Comments on: What is Social Media’s ‘big thing’ for 2008?

By: Omaniblog

Omaniblog — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:12:16 +0000

I guess all good things come to an end.

By: Omaniblog

Omaniblog — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:36:12 +0000

Welcome back here Tom. I’m delighted I clicked on you and found this wonderful thread. It’s an essay on current thinking and doing.
I’ve noticed a big expansion in Facebook among all my extended family, especially over Christmas. So much so that I decided to join them and try it. I am impressed by it’s ability to do things ‘effortlessly’ (like let me display my blog posts, and upload photos, and tag them): it’s good for people who have few technical skills and simply want to do things without understanding the magic that makes them happen. I love how it lets you say what you’re doing right now. But most people don’t update that often. I’m thinking that when I pull together all my 2009 short inputs, it’ll be interesting to see what shape my mood had this year. It was the year I set myself an objective to grow my Facebook Friends (FFs) from 23 to 500 by December 2009 in order to cultivate a network of people who might be interested in my book about depression when that gets to publication stage. The year I found myself thinking seriously about how I could do more with less effort through making all the social networking tools I use fit seamlessly together.
For me, 2008 was the year I discovered I could write a play on my mobile phone, in between waiting for the coffee to arrive. The year I used my phone to write stand-up comedy scripts in time that was never available to me, like when stuck in a traffic jam (with the engine turned off of course). It was the year I read that 7 of the top 10 selling novels in Japan were written on mobile phones.
Like others, it was the year I realised how much unrealised potential there is for community-making and meaning-sharing. The gradual build up of frustrations that it doesn’t all come together yet, but bloody well might.
Wherever you are, keep it up. Best wishes to all.

By: Andy Lax

Andy Lax — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:12:18 +0000

I believe that Twellow solved a very important need, enabling users to better locate Twitter’s participants based on a common area of expertise or other attribute.
Other social media sites enhanced their own methods of categorization and organization.

2008 also saw an increased interest among marketing executives in the use of social media. I remember
reading one study that revealed that 50% of marketing
execs now view social media as crucial in disseminating corporate communication.

By: DaveMcC

DaveMcC — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:22:42 +0000

2008 has been a time of social networking moving mainstream — with even middle-aged parents and grandparents joining Facebook in droves.

In my own world, I’ve started to hear backlash about people’s time spent on social networks as they seek balance between online and personal relationships.

Twitter noise has certainly filled the channel in 2008 with a myriad of niche-ey ways to enhance that experience. It still seems most “regular folks” are scratching their heads about Twitter’s value and don’t know why they’d need yet another destination to visit and maintain.

2009 will be an interesting year!

By: jak

jak — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 19:28:39 +0000

offline meetups are taking off all across the country. meetup.com – tweetups, wordcamps, etc.

By: Manuel

Manuel — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:32:22 +0000

I would say the 2008 big thing is mobile internet! Makes blogging much easier and faster.

By: The Sexy Pedestrian

The Sexy Pedestrian — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:40:41 +0000

I was wondering the same thing myself, what’s ‘cool’ now? I’m new to blogging (I know, welcome to four years ago) and I’ve just got the hang of it so I’m really hoping everyone doesn’t decide to move onto something new like Vlogging – ha! Imagine, a blog with a VIDEO! That’ll never happen.

By: imotion » Blog Archive » Top Seven Social Media, Online Marketing, and Internet Trends for 2009

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:55:41 +0000

[...] Media 2008 to 2009 Trends Resources: • Social Media Trends for 2008: Tom Raftery looks back at Whats Hot in Social Media for 2008? • Social Media Trend for 2009: Social media based Recruiting and Human Resources • Social Media [...]

By: Marce

Marce — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 20:47:54 +0000

Great post Tom!

By: Julie Minevich

Julie Minevich — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:38:54 +0000

Tom, your blog post inspired me to write about my opinions on what will be social media’s legacy for 2008…

In my opinion, companies realized that doing things the closed-off, aloof way is just sooo 2007. Instead, 2008 brought a spirit of openness and partnership… or at least the realization that it might be worth it to disclose some proprietary knowledge so that developers, both amateur and professional, can learn your product, become an evangelist, and help your site extend its capabilities — for free! Pure genius.

The complete blog post (and my 2008 ‘big thing’) can be found here: http://julieminevich.com/definitive-social-media-aspect-of-2008/.

Enjoy!

