social media.  The last nine years have brought so many surprises that the next several are promising to yield a bumper crop of “I told you so” fodder for “Are you kidding” crowd.

My prediction for 2011 is that nothing is sacred, including the onslaught 2011 predictions. 

Therefore, I’ll will go way out on a limb and make my 2011 and 2012 predictions in now.

In General:

The interest coming due on our national debt will consume increasingly more of the money that institutions need to provide basic services.  As these institutions weaken, they will increasingly be replaced by Social Media and Cloud Computing enterprise.  The structurally weakened economy will drive social media and cloud computing innovation more than any other factors.

Specifically:

1. Social vetting will catch everyone by surprise. The simple fact that more and more professionals that once where professionals in other sectors have changed their career path and entered the Social Media and Cloud Computing Sectors.

Both Social Media and Cloud Computing were seen as passing fads, however, people have come to accept their benefits and taken them much more seriously. Facebook is a very good example of how Social Media has been accepted and integrated into the Marketing departments of a vast majority of business on a global scale.

A prime example of how Cloud Computing has taken root into business and their IT departments is Cloud Computing Marketing leaders Salesforce.com and Amazon (Amazon Web Services - AWS) have taken the business world by storm.

Speaking of Salesforce.com which is one of my all time favorite companies, it has developed a Social Media Platform aimed at enterprise businesses. Salesforce.com Chatter, a social media platform that enables businesses to obtain all the benefits of social media in a "hybrid private cloud environment." Not to get off topic, however to address the phrase, "hybrid private cloud," what this means is that a company may get the "Cloud" (online / on demand) service via the pubic cloud, the service (Chatter for example) is meant only for that particular business and is not accessible by the general public.

Now back to the topic at hand...

A market can only be as efficient as its vetting mechanism.  To control vetting is to control a market – ask any despot.  Where the vetting institutions of the old paradigm break down, they will be replaced by social media vetting. Nothing is sacred – the SEC, AMA, Federal Reserve – everything is vulnerable. Google knows this and will usher in an era of social media applications that will completely disrupt the gatekeepers.

In addition, companies like Kickapps and Sharedvue have taken social media to a whole new level. Enter stage left, Marketing as a Service (MaaS). This is allowing companies to save termendous cost on purchasing, maintenance, general up-keep, and greatly reducing the "Time-To-Market" aspect for launching new campaigns for the holiday seasons, in addition to seasonal marketing campaigns. Moreover, Marketing as a Service allows companies to reroute the money other vital areas of their business.

2. Everyone knows that Facebook has 200+ members and hundreds more joining everyday. This statistic of in it self has made CEOs and their board of directors realize that if they do not use this new form of connecting with customers and expanding their customer base, then they stand a real chance of losing hundred of millions of dollars or euros each and every quarter.

2011 is the year of that Social Media Networks will dominate the World Wide Web. Each week, new social media sites and communities are poping up. Where there once was "Blue Ocean" calm and nearly free of competition, is now becoming a bloody ocean filled with predators and competition. 2012, this ocean will become over populated and that is when the "game changer" will take place. What is this game changer? It is very simple, like cloud computing and Salesforce.com, a new company will emerge with a new way of doing business and with it will come a new form of technology. This will lead to many of the smaller Social Media platforms and Social Media Providers to die out, making way for yet another evolution in technology and communication.  

Do in large part to the "global economic recession, companies have little choice but to find more innovative ways to market and sell their products and services. In 2011 and 2012 we will see universities and colleges all over the world creating degrees in Social Media, as we are now starting to see many universities and colleges offering degrees in Cloud Computing and Green Technology. What does this mean for you and me, basically adapt or perish. I am too young to truly remember the change that Desktop PCs had on those in the workforce that were proficient at using the typewriter had on their career, but I know that it must have mad an impact far reaching into the 1980's so will it be for Social Media and Cloud Computing.

In 2011 and 2012, we will see a surge of college/university bound students opt for degrees in Social Media and Cloud Computing. This in turn will lead to better technology and innovation within these two 21st century business sectors. In 2011 and 2012 there will be economic initiatives for legions of entrepreneurs to create information content, enhanced website content management systems, much improved website analytic tools that will enable to better drill down into the data to obtain a much more clear and defined understanding of their customers and potential customers buying habits

3. The convergence of Social Media and Cloud Computing data will create the “new monetized innovation economy” defined by the way people interact with data.  Highly localized data that will reflect the knowledge inventory of a community and will be represented by a virtual currency.

4. It will become increasingly apparent that many of the functions of a corporation can be duplicated outside a corporation by new vetted social media applications ran in the "Cloud"  "Networks of people will become “corporations” and trade knowledge assets through the trade of virtual currency contracts".As Social Media Cloud Computing takes flight, more and more people will spend more time online, thus increasing the need for IT (Information Technology) professionals to work for ISPs (Internet Service Providers), Cloud Service Providers (CSP) and at Social Media Marketing companies. Once again, you may be asking what this means for you and your business? This means that the current economic crisis that our country is faced with will come to an inevitable end. Social Media and Cloud Computing will mean job creation across the vast majority of sectors. From IT companies, Finance companies, to Construction companies, down to the Hotel and Tourism sectors. Social Media and Cloud Computing will enable so much innovation and better ways of communication that markets new markets will come into existence. Now this is something that our country like so many others really need.

5. "Corporations will become technology centric rather than industry centric with open source architecture liberated to armies of diverse entrepreneurs."Does this mean that other types of jobs will go the way of the wind? No, it means that those jobs will adopt new ways of integrating Social Media and Cloud Computing into them. For example, a City Worker in the Garbage and Recycle sectors may use social media to inform the people and families that live in their areas of responsibility changes in pick-up days, new recycle methods, etc.

So there it is and be assured that 2011 and 2012 will not disappoint even the hardiest eschatologist!

I know that I have covered a few bases however, this is a 3,000 foot high view of an evolution in technology and communication, and there will be more detailed articles to come, so stay tuned.

Please tell us what you think about this evolution.

In the years of 2009 and 2010 the world seen the true emergence of social media. Yes, Blogs, Wikis, Websites, and Chat Rooms have been around for awhile, however, as people began to use Social Media to communicate and connect with their fiends, find their "true love," etc., social media truly took flight.

From 2007 to 2010 the world has been hit hard with a deep recession, do in large part by "White Collar Crime.' This economic illness has its roots going back nearly a decade ago, with the .COM collapse. i believe that the Social Media and Cloud Computing industries are rays of hope for a healthier economy. 

In my next article I will discuss the "Digital Divide" and what it means for the Social Media and the Cloud Computing sectors, and its overall impact on society.

Until Next Time, keep the conversations going.

Kindest regards,

Von'Victor Valentino Rosenchild