2009 brought tremendous growth to online social websites. During the last 6 months of 2009, Facebook, alone, grew 500,000 users per day! So, what online social trends will 2010 bring? Below are a few predictions and ways you can profitably adapt.

Ubiquitous Penetration

Trend: Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace may be the Big Three gorillas in the ring. But, hundreds of other thriving communities populate markets, such as the Tech industry (experts-exchange.com) and Movie market (imdb.com). Expect continued penetration into all sectors.

Adaptation: Every market has a built in community. Study your community. Identify a niche and missing link. Plan your approach. And implement your strategy with dependable technology.

 

Social Commerce

Trend: Till now, the Big Three have delivered venture capitalists dismal returns (Facebook advertising being the recent exception). VCs now insist on a solid business model. Companies that successfully monetize their community (ie: social shopping sites) will prosper.

 

Adaptation: Think Starbucks: while coffee sales are the main focus, early successes stemmed from an open invitation to hangout. Inevitably, lounging patrons made multiple purchases. Replace your hard sell with your niche’s missing link. And by default, members will call upon you for your service/product.

 

Playful Participation

Trend: In 2009, members wasted logged countless hours competing in social games, like Facebook’s Farmerville. Despite the elementary graphics, members are sucked in by friendly competition (better not steal my carrots). In 2010, companies will incentivize social participation with playful participation.

Adaptation: Think creatively about how to incentivize participation. Depending on your market and goals, a simple but clever social game can incentivize member participation and community referrals.

 

Mobile Access

Trend: Smartphone saturation and enforced corporate policies against on-the-job use of online social networks will create a perfect storm for mass mobile phone access of online social portals.

 

Adaptation: If you expect your social portal to survive into the next decade, it MUST be mobile-friendly.

 

Content Syndication

Trend: 2010 will continue the trend of corporate participation in all spaces of social media. While companies will maintain their own social communities, branding within the Big Three and industry related communities will remain important.

Adaptation: Your message must be everywhere. Use the Big Three and other social networks as satelite beacons to your central social headquarters.

 

Muting the Noise

Trend: Rapid-fire Tweets, Facebook hyper-updates, MySpace spam, and a barrage of other social streams have shortened attention spans to that of a pubescent nat. 2010 will continue to deliver platforms, aggregators, and filters that allow muting of anything people define as intrusive or irrelevant.

Adaptation: Focus on interacting with your target group. Traditional "broadcast messages" fall on deaf ears withint social portals. The keyword is "interact."

 

Branding Personalities

Trend: Social portals are primarily made of real people seeking real interaction with real people. Stuffy corporate fan and Twitter pages will continue to fail miserably. 

Adaptation: Don't be affraid to remove the corporate mask. Be - create - or hire an engaging personality to genuinely interact with your audience. And while your at it, replace that stuffy logo profile image on your Twitter page with a real person.

Do you agree with this list? Is thre something I left out? I'd love to here your comments on how you see Social Media evolving in 2010.

The dust has settled a bit in China since Google threatened to throw in the towel that would be heard ‘round the world. Here are the cliff notes for their reasons:

A quick look around the forums in China uncovers a cry of support for Google to stand up against the “Celestial Kingdom.” Many Chinese I’ve talked to are fearful of regressing back to a time when BaiDu was the only Search Engine.

A computer science student in HangZhou told me, “If I want to find music, movies, or pictures, I use BaiDu. If I want reliable or technical information, I use Google.” His sentiments are shared by many in China—especially since BaiDu was recently exposed for taking payments from fake medical companies for higher placement in the "organic” search results.

Google has stated that over the next few weeks they will talk the Chinese government about how they “could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.” While we wait for the other shoe to drop, we figured we’ll predict the most likely outcome.

As noble as Google’s cry for “free speech” may be, they have already demonstrated that they are more than willing to get in bed with the Great Dragon. They have gone to great lengths to appease BeiJing by filtering everything from artistic nude photos to results concerning “sensitive subjects.” So, let’s dispense with the happy talk: Google, like all other corporations, is in the business of making money.

The first REAL reason for Google’s public statement is related to click fraud. Click fraud is when a team or automated program (usually off-shore) repeatedly clicks on an online advertisement with the sole purpose of racking up illegal revenue.  While Google will not release the specific amount of money they are loosing to click fraud, it’s no secret that the forefront of the battle against “click fraud” is being fought in the Chinese market. 

