This is the time of year for introspection, and planning for the year ahead. It is also a time for predictions. SMCpros has put together their predictions for social media, technology, and the web in 2011:

Adam:

Facebook will offer features to compete further with LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Twitter. They already have 500 million users, so why not allow people to section off profile info by professional info and professional contacts or allow strangers to ‘follow’ their activities like with Twitter. We have friends lists and different privacy features that could easily lead to such functionality.

Better agency relations through and through from social platforms.

The most viewed/visited Facebook profile, Fanpage, Twitter account, or LinkedIn profile will be leaked anonymously showing how much individual traffic the top person or business receives.

Social will affect the way Nielson ratings are gathered. The demographic profile data is already on individuals’ Facebook profiles, so why not get a better pulse on what they are doing? More transparency.

Facebook may unveil a default profile box that allows people to submit thoughts on political votes and social change. This would allow for a truer consensus of opinions.

Social will evolve to be less about what you say and more about what you do since most users will only interface with social on their mobile devices and don’t necessarily care about profile info of friends.

Tyler:
People outside of Silicon Valley begin to realize the power and usefulness of Quora, something most people still have not heard of.

Facebook’s revenue quadruples and its valuation nearly triples to $150 billion

Video phone conversations will become common

Home phone lines and cable tv subscriptions will drop faster than ever

Sarah:
Facebook will come up with a better email messaging system that will be used more heavily than gmail, hotmail and yahoo.

We will start seeing more people globally recognizing that social media isn’t as personal and in turn will use it to share interesting videos and news pieces they come across with friends.

Companies will start realizing the power of mobile smart phones and will start developing lighter versions of their websites so people can access through their phones. 1.5x the amount in 2010

Double the amount of companies will realize that social media campaigns weave into marketing as a whole. More will incorporate a full marketing campaign taking customers/clients from a commercial, to a microsite and to the store or restaurant and finally back to a social platform while tracking it through analytics.

Hulu will allow you to customize your ad experience in a better manner. Perhaps in a form of a drop down menu with different types of industries. So rather than letting you select from 3 car advertising commercials, there are 10 that are completely different from one another.

Businesses will continue to increase their online customer service by serving and responding to their clients and customers inquiries and feedback through social media platforms such as Twitter.

Matt:
Google will continue to go attack and try to dominate Yelp by adding new improvements to places in a move to expand their location based offerings. This is all in the spirit of this past years rebrand of the Google maps “Local Business Center” to “Places” and the improvements that went along with it such as the ability for business’s to respond to visitor reviews.

Facebook will launch a competitor in social search, most likely on the back of Bing due to their pre-existing relationship. In my view Facebook has reshaped the “Profile” into a more searchable conglomeration of very open and very wiki type tidbits of information — of which we will continue to see an improvement in the way we can search this data, and this will probably include further changes in this direction to the Facebook we know and love.

Dan:
The Rise of Social Media Analytics.

I truly believe that 2011 is the year of Social Media Analytics. With the rise of and social media (Remember? Facebook overtaking Google), more and more marketers and business owners are asking themselves, “what is working with our social strategy and what isn’t?” For most organizations, the answer isn’t always obvious. However, there may be light at the end of the tunnel. With the recent update of Facebook Insights, and the recent news of Twitter’s Official Analytics system, social platforms are taking social media measurement to the next level.

2011 will be the year of Social Media Analytics. Businesses and marketers are beginning to realize that data needs to be at the core of their social strategy.

Mitchell:
I think that 2011 is the year of numbers. I think that there will be a breakthrough in tracking ROI (for campaigns that need it) as well as ways of tracking campaigns that are not revenue-driven.

We will also get to a new level of tracking multimedia campaigns. TV, radio, email, print, direct, social, search, PPC will all coalesce into a new era of analytics.

As a developer, this is more of a hope, but I think that 2011 will be the year of interoprabilitiy between platforms. We will see more API’s, and agree on a standard like activitystrea.ms. This will usher in a new wave of both campaign management and social tracking tools.

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I know that there are only a few shopping days left until Christmas, but luckily, we came up with 10 gifts that most geeks would love, and can be gotten fairly quickly.

Virgin Mobile Hotspot – $150

This is one of the coolest devices I have seen in a while, and I instantly coveted it. Would it not be for my access to several mobile hotspots, I would have bought one of these already. Aside from the upfront investment, you can then only pay for the data when you need it. It makes this the perfect device for a on-the-go person to have in their bag. I know that I always carry a MiFi when I travel – its cheaper than airport and hotel WiFi, and I can turn it on, and connect my phone, Macbook, and iPad to it. The data is $10 for 100MB, which is more than enough for a few hours of web surfing, email, and cruising Facebook while on a lay over at LAX on your way to SFO (as I will be in a month on my CES trip). They also have a $40 option, which is a month of unlimited data.

