LOS ANGELES, CA -- 12/18/07 --
Interest and focus in social networks will
move from behemoth sites to more personalized groups, according to Pringo,
a leading provider of white-label social networking platforms. The
company's president, Gary Hall, today published his opinions on the
social-media trends for 2008, predicting record-breaking deployments of
feature-rich, special-interest community sites.
2008 will see some specific trends, including:
1. In order to maintain stickiness in 2008, brands will need to employ
social media tools and user-generated content (UGC). To keep their
competitive edge, they will be proactive in understanding and identifying
their users' specific interests, providing a more relevant and feature-rich
community.
2. The greatest growth in social media will be in affinity groups and
niches. The largest social media sites will become less relevant and
attractive to those who want social media to be intimate and useful, rather
than broadly distributed.
3. Social media sites will reap the benefits from an increase in
advertising dollars being spent, but consumers will reject advertising that
is not tailored for their specific needs. The growth in highly-targeted
sites will attract advertisers looking for a quicker return on investment.
This will further reinforce the ad-revenue sharing model between
organizations and social-media platform providers. In addition, we will see
emergence of advertising-based standards.
4. Customer-facing companies that do not employ social media tools in their
external communications and customer relationship management strategies
will lose to competitors who actively adopt these. Individuals will expect
companies to leverage this type of technology so the consumer voice can
more easily be heard.
5. People will continue to spend more time on the Internet; however, they
will hop from one web site to another less frequently, only spending time
on social media sites and networks that fully engage their interests and
values.
6. In 2008, a more mature audience will embrace online communities, even
though the young early adopters acted as the initial catalyst for social
media. Although growth in terms of quantity will still be largest among
teens and 20-somethings, the highest percentage rise will come from parents
of children who use social media, professionals and senior citizens, among
others.
7. Major corporations will use social media tools for building better
communication with employees, replacing outdated intranet systems. The
increase in popularity of social networks and online communities in
corporate environments will create a demand among businesses for
customizable, scalable and feature-rich platforms.
8. Mobile social media will take off in 2008. Up until now mobile services
have played a minor role in the development of social media. Consumers will
want to take social media with them everywhere, driving the development of
more mobile applications.
9. We will start to see market consolidation. Larger social media players
will acquire smaller, common interest sites so that the established portals
remain competitive, attractive and relevant.
"The growth of social networks to date has been explosive, but in 2008 we
will see a shift in the pattern of growth and the direction the industry
takes," said Gary Hall, president of Pringo. "Sites and networks that try
to be all things to all people won't be able to create the most intimacy
with their users. Businesses will more aggressively adopt social media
tools as a way to reinforce branding and create community among
individuals. We predict that specific interest groups will develop Web 2.0
social platforms, providing end-users with a dynamic, fun and more
profitable online experience."
About Pringo Networks
Los Angeles-based Pringo Networks was created in 2002 when two visionaries
saw the potential of the Internet to be a gathering place for individuals
worldwide to communicate and share common interests. After collecting
thousands of domain names and building each site from scratch, the
co-founders' idea was to create a scalable and fully extendable platform
that would allow new features to be added on without interrupting existing
Web site functions. Pringo currently has over 400 features and is
continually adding new ones, all of which can be added to current or new
Web sites, market-ready within weeks. Pringo's executive team has extensive
leadership in the social networking industry. The company's philosophy
centers on a unique vision and innovative technology that utilizes the best
software to help clients penetrate their particular market and stay current
within the fast-moving online world. For more information on Pringo, go to
http://www.pringo.com.
Contacts:
Andy Oliver / Aida Causevic
LEWIS PR for Pringo
310 407 5186
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