Gaurav Mishra

What comes after the rise? The fall and that what will define 2011 social media market.

Please note I am not predicting the way brands may move on social media, but the challenges that Indian social media industry might face and the way it shall shape up in 2011 . This might not be in the interest of several social media experts, but will definitely excite people who are working hard to create big social media stories in India.

#1: Some brands will move from Social Media Marketing to Social CRM mode. Tools are already in place, brands have already accepted the presence of  angry consumers on social media. However, brands are yet not ready to integrate SCRM process internally in every department. It will take some real muscle power from some big names to get big SCRM stories out.

#2: We have seen a lot of small medium sized social media startups dying out last year. Among which some where very promising and understood the internet/social media very well. Performance didn’t burned them up, but a hirearchy of Client –> Media Planning agency –> Social media agency did. We will see brands settling for either a independent social media agency or a big Media planning agency to take care of their social media activities. The three level hierarchy outsourcing model will die to the end of 2011 as brands come out from a campaign approach vendor model.

#3: We will see a premium and non-premium segmentation of the market. While some agencies will take a volume approach to there business for small sized clients to thrive and scale there business, others will work with a few clients at a premium cost. People who see 2011 as the time when the pricing becomes stable in the industry, will be highly dissapointed.

#4: Measurement and ROI talks will become fierce, brand managers shall live in a hope that the measurement methods for social media shall give them a window through which they can relate traditional campaign goals on social media. Social media mavens like it or not, fans/followers count is still a measurement for most of the brand managers in the industry and this is not going to change very soon.

#5: We shall see the dust settling down and self-proclaimed social media gurus fading away. We have seen it happening with internet startups/ FOSS domain and social media shall follow the same path. It’s business my dear friends at the end of day .

Would love to hear your views. All agreements and criticism are welcomed.

Cross posted on MediaRedefined.com