By Christer Holloman author of ‘The Social Media MBA’ 

For how much longer will we call ‘smartphones’ just that and not simply ‘phones’? ‘Smart phones’ will be the de facto standard in a not too distance future (it’s already the case in certain clusters), the long name will eventually be made redundant. The same will now happen to the words ‘Social Media’.

My first modem was 14,400bps, later we got a 56k one. Today modem speed is pretty much irrelevant; the speed is usually determined by your ISP. My first PC CD-player was ‘2x speed’, we eventually upgraded to ‘16x speed’. Some years later manufactures stopped talking about CD-player speeds, it became irrelevant.

“2012 will be the year social media just becomes a part of everything we do.”

So for the exact same reasons as developments exemplified above, ‘social media’ will also disappear. For the companies that were early adopters, 2012 will be the year ‘social media’ just becomes a part of everything they do and this is why:

1) Social Media Fatigue

If you think of social media as a product life cycle, companies that adopted it early have experienced the launch, the growth and are now moving into a steady state, plateau or even fatigue phase. The new kid on the block is not so new anymore. If the company hasn’t seen any measureable success yet, perhaps due to poor a strategy and/or delivery, without a senior leader that can identify and address the issues, these kinds of organisations will realign their expectations and talk less and less about social media as a separate topic.

2) Social Media Departing From Marketing

There was a time when social media was the responsibility of the marketing department. Now we know that companies that adopt social media, and do it successfully, make it a way they do business across the whole company. As such it is the responsibility of every department; sales, customer service, product development, etc. Increasingly companies assign social media responsibility to a senior person whose sphere of influence covers multiple departments, such as the CIO. This empowers every department to incorporate social media in how they go about their business.

3) Social Media Coming Of Age

‘Social Media’ is a generational thing in the same way my parents still talk about ‘The Internet’. Ask any teenager about social media and you get a blank stare back; for them social media isn’t a set of tools, channels or even a topic of conversation. It’s something so intuitive they don’t need labels but rather just get on with it. The same is true for any modern organisation.

Companies that are still in the early stages of their social media adaptation will continue to separate out social media for a while longer but will eventually catch up.

For more ideas on how to ensure your approach to social media strategy development and delivery is up to date, check out: http://www.socialmedia-mba.com or join the debate at The Social Media MBA LinkedIn Group! 

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What others have said about ‘The Social Media MBA’:

Scott Monty, Head of Social Media, Ford Motor Company

“Holloman et al. provide a very suitable handbook for those who need more than the rah-rah social media talk. From strategy development to execution, with a look at case studies from major brands that are respected in the field of social media, this book will serve seasoned communications and marketing professionals who want to integrate today’s digital thinking into their teams’ efforts.”

Jamie Grenney, VP of Social Media & Online Video, salesforce.com

“Virtually every customer, partner, and employee is engaged on social channels, yet too many organizations have failed to reflect this shift. The Social Media MBA provides the strategy and real-world examples to help transform your company into a social enterprise.” 

Christer Holloman is the editor of the new book, The Social Media MBA: Your Competitive Edge in Social Media Strategy Development & Delivery (Published by Wiley). Christer is Head of Digital Product Development at The Times and The Sunday Times Newspaper.

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Wiley will be exhibiting for the fourth year running at this year’s Social Media World Forum in London. Their stand will feature a range of the latest books in social media and online marketing.  For more information on how to register for this year’s event please click here.