2010 - Year of Social Media?

After many years of the introduction of social media, 2010 has been the year social media has seen wide acceptance as a marketing channel. Many case studies were released of companies exceling in deploying social media as a marketing tool.

Image courtesy: SmallBizTrends

2010 is the year that saw experts and practitioners emphasise on engagement rather than spread. Likes, followers and comments were highly sought after in media campaigns. New ways of monitoring and analysing returns of investment have been devised and implemented successfully breaking the fears of inability to measure success. More and more senior management are coming on board the social bandwagon - not because everybody is but because they are convinced of its power. It is true to say that, social media has gained special status in companies with record breaking hires of social media specialists. The year also sees a surge of social media protagonists.

The growth of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn users has been phenomenal this year. New mobile applications helped propagate these tools to the mobile, tech savvy and young masses.

Now that social media has reached its maturity and a new level of acceptance by the public and the marketing community, it is interesting to anticipate what 2011 has in store for this dynamic and innovative field of marketing. Experts believe 2011 to be the year of 'mobile'. Though nothing can be said for sure, it sure will be a prospective year for social media.