Could the social media trend in 2009 be explained in 140 characters or less? For those of you tweeting out there, you could make it happen. For those of you who have yet to grasp the Twitter world or need some more explanation on how much impact one tweet or a Facebook post can have, there is still some  time to learn. Let’s first see how social media has impacted the past year, and then look at what the predictions are for social media in 2010.

To show just how big of an impact social media has made in our world, consider some of the biggest news stories of the year. Some of the top breaking news stories of 2009 spread simultaneously as the event was unfolding via Twitter. This includes stories such as the Miracle of the Hudson River, where the first news and pictures broke over Twitter accounts, as well as the death of Michael Jackson. And who can forget the rapid spread of Susan Boyle’s amazing talent, gaining close to 83 million views on YouTube? 

Social media also added a creative spin to some marketing campaigns. The low-budget film, “Paranormal Activities” turned into a worldwide success and illustrated how powerful social media can be. The campaign had fans demand to see the movie through Facebook and Twitter. The “Paranormal Activities” social media campaign centered on attracting  movie watchers to share their eagerness and excitement about the movie across social media sites; once 1,000,000 people demanded to see the film on the Facebook fan page, there was a wide release of the movie. This social media campaign proved to save money and hit the right market. Will future movie campaigns go the social media route to advertise and create buzz?

There are many predictions as we enter a new year regarding the financial markets, the economy, even Tiger Woods’ social life. This year we cannot hide from the social media predictions of 2010, something that couldn’t be found a decade ago! Here are some interesting predictions I came across:

1. Social media sites will become more exclusive. Users will begin to “hide” information in order to get more value out of their networks and filter out the clutter. This creates more of a niche for organizations and marketers to reach the right consumers.

2. Corporations will leverage social media. More organizations will follow in Best Buy’s footsteps by using a social media outlet like Twelpforce  to cut costs and serve customers more effectively.

3. Social media becomes more mobile. The obsession of constantly being connected has not subsided, and the restrictions on social networking at organizations have increased. As a result, sales of smart phones continue to skyrocket to feed the social media addiction. We will continue to see more and/or better versions of social media pages, and an increase of accessing these sites via mobile devices.

The use of social media has boomed in 2009 with sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and it is exciting to hear predictions on how the use of social media will continue to increase and improve in 2010.

Here’s to creating buzz with 140 characters in 2009, and staying connected in 2010!