Over the Top Device – $70-$100

2010 was the year of the streaming media device on top of your TV. There were major entrants from makers like Apple, Roku, and Google, and they all seemed to take off more this year than any other year. Both the Roku and the Apple TV (new version) are at the top of the pile, and which one is best depends entirely on your geek. If they are an Apple fan, or own an iPad, go with the Apple TV – you can stream to it from any other Apple device using AirPlay, meaning you can be streaming The West Wing to your TV, and then move the viewing to your iPad on your porch, all without losing your place or even starting the stream over.

The Roku line offers more options however, depending on the resolutions of their TV. They offer more sources for streaming, so if they have Netflix or Hulu Plus, its a great option (the Apple TV only does Netflix). However, it is more of a stand-alone device, rather than a complement to your existing system and computers.

23andMe – $99

This recommendation came from our own Adam Maikkula. 23andMe is an at-home home DNA sequence kit. It recently came down in price, putting it in the range of most people. It will give you back a report on your genes, from which you can gain insight. Perfect for science geeks, and anyone who is interested in what is up with their genes. It will “help you gain insight into your traits, from baldness to muscle performance. Discover risk factors for 93 diseases. Know your predicted response to drugs, from blood thinners to coffee. And uncover your ancestral origins.”

iPad/phone case

This is something that I am hoping for. I have a few cases that I like, but I also love things like cases from friends/relatives – they just seem to mean a bit more, and anything is better if there is a story behind it. Make sure to know what model of phone they have.

WhiteyBoard

This is one of my favorite products of 2010. The WhiteyBoard is a whiteboard that sticks to your wall. It comes in various sizes, and are all reasonably priced. It is the perfect way to add a whiteboard to an office, dorm room, or home office. If your geek likes to draw things out (who doesn’t?), take a look at this product.

A few months of a web service – $?

Finally, you could give them anywhere from a month to a year of their favorite web service, a web app they need, or something they would not buy for themselves

• Netflix – DVD’s by mail or streaming. One of my favorite services. A few people on my list are getting this.
• BackBlaze or CrashplanEveryone should have online, offsite backup. These are two of my favorite providers.
• DropboxOnline file storage and cloud syncing. Perfect for anyone with multiple computers, or who travels. We use it for all our filesharing here at SMCpros.
• iTunes/Amazon gift card – Feed their digital habits.
• Music Streaming – If your geeks love music, a subscription to Pandora, Grooveshark, or Mog would be adored by them.

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This weekend, I had the pleasure of participating in WordCampMSP, a day long event based around WordPress and its use.

I presented twice, both times on analytics. One was a beginner presentation, one was advanced. Below are the presentations and a few main points from each.

Hits: A look into Web Analytics

Main Points:

The 3 most important things to focus on, in order:

1. Traffic Sources-Where did people come from?
2. Content- What did they do?
3. Visitors-Who are they?

And, based on this, the 3 most important reports:

1. Traffic->Overview
2. Traffic->Detail
3. Content->By Title

Beyond Hits: Web Analytics Beyond the Simple

Most Important Points, in no particular order:

• If you are running ads, use tracking tags to manage the campaign
• Use Custom reports to make your life easier
• Use Intelligence to stay on top of things
• If you have a spike in traffic, make sure to analyze it separate from the rest of the month

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SMCpros is proud to announce the release of the new WordPress plugin for Foursquare’s new tip/todo adding feature.

Mitchell Hislop, an employee of SMCpros, has been working with the Foursquare team for a few months now to ensure it will work with their future growth plans.

This plugin allows you and your web team to create an “Add to my Foursquare” button easily to your WordPress blog or website giving your visitors an easy way to add your place to their Foursquare to-do list. Now, when somebody visits your site and wants to easily remember to check out your restaurant, bar, or pool hall the next time they are out, it will pop-up on their phone’s foursquare application.

The plugin is easy to install onto your wordpress site. You can see it implemented on the Lancer Auto Service Blog as well as on our site (below). You can either find it in the plugin repository or by downloading it here

This plugin adds a few fields to a post, and if you fill in a venue ID and tip, it will allow a publisher to easily add the button to add a tip/to-do from their own website!

If you find any bugs, or have any feedback, email mhislop{at}smcpros.com

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Here is your roundup of all the top stories for the last week. Now, I have to get that buzzing out of my ears:

Facebook:

The first Facebook story is actually from today. Reuters announced that it looks like Facebook did $800MM last year in revenue, and had profits in the tens of millions of dollars. Considering that most of their revenue comes from ads, that means that they served something like 700MM ads last year, or about 2 million per day.

