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Solutions Out Loud Podcast Episode #4 – “The Predictions for 2009 Show”

Up on our servers is Episode #4 of Solutions Out Loud, the Network Solutions podcast that covers news, business trends, tips for small businesses and anything else that is relevant to you our faithful listeners.

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In this episode we are all about the predictions for 2009. We have a little fun with our crystal balls to predict what is ahead for businesses over the next 12 months.

Here are our predictions in the order we discussed them on the podcast.

Joe Loong’s Predictions:
0.) My predictions are going to suck.
1.) Obama will find a way to use his BlackBerry, although in a more limited fashion. Also, the Obama administration will transform government with social media, on a level not seen since Al Gore transformed government with his “Reinventing Government” initiative. (Wait a second….)
2.) Going to see a substantial, even severe winnowing of social media apps and networks. A lot of redundancy is going to be removed. For example, Plurk will go the way of Pownce. In any given category, pick a winner, an also-ran, and a few niche players.
3.) People still aren’t going to use OpenID very much.
4.) At least three more major metropolitan newspapers are going to go Web-only. We’ll also see some movement on broadcast/newspaper integration, if not on the legal side (because of ownership laws), but on the content partnership side.
5.) Something’s going to happen with Twitter. I’m going to go with “fade into the background as more of the hoi polloi jump on, and a new shiny thing comes on the scene.”

Jill Foster’s SINGLE prediction
Jill went “all in” on this and has one prediction she is standing by:

2009 will bring a strong influx of measurement tools to further gauge social media’s success with engagement and community building.  With the economic climate,  budgets are leaning more on less expensive Web 2.0 tools which will inspire more concrete ways to measure outcome.

Steve Fisher’s Predictions:
1.    Small Businesses clamp down for a long slow 2009 (that was an easy base hit)
2.    Social Media moves to being evaluated on its ability to help companies with customer engagement, conversion and retention.
3.    Customer Service will actually take ownership of social media programs. Marketing and PR will still think they own it and fight about it but they will only be the implementers and not the program owners
4.    We move from MetaSocial networks (Plaxo, FriendFeed) to MetaLogin Social Networks — re: Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect
5.    E-commerce finally gets social – not only do you get recommendations from complete strangers but you know who of your friends has what you do, might be thinking about buying something or can give you advice on the purchase
6.    Facebook buys Twitter – For real this time

Shashi Bellamkonda’s Predictions:
2009 will be all about measurement. In social media and in business overall as companies look to validate all of their return on spending/investment.

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