Here are a few trends I expect this year. Your comments feedback are most welcome!
1. Social TV Integration
Many shows have already begun to integrate social TV, either through polling or integrating social elements within the show. See my example of how both the UFC and WWE are integrating social media into their programming. Social media played a pivotal role in the last presidential election, and it will likely be more integrated into political broadcasts.
As each news channel fights hard to keep their viewers engaged, networks like CNN and Fox have made significant strides to engage their audience, although some would argue that this social media integration has come at the expense of hard-hitting journalism and analysis.
2.Gaming
Sure, sure this was the next big trend in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 ... but 2014 may be the year. Zynga paved the road for simple games and more people are investing and experimenting. Social gaming will go beyond Badges and start influencing people's behavior in the real world. For example, photo scavenger hunts tied to a gaming platform on Facebook may be linked to a social deal site to offer you a discount at a bar
The next Angry Birds (game) will be social. The key is creating a semi-mindless but satisfying game playable while people wait, vegetate or commute.
3.Social media affecting search results
Search engines like Google are continuously perfecting their algorithms, and they'd be out of their minds to ignore the shift toward social media relevance. Google recently made some tweaks to their search algorithm that now returns more timely and recently published content in search results.
For websites and company's that have blogs updated frequently, the integration of social media into search engine results is important. Moreover, search results are getting a lot more personal and customized to individual preferences, especially now with the integration ofGoolge+ into social media.
Pages that have previously been shared by your network on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ rank higher in your own search results. However, For somebody else's search results for the same keyword may look comparably different because their network of friends shares different content.
Expect to see your search results move even more toward social relevance in 2014.
4.Local Differences
One interesting trend in social media comes as a gap in Facebook's global domination comes in the shape of China. The site is officially banned in China but local sites are massive within the market.
An eMarketer report lists TencentQZone at the front of the pack in China, while TencentWeibo, SinaWeibo, and Renren also have significant market shares. With the Internet itself not expected to reach a majority of China's vast population until 2015, Qzone may even be able to overhaul Facebook's active user figures without having to expand very much outside Chinese borders.
Elsewhere, Russia is dominated by Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki, sites that are also quickly expanding into other Eastern European countries as social media sharing sites.
Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Poland were the other countries listed by comScore as the territories where Facebook doesn’t command the greatest market share but even in its own backyard, Facebook shouldn't rest on its laurels.
Overall in social media sharing space Twitter's U.S. growth is predicted to be four times greater than Facebook's over the next couple of years. We've yet to really see howGoogle+ will fare and niche sites like the business-oriented LinkedIn continue to grow within their own remits. Plus, Pinterest is growing fast.
Right now Facebook is sitting pretty. Social media trends can change with alarming rapidity however and, as the spectacular decline of MySpace demonstrated, none of the major players can afford to take anything for granted.