This is big news, because it is not only proof that these online networks can make money, it also shows that Facebook should be around for a while, which is good news for any marketers looking at running a campaign on it. (source)

Also in Facebook news, they finally decided to allow the creator of a page to be removed as an admin. This means that now, agencies can make the page and hand it off, rather than jump through all the current hoops that one has to. (source)

Twitter:

One of the biggest stories of the week was the trouble that twitter has been having recently. The uptime has been really poor as of late, and Twitter knows it. It is due to things like engineering changes, the World Cup, and the NBA Finals. They are working on it, and they fully admit that it is their fault. Look for it to be better in the middle of July, and even better beginning in August, when they change the way that 3rd parties authenticate with Twitter. (source)

Also, their new ads started rolling out. They show up in the “Trends” Section, and are distinguished from the rest with a little “Promoted” tag. The first one was for Toy Story 3 (source)

Other:

In the other news of the week, WordPress released WP3.0, the latest milestone release for the popular blogging software. Included in this release are over 1200 bugfixes, a new menu system, and the merging of the multi-blog and single-blog branches. It is also a recommended update for all users. (source)

Finally, it looks like Amazon has patented social networking. No one really knows whats going on here, but it is a fun patent to read. (source)

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HTML5 is the new proposed standard for how websites are made. While it is not official yet, many browsers and companies are already supporting it. HTML5 brings several new features to the table, and will make browsing the internet faster, easier, and more like working with a desktop program.

The main theme in HTML5 is to do more in the browser, and without plugins. Prior to now, most things being done on the web needed a plugin if it was much more complex than displaying simple text or images. Videos, games, and offline storage currently require a plugin, making the integration with the browser sloppy at best. HTML5′s new technologies remove the need for these, allowing the web to work a lot better, and enabling a new generation of applications.

New Features:

• The Canvas: The canvas is an all-new way to display graphics on the web. Previously, web graphics had to be static, or needed to be Flash. With the canvas, images, games, or other visuals can be created on the fly, in the browser, without the need for plugins.

• Video: HTML5 will change the way video on the web happens. Much like the canvas, the new “Video” element allows the video to be in the browser without needing a plugin, or using Adobe Flash.

• Geolocation: Rather than needing to look up an IP adderess to guess a users location (whether for a map or an ad), HTML5 will be able to tell a users location much more accurately, allowing the next generation of location-based applications to also exist in the browser.

• Offline: HTML5 includes a way for a website to function offline, without a plugin like Google Gears. This will make it much easier, and more useful, to use local storage, which will further increase the benefits of apps like Gmail.

For more information, Focus.com has an infographic that does a great job explaining it.

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Over the last two weeks, both Twitter and Facebook held their developer conferences, Chirp and f8. Both of these events had announcements that turned the social world on its head.

Chirp

Chirp, Twitter’s developer conference, brought several things to light. It first shed more light on the announcement that came the day before, about Twitter’s “Promoted Tweets”, their advertising mechanisim. This service places tweets at the top of search results, which function like tweet despite being sponsored by a company. At first, this service is only open to a few select companies, with more being added in phase 2. Additionally, the ads may make the move to a user’s timeline sometime in late 2010.

Chirp also came after many Twitter 3rd-party developers were in outrage with their acquisitions of Atebits, makers of Tweetie, an iPhone Twitter client. They viewed this as Twitter trying to push them out of business. Twitter’s platform manager, Ryan Sarver, posted on the Google Group for the API that they were not making “official” applications, but rather trying to make it easier for a new user to find what they are looking for. Many users looked in the iPhone app store, but could not find a client that looked “official” and gave up. The purchase of Atebits, as well as the partnering to create a BlackBerry client, was to ease this issue. They are not blocking developers, and actually use the exact same API’s; keeping developers on a level playing field with the company itself.

Twitter also rolled out a few new technical features-@anywhere and the new Stream API, as well as a new developer website. @anywhere allows people to make Twitter interactions on any website, such as following someone, tweeting, and getting information about a user. For an example of this, look at my tech analyzing website, where I implemented it. The stream API is to get more low-latency updates for applications, allowing for better access for Twitter. The new developer website simply provides a homepage for developers, bringing together several disparate sites under one umbrella.

f8

Facebook announced several changes that rocked the social world  (whether someone wants to admit it or not). The biggest announcement was about a “like” button for the entire web. Using their tool, any website can have a “like” button, and use it to see engagement by users/viewers. In some cases, such as IMDB, this allows users’ profiles to have their interests updated when they like a movie. Several people, including myself, commented that Facebook is trying to own the entire web with this move.

