Looking at the digital marketplace and customer behaviour is something that I think every digital marketer and personnel should follow. Knowing what is out there, what can be used, and what will be coming soon is vital in online evolution.

If we take a look at all the large mass-market, global players in social media and ask what made them successful? We should hopefully come to the conclusion that they met the evolving needs of users at the right time, with the right approach.

If you look at some of the major players that have hit the scene over the last 5 years or so (E.g. Facebook, Twitter and blogs), they all followed a similar style with regards to market penetration. Both products were in a pilot stage for a couple of years with techies, digital specialists and/or niche markets and then expanded due to organic, exponential, viral growth. Each product delivered the next thing that customers wanted from the previous big thing.
Blogs fulfilled a need (I'm not sure if it was known at the time of creation) of how to communicate specialist information online without technical expertise to build a website. Facebook provided "update" engagement which previous social networks lacked - as well as providing the foundations for more user interaction online. Twitter followed on to provide a new version of the hugely successful “status update” combined with minimising the effort of blogging.

So by looking at this pattern, what are the next steps in Social Media? Well this can vary depending on the customer behaviour development, but if we look at current trends, I think there are two real opportunities in the social media industry:

• Amalgamated feeds and updates
• Community engagement (social and business)

Depending on how customer behaviour evolves over the next year or two, should determine which products are the “next big thing” online.
If users get involved more and more with Twitter and Facebook and the growing need for micro-blogging and tracking becomes a key aspect to online communication, Amalgamated services such as FriendFeed could really take-off. FriendFeed has received great reports on its functionality and use, and the ability to simplify the diluted presence that users now have on the internet by collating information into one place could be very successful.

Amalgamation could be an obvious next step but there is a chance, with the unpredictability of users, that they leapfrog this stage and tackle “community engagement” such as building/collaborating in your own social network. This will allow users to follow only the people that they want to follow from a certain community, or even broaden this out to mass-market audiences at their own discretion. However, this is a large jump but one that is possible depending on customer needs and commercial direction.

The main player for community engagement that is receiving some real attention from digital agencies is Ning.com.  Their white-label services as well as their community based functionality, is making them a leading contender for community engagement. However, let’s not rule out our faithful platform Webjam and the upcoming Google Wave who has positioned themselves in the social network/collaboration arena. With Webjam’s superior functionality and usability, they have a real chance of competing with the likes of Ning. If they can get up there with regards to status and credibility, they could edge the battle, but there is a hill to climb. If not (and if positioned correctly), all is not lost! I think Webjam could be the next big thing post-community engagement – Community engagement plus digital presence as the flexibility of the platform ameks a shift in direction easiliy achievable.

With regards to Google Wave, if this is executed correctly, it could be a very exciting time in how users interact online and other companies may need to rethink their approach... especially with Google’s upcoming launch of Chrome OS.

With social media, there is always a next big thing, it’s how we can predict what this will be and how the marketing will shift around these changes. As for digital marketers, we need to track and implement its usage effectively in marketing strategies by observing what is popular as well as second guessing what will work in the future.

Related links

• FriendFeed
• Ning
• Webjam