The United States Government seems to change their limitations for employees accessing social media on a daily basis- well we do know that the Government has a tendency to change policies regularly, so how does this apply to social media today? While the “loosening of the social media belt” is taking place across the board, certain government organizations are finding it easier to do their jobs because of this. More government organizations are embracing social media, allowing collaboration and sense of community to flourish between employees (and We the People). A recent survey entitled “Social Networking in Government: Opportunities & Challenges” reports that 66 percent of all government agencies are currently using some type of social networking, varying from blogs to Facebook, Twitter, message boards and all the other social networking type of applications. GovLoop is just one such example of a social media platform specifically tailored for the government employee to connect and share information. While the current membership is just approximately 20,000 it is a growing community that is specialized to one target sector. Does this mean that we may see more tailored communities like this to develop in the future?
A recent post on Advertising Age entitled “What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012” captured my attention and got me thinking (this could be dangerous, I know). Needless to say the article speculated that in 2009 most major marketers adopted social media as something that is here to stay and not just a fad. While I agree with this to some extent, the article went on to outline the eleven points to watch for in the coming years leading up to 2012.
• Privacy expectations will have to change: Sharing more personal information with people you don’t even know…hummm although some may be all into this I don’t think it is necessary for complete strangers to know my favorite color or what my preferred pizza topping is.
• Complete decentralization of social networks: Everything is becoming more portable from iPad to iPhone many check friend’s status updates and news while on the run.
• Our interactions with search engines will be different: I agree with the fact that real-time information will be king.
• Rise of content aggregators: Who wants to login to 5 different social networking services to check on statuses and news- the aggregator can serve as man’s best friend.
• Social media augmented reality: Kind of scary to know what your friend is doing before even picking up the phone to call. This to me takes away a certain level of personal contact, just like email has reduced the number of snail mail letters that are sent.
• Influencer marketing will be redefined: Social influence will have more pull than the old-school search features that Google and other major search engines currently offer.
• Ratings everywhere: User ratings could hinder or help, all dependent upon the specific instance. A lot of purchasers nowadays look at how products are rated by users before ultimately making the purchase decision.
• Social media agents: Oh great! More things going automated and taking the person out of the customer service experience, please press 0 not to be connected to a live person.
• Riding the Google (wave): It could be the next big thing, but only time will tell.
• Thinking beyond “nowness”: Could the answer really be the semantic web?
• Social media everything and return of digital media: Not too sure that social media may change to being referred to as digital media.
