Social networking has grown up… into its adolescent years, as 2009 claims victorious for major sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The cultural impact of Twitter is undeniable, with mentions on many sitcoms, talk shows, and now even used in News articles. The digital connection between friends and family on facebook is huge, creating interest by businesses, consumer electronics industry, and cell phone users.
Personally, I have been tracking the progress intensely in the last year and love the capabilities of using social networking. It’s great for business, generating leads, finding similar business owners, and viewing the current gossip from your target market. We now can hear your conscious thinking as many are addicted to sending status updates throughout the day. Last March, celebrities created this obsession, empowering users to detail their own life through text. So what’s next? Well, have you checked your blackberry or iPhone lately? Your phone address book could instantly become updated with your friends facebook page or twitter account. Depending on your phone or the app installed, your phone will be become more engaged into social networking. Smartphones are growing to connect each person with the web, especially through apps, whether iPhone, Blackberry, or the new Android phones powered by Google. Apple and Google are battling in an App War and Microsoft is in the mix, but probably glad someone is helping to destroy Apple. If this is even possible, Google & Microsoft have a good grip on 2010, from cellular markets to software & electronics. I can’t wait to see the competition, it brings users more features & benefits!
As Google Search starts to include Tweets & Facebook pages within search engine results, SEO has changed greatly. The mysterious formula to get high rankings has changed from a few variables that were manipulated before, into a complex understanding of each webpage. No more meta tags! The Google bot reads a page, locating what famous sites are linking you, so having a twitter page actually helps. Listing your Twitter feed (widget) on your front page is a great idea. What else helps your rank? The bot reads your “alt tags” for images or even links, as this helps identify the content. If your website has relevant material about your industry, services, or products, then it will appear to be valuable in the search engine. The age of a website was once considered important, but nowadays, we aim for real-time results, like status updates and the newest news break. Try searching Google and clicking “show options” and find sites updated in the last week, year, etc or limit the number of shopping sites, news sites, etc. This is what users are playing with, so keep this in mind when establishing yourself online.
Social networking is powerful. It’s a invitation for conversation, not only because the fad of having an online profile is growing, but because its convenient and fast. When the trend dies down, we will start worrying about privacy and creating more closed networks, but for now, it’s fun! It’s actually putting the social in the networking, as I can’t get enough of nerdy friends to make convo & learn quicker. I find social networking much better than sending faxes, email, postal mail, or even in person, convincing a secretary to let me talk to the big man. Now, I just find their twitter account and send a joke, proposal, & my contact info within 140 characters, yea, I’m getting that good! The big man probably has a few dozen of tweets a day, but since I’m in the tech industry, most likely he’s infactuated with the growth as well. Use it, don’t abuse it, twitter and facebook are now very effective.
Back to social media. What’s the difference? Well, networking refers to just having a friends list. It doesn’tmatter from where, even though websites are currently in the lead, cell phones may have an unknown competitive advantage. Just joining is fun, but when you add content to your network, then you’re speaking social media. This includes pics, video, web links, and other things stored as files on your computer. Sharing these is important to many social sites. Just think of Youtube, the same design on every page, but entire site is created by user’s upload of videos. They are automatically created into a super site, this is called user generated content. We have seem to forget the term Web2.0 which was commonly used to describe this, but find some graphic designers using it as a term for adding 3d or reflection to button images.
Now let’s talk the future! Social networking sites are gearing up to empower web developers. Learning how to develop websites and Apps is now becoming complicated, but rewarding. I guarantee if you start to learn how to develop an Android App today, then you’ll be investing into a profitable skill. Apps are selling like crazy, from $2 – $10, or even free, if you’re trying to get your brand name out there. Now imagining starting a Android Twitter account, posting links of what you learn & search online, then selling your apps to the twitter audience. You could even manage your updates on Facebook and ask twitter to join you there. You can tweet from facebook or myspace now, or even check these on your cell phone 24hrs a day. This is the marketing effect of social media. Now each social networking site has a developer section to share ways to make the site even better. Nerds are frantically helping spawn this episode of social developer fever… and i like it! Try using the Facebook FBML, a new language as easy as HTML to let user login to your site & display their info. Twitter API looks good with php, curl, etc, and myspace is coming along in recent months to open up to coders.
There is too much going on, yes, sad to say. Every tech junkie is battling to become the next standard platform or help out to get recognition. Large corporations are the ones making the big moves. The little guys are smart… as well as have a chance for fame, but probably will sell out to the big guys for the right amount of money, yea, I would too! The skill of forming strategies and being innovative is the vital key, not the silly websites & software we’re addicted too, knowing how to create this at any minute (with available resources). Things will change so rapidly, that some developers are not willing to ride this rodeo. Something new could crumble your new online startup or shatter the dreamy project your worked on. Being “able to learn, quickly” is the asset most valuable. The goal should include becoming a “trendy nerd,” not just an inventor, and I guarantee you will survive, lol don’t take me so literal
Google wave has came and went, or has it? It’s not popular, for sure, but it’s innovation is remarkable and ahead of it’s time. To put it short and sweet, Google wave is Microsoft Word empowered status updates, with amazing social networking capabilities. And if you know MS Word, formatting your text as well as integrating web elements is lovely to a designer. I’m not sure if Google will manage to keep interest in this as I would imagine MS would simply find ways in networking its word processor files. The key at innovation is making sure everyone catches on quickly, look at twitter & facebook lingering for years. That’s why I like viral marketing, causing a reaction that forces users to tell more users and spread over social networks. A great web idea in 2010 can not be overlooked as more of the public is online, waiting to be entertained & empowered. For developers, I suggest learning ways to create social networks, link devices, compliment life & our daily routines. Make sure you have a great graphic designer to appeal with simplicity and a programmer that can allow users to have fun, share, store, & read in different languages. And most of all, marketing & advertising. You can spend all your money on Google ads, or you can just “shine online”. Attract the attention of noisemakers and large fanbases, such as media sites, high traffic blogs, or groups and organizations. Things that are trending in the news and humanitarian will always catch someone attention.
As everyone is linked to the web now through cell phones, netbooks, pc’s, video games, and more, the tech revolution begins. It starts with social networking, leads to social media, and will end with a cultural impact that allows devices and its data to become involved within our every move. I feel we just aim to become virtual, we love doing everything we already do, but with a device. We can even do more at a faster rate. I just worry how will it effect us socially as a cultural impact, sounds cute, but could bring more than we bargained. For now, have fun, tweet, post, and share your media. With the recession, social media kept us entertained, there is a God!
Try these sites for 2010:
http://newstimeline.googlelabs.com/
http://analytics.google.com
Buzzom.com
Mashable.com
Facebook.com/developers
Ning.com
Look out for these hot products in 2010:
3D HDTV Big Screens for $2000-8000, with 3d glasses costing $50-$100
Nintendo Wii with Netflix on demand
Android Apps
Google Nexus Phone
Microsoft Word finally gets a new release!
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