The second REAL reason Google is making threats is the political and legal quagmire a foreign-owned company must face when doing business in China.  The Chinese government does not exactly roll out the welcome mat to foreign-owned companies unless they are willing to make some serious concessions and break off a big piece of the pie. As one Chinese net citizen aptly wrote:, “no matter who you are, the moment you come to the Celestial Kingdom, you will be castrated.”

According to CCTV, Google may be talking with a Chinese-owned company that could serve as its Chinese face. Google would provide the results, and the Chinese company would take it from there. We have no idea if there is truth in this rumor. But, it would certainly alleviate a lot of Google’s Chinese headaches.

So, is Google.cn gona cut and run? If we were the betting type, we’d put our money on No. They have invested far too much into the Chinese market and own close to 30% of the market share. This public statement is just Google’s way of whining about their “castration.” It is nothing more than a preface for their next corporate move in China.

In either case, stay or go, InfiniteNine is prepared to adapt to the new landscape. We are dedicated to assuring our Clients implement the best online marketing strategies in China.

This morning over dumplings, we decided to do a quick search about the ShangHai 2010 EXPO. We visited BaiDu, China’s most popular search engine. But, much to our surprise, we were delivered a “Server Not Found” page.

Expats in China get used to these "failures to connect" when we are attempting to access “harmful” sites, such as FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Google, for a few hours back in 2008. But, we found it hard to believe that the government would shut down the Chinese People's favorite search engine (talk about the makings of a revolt).

So, we did a little investigation. We visited some of the BaiDu sub-domains and were continually redirected to Yahoo’s error page. That’s when we suspected foul play.

A little visit to WHOIS.sc showed the DNS had been changed and its primary domain had been resolved to an IP in Holland! After further research, we found that Baidu had been hacked by the Iranian Cyber Army! Apparently, they used the same method to hack BaiDu as was used on Twitter not long ago.

What's the Iranian Cyber Army's bef with BaiDu?  Seems they got their feathers ruffled over the 5 Chinese net citizen that supported Twitter's role in the Iranian rebellion of 2008--well, maybe more like 8 Net Citizens. 

Seriously, the Chinese government suppressed much of the news about the Iranian rebellion (big surprise). So, it didn’t get much airplay on this side of the Great Fire Wall. So, we're a little surprised by the Iranian's Cyber Army's reason for attack.  We suspect they saw BaiDu as easy prey. And decided to take BaiDu down for some much desired time in the spot light.

Currently, the DNS is the weakest link of a website and is often attacked by hackers. In order to protect the DNS from attack, the DNS service provider should provide a function that locks the numerical value of the name server within a certain period of time and prohibit the value to be changed.

Of course, it goes without saying.  This is the type of thing we never alow to happen to our partners and clients Online Marketing in China

The Bicycle Casino is world-renowned as the most prestigious poker casino in the in the Greater Los Angeles Area. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, patrons play Texas Hold ‘Em, Seven Card Stud, Omaha, and Mexican Poker at over 175 tables, while being serviced by one of the nation’s largest casino floor staffs.

But, what if you want to sit at home and play online poker in the comfort of nothing more than your Fruit of the Looms underwear? Well, fast on the heels of launching TheBike.com, InfiniteNine has helped launch The Bicycle Casino’s Online Poker Game!

You don’t have to be a world-famous casino to benefit from InfiniteNine’s Online Marketing and Internet Technology experience. Whether you are a public company or a scrappy start-up; a U.S.-based company gunning to penetrate the China market, or a Chinese IPO itching to plant roots in American soil; InfiniteNine has a solution to propel your company to your goal.

 

InfiniteNine has just moved its U.S. headquarters into the heart of Los Angeles, across from the Walt Disney Concert Hall.

LA Philharmonic lovers can now waltz from an afternoon of Internet Strategizing with our creative team into an evening of music at the Disney Theater. Or, jump from an afternoon of Mobile SMS Consulting with our tech team into VIP Clippers’ seats at Staples Center.

Inside our office you will find the same creative, fun team that will open your E-Commerce Store, unleash your Social Media Marketing Campaign, and introduce the China Market to your new product line. Then we’ll head into the office game room and jam with you on Rock Band 2!

So what are you waiting for? Get down to 316 W 2nd St and let us show you how our Internet Consulting Group can propel your business to the next level. Maybe, we’ll even pick up VIP tickets to the next Los Angeles Clippers game!