We’ve done the requisite look back at the year and obligatory gaze forward to the trends that will drive 2011, but those posts are really about social media as a whole.
I feel like we’ve got one last bit of holiday business to attend to before the start of the new year: looking back at what we’ve done here at SmartBlog on Social Media and what that says about the year we just wrapped up.
Here’s our top 10 original pieces from 2010:
- Live from SXSW: Viral video how-tos from the pros
- SMSS: How to use LinkedIn with business savvy
- Live from IABSM: Coke’s ingredients for social media
- How Cisco defines business-to-business social-media success … and achieves it
- Why your boss should let you use Facebook at work
- Facebook finds a way to predict your ethnicity
- 8 tools for upgrading your Twitter experience
- How to make your Facebook content “Top News”
- Build a Facebook fan base by adding value
- What does the future of corporate social-media strategy look like??
Looking at that list, I’m struck by four big trends.
- 2010 was all about how to do social media marketing better. Now that the basics are well understood, everyone is looking to optimize. I expect this will be even more true in the coming year, as we’re all looking to refine even the smallest aspects of our social media strategies. In the new year, everything will be under a microscope; no advantage is too small to be discounted.
- The big four social networks — Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn — still dominate. We heard a lot about location-based networks and niche tools this year, but SBoSM readers are focused on the networks that give them the widest reach.
- You guys seriously like it when we go to conferences. I think can live with that.
- Lastly, I’ve noticed, in these posts and elsewhere, that readers seem to be increasingly interested in the strategic planning behind social media campaigns. I think that reflects a growing maturity in the sector and a realization that having the right approach beats having the right tool set.
What social media ideas/tools/tactics/strategies are you interested in seeing us write about in 2011?
Image credit: swedeandsour, via iStockPhoto