It’s official. We’re now in the summer of 2011, past the 4th of July, always a good marker of summer.  While you may be settling into a more laid back mode for the next couple of months, the world of social media doesn’t seem to slow down or necessarily recognize the concept of vacation.  We’re also at the half-way mark of 2011, which is a good place too to take stock and see how far we’ve come and where we’re going for the second half of the year.

Back in December, I was asked with 29 other social media bloggers to offer my prediction of where things would go in 2011.  Here’s what I said at the time:

“In 2011, the social media dust will finally settle and folks will stop referring to it as ‘new’ media. Social media will take its rightful place on the editorial calendars and budgets of corporate marketing departments. The calls to action will reverberate virtually and within the brick-and-mortar planning rooms of corporate marketing departments. Those who hadn’t before will report reading online news, magazines and books; and watching more full-length and short videos on a myriad of screens and devices than they did in 2010. We will catch up with friends and colleagues as we leap from one geolocation to the next.”

Social Media for Business: Six Months Later
In the past six months, more businesses are utilizing social media campaigns to: drive business to their brick and mortar businesses and online stores, manage customer support, engage in contests and promotions, enter into meaningful conversations with customers and prospects.

There’s been a lot of activity in the news world, most noticeably the New York Times and their decision to charge for online news.  Also, more and more people are reading books on a number of e-readers.

“According to Pew’s study, the percentage of US adults who own an eReader doubled in the six months from November, 2010 to May 2011. That’s in increase from 6 percent of the population to 12 percent.”

Mobile apps are seeing huge growth, too.

According to a recent study by Flurry in June 2011, “Consumers spent 81 minutes per day using mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes of web surfing.”

Increases in the way people are watching short videos and full length movies and tv episodes are occurring, too.

“Today, 18 percent of online videos watched are full length TV shows, versus 11 percent two years ago. And 8 percent are full-length movies, up from 5 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage of overall video content made up of short clips watched online declined by 10 points from 84 percent to 74 percent.” from TechCrunch

The key players in social networking continue to refine their appearances and features and new players are entering the playing field. Twitter for example, announced a new photo sharing feature and Facebook added facial recognition features.

Just this past week, Google has been creating quite the buzz with Google+. The jury will remain out on that one for a little while as Google completes it’s field trials and provides more invites, and people have a chance to see whether circles, sparks, and hangouts are going to do it for them.

Regardless whether you see these changes as good news or not, what it does point to, as the great sage Bob Dylan said, “The times the are a-changin’.”

What does this all mean for businesses?  Simply: the need to keep up, be open and willing to meet your customers on the platforms where they’re hanging out, social media-ify the way you do things.

Here at GigCoin we’re committed to keeping you apprised of the developments for the second half of 2011 and beyond, and providing solutions in our product and services offerings that will help you stay on top of the changing marketplace.

Have you and your business been utilizing social media differently the past six months? Tell us how in the comments below.

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