As I said in a post from last week, I attended Outsell's annual conference and heard a terrific line-up of speakers.  I'm using this forum to share some of what I heard.  Last week I shared what an economist and management consultant see as the overall economic environment we're going to be in for the next few years--slower growth, more pressure on client budgets in both the advertising and content-sale worlds, a need for investment in new products and new technology.

Several speakers addressed the question of Social Media and where they see it headed.  The strong consensus is that social media is no longer in its own universe, separate from other kinds of media.  Instead, social media is now part of the overall environment, just like the internet itself.  No media company in 2009 would treat the internet like something separate from the rest of publishing--we've learned that any media strategy needs to encompass digital distribution. 

So, too, with social media.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. are no longer tools just used by narrow groups of young people, geeks, and those on the cutting edge of technology who can be safely ignored by the rest of us.  With 400 million people using Facebook and large numbers of others on the other sites, Social Media is now Mainstream Media, and no media company in 2009 can ignore it.  It has become a primary tool for communication, information sharing and relationship building among not just teenagers and young adults, but increasingly baby boomers and others. 

Ten years ago, Google did not exist.  Today it is the primary tool for driving traffic to web sites, provides a suite of tools for users and advertisers, and generates considerable revenue both for itself and its partners.  In a few years we'll be saying the same thing about Facebook.  And don't just think of social media from a user perspective--advertisers are getting in the game as well.  Already so-called "Socially Enabled Marketers" are using social media sites to develop direct relationships with their customers--to reenforce their brands, to learn more about those who buy their products, and to reach out to new customers.  If we don't want to be cut out of the equation, media businesses are going to have to figure out how to help marketers to achieve those goals.  

Many of our businesses have begun to experiment with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in order to engage with customers and drive traffic back to our websites.  The next stage will be how we can help our advertisers and sponsors tap into the power of social media via our Facebook pages and LinkedIn groups--how we can build the bridge between those "socially enabled marketers" and the customers who come to us for our valuable content.  Very few b2b media companies are doing that for their advertisers yet, so we are certainly not behind the curve.  But if the future develops as some industry experts think it will, building those social media bridges for the benefit of not just our users but our advertisers as well will become more important.

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