Facebook also announced several new API’s, all of which make it easier to interact with Facebook, and allow applications to know more about a user, their interests, their connections, and their social graph. This has led to several people panicking over privacy concerns since 3rd-party apps have even more access to information than before. (If you are concerned about this, the settings you need to change are in Facebook’s Security Center).

Facebook also launched these API’s with several high-profile partners, such as Pandora and CNN.

What does this all mean?

The question that I spent most of Wednesday night losing sleep over is “What does this all mean?” These changes certianly changed the social media world, but in what way?

These moves show a concerted effort by Facebook and Twitter to extend their influence, and data-collection abilities, beyond their own domains. Now, you can interact with Facebook from everywhere, not just a site you are connected too or a main domain. For businesses, this means that you now can have even more insight into your customers, their habits, and what they care about.

Advertising is now more accurate, since people are able to update their interests and likes with much less friction. This data is what Facebook uses to display ad results, making it much targeted, meaning your dollars are being used much more wisely.

If you are interested in implementing any of these new technologies for your business, please contact us!

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I have had several chats with people recently about blogging, and want to share some thoughts on it. There are several groups of people who should be blogging:

Students:

As a student myself, I see blogging as the #1 way to set yourself apart. It does not matter what industry you are in, you should be blogging. Accounts can talk about and show their knowledge, marketing people can show off their chops, political science majors can show their opinions, report the news, and give analysis, and artists can use it as a portfolio. I challenge you to give me a major where it would not help to blog.

Business owners:

If you have a business, take one hour a week to blog. It can be from a teaching perspective or a company news perspective, whatever it might be, make sure you are getting it out there and sharing your knowledge and expertise.

Moms/Dads/Parents:

This is a perfect way to document your kid’s childhood, to share your child with everyone, and to share (and gain) tips and tricks with other parents, or soon-to-be parents.

Job Seekers:

Basically the same as students. You can use this to show your potential and what you have done. It is a great way to share what you would want to do with your current employer, without mentioning names, without the risk of confrontation.

So yes, this basically covers everyone. One thing I tell everyone is that others are blogging about it, you should be too. This applies especially to students and job seekers-for instance, I am a student, and I blog. This will help put me over students who dont blog, putting them at a disadvantage.

I will blog next week about the benefits of blogging-the less obvious ones, not the “you can get exposure” ones.

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It is no secret that I have something similar to a love affair with the open source content management system WordPress. I have stickers all over my laptop and notebooks, and even on a lamp in the office.

People often ask me why I love it so much, or why they should use it themselves. I have finally written down my answer:

Some of the things I love about WordPress:

• Ease of use:
  • WordPress has a very nice back-end, which allows anyone to be able to add or edit content site-wide.
  • It is also very easy to add functionality using plug-ins.
  • Design is handled by themes, allowing you to either use one you like or create/modify an existing one.
• Reliability:
  • WordPress is one of the top content management systems, and has a vibrant community around it. This allows it to be updated constantly, making sure there are no bugs.
  • It is also really easy to get support for because of this community.
• Power:
  • WordPress can handle anything from a simple one page blog to a massive website, and anything from no traffic to 100,000 unique visits a day.
  • WordPress can be completely customized, allowing people of every level of expertise to leverage it

Why you should use WordPress:

1. It’s free
2. It’s easy
3. It’s powerful
4. It’s supported
5. The community behind it is there for you
6. Any business can benefit from having a blog.

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Yesterday, Google made another move in the direction of owning the Internet with their announcement about Buzz, their new social platform built into GMail.

This platform leverages your existing social graph that you have built up while using GMail. Much the same as it remembers the contact information of people you email often with, it will add these people as your friends in Buzz. You can also direct people to your Google profile, which will allow them to follow you on Buzz.

There are also location based features built in. You can Buzz from your iPhone or Android phone (running 2.0), and it will tag your location.

It feels a lot like FriendFeed to me, which was a place to aggregate content and comment on or discuss things. It is akin to a long form of Twitter, with comments and likes similar to Facebook. Facebook recently purchased FriendFeed, and some think that Buzz is because of that.

Currently, Buzz is mostly early adopters talking about how cool it is. It will be interesting to see over the next month which direction it will take: will it be the geeky-cool place for the tech people to chat (like Friendfeed), or will it be a platform everyone can leverage (like Twitter).

Buzz seems to be best for times when you want to create more long-form content, yet you don’t want to do it as a blog post (either it doesn’t fit, is not valuable enough, or it is directed at people). You can direct your messages to people while still having them be public. It is the interesting niche between a blog, Twitter, and chat.

It can also import content from other sites, such as Twitter, Flickr, and blogs.

It is currently being rolled out to everyone, and should be  active completely by early next week.

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