Feb's Social Media Club meeting took place on Tuesday at Citrix headquarters in Fort Lauderdale. The theme was "Social Media Predictions for 2010."
Predictions started long before when the club crowdsourced by asking others to post their predictions online by among other things, tweeting with the hashtag #sm2010.
A panel, moderated by Angie Moncada (@angiemoncada) featured Alex De Carvalho (@alexdc), Jay Berkowitz (@jayberkowitz), Neil Bardach (@neilmbardach) and Jessica Kizorek (@jessicakizorek).
Location-based technologies topped the list of predictions, what with Google Buzz coming into the scene and
Foursquare getting Zagat ratings. Mobile devices have become a
second home to many; they'll help more employees get around their company
firewalls and will feature more robust applications. Virtual goods -- crap you can't actually hold in your hands to give as gifts --
will become even more of a craze.
Jay Berkowitz also
demonstrated amazing augmented reality from his iPhone: he
pointed it at someone in the room and that person's tweet stream
automatically appeared on his screen. Yeah. Scary. Big Brother scary.
The real fun started when the session
opened up to a town hall style discussion. A screen behind the panel
displayed everyone's #sm2010 tweets, so meatspace and cyberspace
complimented each other beautifully. If you didn't want to blurt out
your idea, you could simply tweet it.
The discussion was hot:
topics covered sponsored tweets, Google's seemingly imminent takeover
of the universe, social media addiction, and reputation management.
Parents in the audience, most of them over 40, wondered about the death
of grammar and spelling, and if their children will ever learn real
social skills in the era of Facebook. Had the session been at a junior
high school, it could've been a PTA meeting.
Here are just a few of the dozens of the tweeted predictions from the evening, which generated lively discussion:
@morewillie Birth certificates will be prefixed with the @ symbol
@brucefloyd People will use geolocation service to clock in at work, attendance for meetings
@mikelamonica Final prediction: nothing will replace f2f. Great seeing you all!
@teflonfong dateline will catch a predator using Twitter
@pbarbanes Prediction: Sarah Palin will start using an iPad for notes instead of her palm
@rsm4lsu Spouses everywhere will demand that vacations will become UNPLUGGED time
@teflonfong if my kid ever complained about cyber-bullying i will tell him about the good old days when we had REAL bullying
@jessicakizorek It's no longer an issue of Time Management. Now it's Focus Management
@sass Attention deficit will no longer be a disorder. It will be the order!
@morewillie MySpace will continue to cater to pedophiles and bad musicians
And finally ...
@printpage
wonders how ppl at #sm2010 can digest anything b/c they seem obsessed
w/tweeting & retweeting "next best prediction" Noise! Stop &
engage.
Actually, we were all quite engaged and it didn't stop
there. After the session, the discussion continued over chicken wings
and beer at the Frog and Toad Pub just around the corner.
Social Media Club South Florida (@smcsf) is open to anyone interested in social media. There is no formal membership and meetings are free. To learn more, visit the website or become a fan on Facebook.
