2013 Social Media Predictions

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History, if forgotten, is doomed to repeat itself. Or so they say. I’ve seen it a hundred times in my short life, and I see it all the time in the industry I work in: social media. Things change, shift and grow in social media, but all of it seems very familiar. And because social media is something I live and breathe both personally and professionally, I decided to put together a list of social media predictions for 2013, all of which should sound very very familiar to you… because they’re based on past events — the lessons players, observers, companies and brands in this industry seem to forget.

A-here we go:

  1. Social media companies will continue to develop and release draconian terms of use. Users will continue to threaten to leave until the companies finally realize their terms of service are indeed draconian. No one will actually leave because no suitable alternatives exist.
  2. Bloggers will continue to attempt to monetize their work. In spite of their efforts, the only result will be the continued [admittedly minor] extortion of brands who are terrified of people talking shit about them.
  3. Some idiot will dream up and create a “Pinterest for men” and fail quite dramatically.
  4. People will continue to threaten to leave Facebook, but ultimately will stick around. Their main reason staying: “I need a Facebook account to play You Don’t Know Jack.”
  5. Hot on the heels of the renaissance of animated GIFs, Tumblr will help give rise to the renaissance of animated animations.
  6. Advertising will continue creeping into all parts of social media, just like it has since the invention of cave drawings, the printing press, of newspapers, radio, television, etc.
  7. The entire internet populace will suddenly realize that @horse_ebooks isn’t even remotely funny, and never has been.
  8. A logic-defyingly large proportion of people will continue to think it’s OK to auto-post their horoscopes every. fucking. day.

Leave me your hilarious predictions in the comments, if you dare.

Image by Crossett Library Bennington College on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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2 Responses to “2013 Social Media Predictions”

  1. Scotty Jackson
    January 2, 2013 at 11:11 am #

    How about an increase in celebrity scandals brought about by poorly managed (or misunderstood) Facebook privacy settings that I don’t understand either.

    Or maybe the rise of a Facebook privacy management consulting business?

  2. martin lindstrom a branding expert
    January 3, 2013 at 11:09 pm #

    My fearless social media prediction: “Twitter will continue to flourish so people can continue to stalk celebrities.”