Social Media Predictions for 2009 – Part 1

Seems like everybody is posting up articles and blogs with their predictions for the digital world in 2009.  So I figured I’d give it a go. Here’s my first prediction:

Microblogging and micro-experiences will continue to grow
Not really stepping out a limb here, let’s face it.  Over the past six months I’ve learned the benefits of microblogging via Twitter.  I’ve also learned that Twitter is what you make of it – its different for all people.  For me, its where I find out most of my news (particularly technology news), its where I keep up with my favorite tech personalities and its where I meet and interact with people in the industry.  Of course, not everyone agrees.

Wait, perhaps I should make sure all of you know what Twitter is.  And I’m not going to make fun of you if you don’t, its actually easier to make fun of those of us that actually use the thing.

And Twitter is growing.  Don’t believe it?  Check out this graph comparing facebook.com vs. myspace.com vs. twitter.com.  It shows the amazing growth that Twitter has had versus the two most popular social networking destinations (MySpace and Facebook).

But this idea of short form communication is interesting to me, and you’re seeing it play out in sites like 12 seconds. I think it appeals to the way this generation prefers to communicate (text messages, instant messaging, etc.).

We’ll absolutely see growth in this category in 2009, the only question will be if it can make that all-too-important step of going mainstream, breaking out of the early adopter world its in today.

Part 2 coming soon…