Here is a fantastic infographic that helps to visualize the relative size of social networks over time.
The timeline is quite interesting — you can really see the explosion of social networks in 2003 – 2006 and the relative slowdown in their creation after 2007. There was also a considerable slowdown during the tech bubble crush in 2001.
You can also see that the big dogs of social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin) were established from 2003 – 2006. If you look back at a company like Google that went public after about 10 years of operation, that puts SWAG target dates on IPO’s for the big dogs anywhere from 2013 – 2016.
And, yes, these social networks will eventually go public. For a longtime nobody thought Google had a business model — how did that one turn out? The big dogs will eventually figure out business models that work for them too.
Part of the next wave of innovation in the world will revolve around social networks, personal brands, massive amounts of online data, collaboration and making sense of this information to create value.
In the next decade, the best opportunities will go to those that have created their personal brands and are seen as leaders in their niche. The best opportunities will find the most powerful personal brands and be unsolicited.
There will be more internal company social networking over the next decade as Web 2.0 social networking is brought to your workplace. Yes, your personal brand will follow you everywhere you go.
The most credible and visible personal brands will stand the greatest odds of success in an increasingly online and competitive world.
What do you think is next for social networks, sites and personal brands over the next decade? Please share your comments below.
Author:
Chad Levitt is the author of the New Sales Economy blog, which focuses on how Sales 2.0 & Social Media can help you connect, create more opportunities and increase your business. Chad is also the featured Sales 2.0 blogger at SalesGravy.com, the number one web portal for sales pros, the professional athletes of the business world. Make sure to connect with him on Twitter @chadalevitt.
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The next for social networks is something complicated as companies and business leaders start listening to conversations (Ex: using Twitter) so the competition will be tough and having something dominating the social networks (Ex: like Facebook) will be difficult I think.
I think twitter and linkedin will be overtaken by Facebook. OR another all encompassing social network will emerge and overtake all of them. I see work and personal lives becoming more and more intertwined and don’t think there will need to be a distinction in the social networks. Everyone’s personal brand will be evident to all. Now, I think people use facebook as a personal engagement with friends and family and LinkedIn as their professional “face”. In the future, these will be combined and people better realize the pictures of them doing keg stands last weekend will be seen by work colleagues and potential employers/clients.
Chad- I very much enjoyed this article…. The part about being NICHE is so huge…. The people who will win will have the most passion about there niche becuase people will want to be a part of there “tribe”…
There is a great future for social networking and personal branding, anyone that is wise will jump at it now befire the water becomes pollutted
This article is really fantastic. It informs my thinking about education and teh social networks!
Cool graphic. I started actively becoming involved in (numerous) social media sites about a year ago. Some are more valuable than others, but I’ve really noticed an increase in blog traffic, as well as requests for quotes from new clients that have found me thru YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc…
Good article. Thanks!
Thanks for the graphic! I have to agree with you when you say there will be an increase in internal company social networking over the next decade. My company is alrady seeing a ROI on corporate social networking because everyone from new hires to soon to be retirees can connect and share information.
corporate social network