If you didn’t like social media in 2009, you’ll hate 2010

(Last Updated On: December 30, 2009)

Last year I traveled the country sharing the idea that current social media platforms are the training wheels for how we will do business in the future.  Collaboration is our future.  Social media will eventually affect us all —  like it or not.

It didn’t take long. Halfway through the year, Google came out with Wave, which is a real-time collaboration tool.

Social media has actively worked its way into our lives with up-to-date information, networking opportunities and amazing smart-phone applications.

Those who still don’t get social media may think it’s about posting what they ate for breakfast, or participating in Farmville on Facebook, or looking for the direct return on investment (ROI), or are still afraid people will steal their images and know too much about them.

Are you going to be left behind in 2010?

Unless you live in a cave, by the end of  2010 social media will touch everyone’s life. We will see more real- time applications. Search engines will become more dependent on relevant updates supplied by the social media. More companies will demand collaboration using these tools.

Smart phones will become the standard phone of choice. Smart applications within these phones will help their owners find what they are looking for virtually and in real life. Social media will offer the facts and opinions to support people’s final decisions.

Tools such a Foursquare will help people become more connected, develop better relationships and become more social.

We’ve had hints of what is to come with Tweetups, unconferences and BarCamps. These activities are going to move beyond the geek world.  More people will be untethered from their office computer screens. The opportunity to connect with more people in new ways will amaze us.

In 2010, more of your clients and prospects will be available to you. Editors, marketing directors and creative directors want to meet you — if you are respectful. People would like to refer you —  if only they knew a little more about you. Your current clients might refer more work if they had the opportunity to know more about your abilities.

The tools are here.  Are you?