Charlie’s Social Media Predictions for 2012: Confidence | Conversation.

Confidence. Havent we come a long way. Lot’s of playground stuff still happening (boring) however people are recognising personalities, developing styles and encouraging others. A good sign. The community as a whole is supportive of each other, helpful, sharing and generally now confident with this new tool that is the social conversation. They have recognised when they have made mistakes and taken action to correct it. What Charlie sees for 2012 is a more sophisticated development of the personal online brand. More thinking about how a person presents themselves even. There will be more use of social media in general – including the traditional sporting hobby clubs jumping on board and using the power of the social network. The 50 year old female has til now been the fastest growing population (on Facebook), Charlie predicts this will shift and we will see a rise of the over 50 year old male voice.

Conversation. For learning. And this has already started so it’s easy to predict. Through the Unearthing Ideas Consultancy, we created the first social learning environment for UniSA’s Ideas Generation #summerschool. This creative, sharing and collaborative space gave students confidence to share with outcomes very encouraging… definitely the social and virtual learning arena, particularly in the general social media space, will be one to watch.

To analyse what actually happened, let’s continue:

Content. Charlie writes content, and there were many audience moments for encouraging the use of good content, especially from sources such as the traditional media release ie for more than just sending out to the newspapers. Chunk sized segments from the traditional media release (such as quotes and statements) are fantastic source for social medias eg Facebook pages and Twitter statuses etc. There is still quite a way to go and this is due many to old fashioned attitudes towards content in general (unfortunately) and a lack of expertise. One area that did gain popularity was the use of inspirational quotes from all sectors (people and businesses alike). Many went viral. The Steve Jobs moment had us all sharing till the news stream was full. This could be the trend towards learning how to deliver good content – watching how it does go viral when people like it. So, Charlie will be writing chunk sized content bits for people to use and share this year!! Let’s go.

Customer Service. Businesses have defintely started to realise that social media has impact. There has been great improvement in this area… and a few slip ups saw big companies using social media to reach their customers to rectify situations (ie Qantas etc). They have realised there is value in this space at least.

Community. People are certainly now using social networks for their voice… and this has been heartening to watch grow, with lost dogs, kids and even stolen cars (etc) being posted and shared across networks for community good. The rise of social good is very good!

Critism. While this will never go away in reality, what has commenced is the debate over defamation. Charlie sees a bleaker future, with our court system tested on so many new levels. At the same time however, many will tire of the trivial “gossipy” type network of followers and their critical ways. The prediction being people falling into traditional categories and this being more exposed online – the first stream being the equivalent of a quality journalistic magazine or newspaper (Vogue or The Australia for example), as opposed to the second stream reading from the trashier side of town. Where do you fall? (LOL)

Champion. A trend of champions that certainly occurs overseas, this is not something being witnessed here in #adelaide. Too much same same, with people not willing to speak out due to consequences (whatever they may be). The josling (Charlie feels) isn’t out of competitive spirit or even leadership ability, it is simply due to the market not being big enough. Point of note; one player still even has the gaul to ring others and “warn them off”. Playground stuff happening (still).

Corporate. No change.

Chuckle. No change.

Why no change? Well, we still need humour and corporates still need to unleash. It’s true they have done a lot in the crisis communications space – to rectify or raise awareness – but for general awareness, no change. Perhaps this is a good thing.