By: Definitive Social Media Aspect of 2008? » The Misadventures of Julie

Definitive Social Media Aspect of 2008? » The Misadventures of Julie — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:28:24 +0000

[...] you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.On his blog, Tom Raftery contemplates what Social Media will be defined by as we look back at [...]

By: Apollo Gonzales

Apollo Gonzales — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:15:27 +0000

I can’t remember where I read it, but I agree with the sentiment that the-next-big-thing is mastering-the-last-big-thing. Will this carry us through 2009, not likely, but I do think it’s going to dominate the first quarter. We see the Obama administration making huge strides in using technologies from the last 2 years for governance (or at the very least pubic input).

By: Dennis Howlett

Dennis Howlett — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:38:20 +0000

What tom said +1 (and not before time)

By: jon burg

jon burg — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:34:27 +0000

2008 was the year that we stopped thinking about the destination as the experience and rethought the social dynamic. Whether it be Friendfeed or Digsby, Twitter or Plaxo or Xobni, 2008 was the year that this became ours rather than theirs (the platforms). With the introduction of Facebook Connect, the revised Typepad/Typekey ID platform, and cross platform social intelligence solutions, this was the year that our digital walls started to fall.

We are abondoning the destination, but we started making our destinations smarter, aggregated and customized. As noise increased, we redefined the signal to meet our needs. We stopped being a community by destination or platform, and became a meta-community of people, real people, living across multiple environments and multiple destinations.

It’s not web.you, web.me or web.us. It’s web.life

By: Ivan Heneghan

Ivan Heneghan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:21:41 +0000

I’d love to add something new, but I’m afraid my own viewpoint has been stated above – firstly, it’s been a year of adoption, and of consolidation; secondly, I’ve seen an increase in the adoption of social media for business purposes; and thirdly, aggregators have arrived on the scene.

By: Five Top Social Media and Web Trends for 2009 « Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Justice, Non-Profits, and Life Theology

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:56:50 +0000

[...] Media Trends Resources: Tom Raftery looks back at Whats Hot in Social Media for 2008? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The trajectory of Social Media ClubWriting a [...]

By: Nathan Ketsdever

Nathan Ketsdever — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:51:39 +0000

1) Mobile and iPhone. Although, I think the surface has only been scratched here.
2) Will semantic web or hyper-local be big?
3) Hopefully more innovation and success in monetization models will kick in so more open source projects can be sustainable.
4) Crowd souring has the potential to take off pretty big, although i don’t see the online movement in that direction. The launch of Predictify suggest such a conclusion. Also, Idea Blob has been fairly successful. There are a number of crowd sourcing creative (graphic design and video) that are bubbling to the surface beyond the e-lance model. This will only continue to increase as the need for outsourcing and budget cutting begins
5) A focus on efficiency and productivity. This may push the need for filtering and make 2009 the year of the editor. The launch of Filtrbox has been huge. I hear that Shel is working on a project in this area, but I think its longer term.
6) Leveraging offline connection with online connection. Certainly the unconference movement and Meet up have pushed for more person to person contact, however the pressense of twitter along with the burgeoning mobile market make this a place for great innovation and great potential ROI.

By: @JeanAnnVK

@JeanAnnVK — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 22:32:24 +0000

I would say it will be personalized platforms like Ning. I think that is one of the reasons Obama was successful in SM. They jumped in on the right platform as it is emerging.

By: Will Knott

Will Knott — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:33:21 +0000

I think the main change was the step in to the mainstream, and on to the mobile and cloud.

The mobile is getting to the point where blogging (too many to mention), audio & video (qik) and microblogging (twinkle, twitterberry etc) are usable on the mobile platform.

Tying in to this is the rise of the netbooks. The EEEPC is a tiny underpowered thing, which is incredibly useful now that the processing is not taking place on the device. Similarly, some of the processing is moved off a mobile device, making it more useful.

And this innovation isn’t taking place in a basement, but a coffee shop and in the malls.

Social networking isn’t new (neither is cloud computing, it’s an evolution of the old mainframe model) but it now mainstream.

The building blocks since 2004 now have their own hardware.

By: WineDiverGirl

WineDiverGirl — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:26:50 +0000

Yes in support of the above listed comments…AND, in addition to aggregating and streamlining all of any one person’s social media and ease of use, the business/marketing world will drastically improve their participation, contribution to and value added to their community of choice. We’ll see even more consumer driven experiences, improvements and adjustments that Brands/Companies will have to make to keep their consumers happy. I, for one, am looking forward to that dialogue and the quantum leaps business can make as a result.