Future of Social Media

One trend that I have noticed since my recent introduction to Sauder was the emphasis placed on things such as LinkedIn, Twitter, untagging yourself in compromising photos on Facebook and even the importance of blogs. AKA – Social Media Marketing. In Commerce 296, the importance of these websites are held to high esteem and its even been suggested that this is the future of networking, marketing and job hunting. In fact, one of the blogs was recently quoted in a local newspaper! But a number of things have come to my attention that point out some holes in the idea that these are now necessary components of the business world.

The first was an article I found on Social Media Today that brings up two points that seem very valid to me (Although I suppose I would count as one of skeptics as described in the article).
1. Most social media professionals overestimate what social media can do.
This point resonates with me. Social Media has been around for an incredibly short time span and while there is no doubt that there are a tremendous number of things available to do with it, the sum of its abilities seem to be incredibly exaggerated.
2. No one has a single intrinsic way of describing the value/ROI of social media.
What is the value of social media? What does it actually accomplish for your firm? How do you even value something like this? By the amount of work put into it, or by the number of viewers you receive. This is why it boggles my mind to know that some people out there are making a living through social media.

But perhaps not for long. Especially if we take the following article to be true.
Canadian Business’s newest issue suggests that this social media craze is the reincarnation of the dot-com bust.
Especially with a number of these companies about to start offering IPO’s in the near future, (doesn’t it seem disconcerting that Facebook is valued higher than Time Warner, Newscorp and eBay already?) the time to wonder is now. People stand to make a fortune or lose millions and it all depends on whether social media is here to stay.