Monday, July 11, 2011

50 Predictions for Social Media in the Next 10 Years

A good friend of mine, Todd Stephens, posted this set of 50 predictions.  I was so intrigued, I wanted to open this up beyond our internal discussion.....

Todd wrote....

Where will social media be in the next decade? What do you think will happen to our organization around social media that will impact the company? I spent some time during my vacation to ponder this idea and 50 things jumped into my head. Somewhere between Golf, Fishing, and Pina Colada’s the following list emerged. Where do you agree? Where do you Disagree? What would you add?

  1. More mobile device with social input capability emerge as a core communications technology.
  2. Increased and more diverse use of crowd sourcing technology (versus idea ranking today).
  3. Deeper analysis tools for social information (bi or ai) which allow for a better consumption of information.
  4. Employee profiles will expand and be central in team formation based on talent.
  5. Social communications will replace traditional forms of communications. Rip email and memo traditions.
  6. Social media in recruiting, training, and reviews will be common place.
  7. Business model change will increase, systems will fail to stay current, only social media can adapt to the rapid pace of business. Leadership light bulbs finally turn on.
  8. Social media will integrate into traditional areas of the business such as the training classes, accounting, bi, architecture, product reviews, human resources, etc.
  9. Social media tools extend or integrate outside the organization and blend the enterprise.
  10. Ability to create, upload, integrate, and manage social content will get easier and perhaps seamless.
  11. Mutli-sensing devices emerge to enhance social information (i.e. Presence or function performed).
  12. Virtual environment advance and become common place within the business environment (training, off-site sessions, stakeholder meetings, team).
  13. Training and virtual conferencing moves toward a social experience.
  14. Project work and project plans adapt in real time with social media feedback.
  15. Employee reviews will have a social media contribution component. Sharing information versus hoarding it.
  16. Every project or work activity will have a social media component; it’s required.
  17. Employees will learn personal branding, self-reliance, self-actualization, and the ability to define business value from their trademarks.
  18. Education, training, gaming, and social media will transform how the employee base enhances their skill portfolio.
  19. Rotational assignments will no longer be the choice of management but reputation capital will be the clear driver.
  20. Elite teams will know how to leverage the crowd in order to deliver value quickly and directly. Much as small military squads leverage technology and information for quick strikes.
  21. Social learning will be a requirement and a life long requirement.
  22. Social media will extend beyond business only areas; financial management, golf, day care, local businesses, etc.
  23. Marketing, communications, social responsibility blur.
  24. Social media will lift the vail of application utility; good enough internal applications will no longer be. Employees want amazon style applications all from the cloud.
  25. Unified communications embraces social media (i.e. Out of office integrates profiles not just outlook).
  26. Instant messaging and/or status messaging will be common place and not just from the individual perspective.
  27. Video casts will become common place and the primary source of information exchange.
  28. Complete integration of all platforms into an individual workspace: uc, im, social media, collaboration, applications.
  29. Employee models will pre-load these workspaces into integrate employee experience centers.
  30. The physical and social lines blur (tec vesus virtual tec; digital signage and product placement).
  31. Mobile social applications become first priority versus the laptop or desktop.
  32. Social media adapts to the employee focus or persona. An employee interesting in a new mobile device will have the social environment dynamically adapt to the situation versus the same interface regardless of need.
  33. Social media replaces middle management as the force of work planning, organizing, and execution.
  34. Promotions will become meaningless as employees look for career experiences that enhance skills. These career navigations and roadmaps will replace promotional ladders.
  35. Job descriptions will be replaced by a social profile work portfolio. Trademarks emerge as the main career measurement structure.
  36. Personal branding and employee profile replace employment history.
  37. New social skills will be required by managers where they learn to manage diverse, dynamic, temporary highly skilled workers. Real Coaching?
  38. Generation X moves into leadership positions and the baby boomers will be wondering what went wrong. Retirement? Success? Mindset?
  39. Gen Y enters the workforce in mass and everything changes at that point from a technology and value creation basis.
  40. 80-90% of the work will be done by mobile, telecommuting, or temporary workers which requires social media to communicate effectively.
  41. Horizontal and vertical value chains will be replaced by circular ones (think apple versus Coca-Cola or Google versus Exxon). All connected with social media.
  42. Teams and organization reduce size by 20-30%. Less overhead needed with full transparency, open communications, advanced technology, etc.
  43. Social media gets personalization on steroids. No more searching and scanning; everything adapts to you and your needs.
  44. Peer-to-peer learning and mentoring takes hold and adds to the employee education experience.
  45. The pervasive approaches to information hoarding and information sharing come to blows and transparency wins
  46. The physical world and the social world will be so integrated that only will you be unable to tell the difference, there will be no difference and if separated a void will appear
  47. Leadership will be tested as many mistakes will happen in the world of social media when it comes to privacy, ip, and business planning. Unlike today, innovation and speed will trump the caution and concern.
  48. Social media will finally have concrete roi measures and enough case studies to model, pattern, and build off of.
  49. Life, work, home, fun, hobbies, research, interests, experience, ideas and people converge into a singularity.
  50. Enterprises finally see large scale adoption, contribution, and creation from more than 50% of the resource base.

How many of these do you agree will come to pass.  Your comments are welcome.