BusinessTV: Tom Smith on the biggest trends in social media

Hear expert business advice from Tom Smith, Research Manager, EMEA, at Universal McCann. The expert behind the renowned Wave 3 report, Tom reveals his thoughts on social media's biggest trends:

"We have seen a big move towards video and multimedia content. I mean video sharing sites just keep on taking off wave and wave. We know that is down to increasing access via broadband. The technology and the cost of creating things on videos is falling year on year. So all of these, you know everything is becoming more multimedia is becoming more advanced.
The content that consumers are creating is probably more watchful than it used to be and attracts a wider audience. Things are evolving like blogging is becoming easier and more accessible and available on a bigger number of platforms. So you can blog online, of course you can blog on a social network page, you can blog via your mobile, you can do what's called micro blogging where you just blog in one sentence or less.
So you know everything is evolving and there are more access points for people to create and share content than there ever has been.
I mean the numbers that we have looked at and we have surveyed hundreds of millions of people worldwide are passively consuming this. So hundreds of millions of people are reading blogs, watching videos and video sharing sites, looking at other people's photos from around the world.
You know it is a mass phenomenon. If you are online you are doing it so as internet penetration rises you know the impacts of social media will be felt amongst all parts of the population worldwide.
It's relevant because it is where consumers are increasingly spending their time when they are online and we know we have seen in this research that people are spending more and more time in less environments because social networks now allow you to do everything you want online. So allow you to keep in contact with friends, allow you to share photos, they allow you to look at other kinds of content from external websites.
So people are spending less time on sites outside of this. So you kind of have to take the message to where people are going to be, which is inside social media rather than build a brand website and expect them to come. It's about taking your content to them and taking your message to them where they spend their time which is increasingly social media."

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[yourBusinessChannel]

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[businesstvAmanda]

i am still resisting facebook if it wasn't for all those apps it would be great.... although after watching this video it makes you think it may be worth putting up with all the application requests....

[businessexpertsdan]

And to think that only 18 months ago i was resisting facebook because i thought it was just another app for kids.

[kelcanderson1]

Superb video, social networking are definetely becoming more and more prevalent, and used to connect more and more people.

[BusinessExpertsNat]

Great video. I think Tom Smith is right on track. Facebook would have to be the biggest social media network online that I have used and the amount of people I have gotten in touch with since using it is unbelievable!

[businesstvdavid]

Fascinating to think about the huge changes in the ways that people behave. What will things be link in 5 years time??!!

[BusinessExpertLouise]

Social media indeed is the next best thing...seems an effective way to market your business.

[businessadvice]

that struck me as well when you consider that in the US we are having the first proper YouTube / Facebook Presidential election!

[businesstvAmanda]

Social Media is the new hot marketing tool. I promote it all my clients and they have gad some great results. i Can't wait to see what people come up next

[businesstvmark]

The thing that I find amazing is just how fast these trends are moving!!

[businessexpertsalli]

I totally agree with Tom. Social networks are not only very effective but also very convenient. I am increasingly spending more time on a number of social networks and i urge businesses to consider the use of social media.