Randi Zuckerberg's 10 Upcoming Trends in Social Media

Social Media isn't new anymore. It isn't the shiny new toy that only some people were lucky enough to get a hold of when it first came out. It's out there, everyone's involved (even those who have been trying to resist for so long) and now it is evolving. Which leads to a big scary question: Evolving into WHAT?

 At the BEA Bloggers Conference Randi Zuckerberg (yes that Zuckerberg - she's facebook family) presented what she has observed as ten upcoming trends in social media today.

1. You Are More Than What You Write

This was primarily geared toward bloggers, in recognition that while we started out blogging with a "niche" in mind, there is undoubted more to the writer than interest in that one topic. What's more is that Randi believes our audiences are interested in that back story, the "human side." Revealing to readers what causes you are in support of, for instance, is something that will probably increase popularity, even if it isn't exactly in your niche.

2. Brands Are Now Media Companies

This same comment was made at another panel at BEA.  All brands are becoming media moguls on their own. Randi presented us with a screen shot of the Red Bull Facebook page pointing out how they create, or curate, their own media content daily to keep their customers entertained. This may seem ordinary to you, but step back for a moment, think about that: Red Bull is a beverage company. They are supposed to focus on making DRINKS, not videos!

3. People Will Pay For Premium Content

With the over saturation of information on the Internet, it is oftentimes difficult to find the high quality something you are looking for. High quality, premium content has suddenly become quite valuable. So valuable, in fact, people are willing to pay for it. Whether you decide to transform your informative blog into an eBook people can purchase, or, if you are ready to design a course of instruction, then you can check out Udemy.com to host your course.


4. More Signal, Less Noise

This goes out to the curators. In other words, all of us. We each curate the stuff that is of interest to us. Those who come before us and have curated it already are godsends. Randi pointed to her favorite blog, Red Tricycle, which lists family friendly activities for her. Now she doesn't have to search all over the Internet looking for them herself, she just goes to one site that curated for her. Ask yourself: What can you be a curator of so that others can just seek you out?

5. Images Speak Louder Than Words

Don't worry readers and writers, I'm not saying that images replace words here, but in the big wide world of the Internet, they do stand out. Even if you are a writer, you need to embrace this. Get on Instagram and use some images to draw readers in. Post your links in the descriptions.

6. Think Of Yourself As An Entrepreneur

Randi said that even large companies are giving their employees some time to think this way during regular work hours. There is something rewarding about working for yourself and designing your own projects. The Internet is full of passionate people working on projects they are interested in.

7. The @reply is the new autograph

I can attest to this myself. I nearly flipped my lid last week when @neilhimself (Neil Gaiman) tweeted me. The same thing happened earlier this year when @realjohngreen (John Green) tweeted me. For the twenty seconds it took each of them to write to me, they knew I existed. This is the equivalent of the autograph experience. Take a screen capture of the event and you're golden! For those of you who are published authors, please don't undervalue the impact of a simple @reply to one of your readers!

8. Gamification of Everything

I've been on board with this for awhile. In my classroom, I tried to change as many things into a game for my students as I could tolerate. There were some people who would criticize me for this practice since I was teaching high school. They'd say my students were "too old" for that. Now I sit back and laugh as I see the APPs created for adults which reward you for going for your run or shame you when you don't go to the Gym.

9. Video for Storytelling

I am very new to Vine, but I can see the draw. You are put to the task of telling a story in six seconds. It is highly addicting to watch because you don't think you are wasting any time just watching six seconds of video, and it is fascinating to see what people do with it. One blogger said she made six second books reviews on her Vine account.

10. Etiquette and Digital Detox

As much as we all love the Internet, social media and all of hour connections, part of the evolution is recognition of the fact that there is a time and a place. We love our modern day conveniences, yet long for an unplugged life. There are hotels that will lock up your cell phones while you are on vacation (not sure how I would take pictures!) and other services you can hire to help your family with a digital detox. However you choose to do it, the fact is, if you are thinking about it, you are not alone.

What Are You Reading?

When was the last time you asked someone, "What are you reading?" Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club thinks it's time we start asking this question again. It was a question that inspired an exchange that evolved into his best selling work when he asked it of his mother while accompanying her to her chemotherapy treatment. From that question, and the discussion that spurred, he and his mother began a two person book club that read over one hundred books together before she passed away.

At the BEA Bloggers Conference, Will Schwalbe described his book tour for The End of Your Life Book Club as a crusade.  He said that we ask each other a ton of questions like "How did you sleep?" "Did you just cut in front of me on line?" and "Are you going to eat that?", but he wants us to start asking one other question a lot more often: WHAT ARE YOU READING? He wants everybody to ask everyone all the time. He told us  the following anecdote from his book tour to demonstrate the power of the question:

One of the best messages I received from my book was from a woman I met who was a grandmother... who lived in Florida... and her grandson did not. And she described to me the following exchange:

She said that when she called her grandson she would say, "What are you doing?" and he would say, "Nothing." She'd ask, "What are you watching?" he'd say, "Television." If she asked, "What did you eat?" he'd say, "Dinner." And when she asked, "Where are going?" he said, "Out."

So she decided one day to ask him, "What are you reading?" There was a pause, and he said, "The Hunger Games." So what she did was that she went to her local bookseller and she bought The Hunger Games and the next time they spoke on the phone, they talked about The Hunger Games. And they were no longer a grandmother and a grandson, they were two readers embarked on a journey... She said that one simple question, "What are you reading?" transformed her relationship with her grandson. (Will Schwalbe, BEA Bloggers Conference May 29, 2013)

I must admit, when Will told this story last Wednesday, I actually teared up. I believe in the unifying nature of reading. I believe that is what made the Twilight series so incredibly powerful - not just the story, but also the ability to be "on the same page" (so to speak) with so many other people. While the same might be said for shared conversations about television shows, or blockbuster movies, there is something much deeper and more intimate about the conversations we can have surrounding books.

With that said, I'd like to join Will's crusade. I am asking you today: WHAT ARE YOU READING? And, in an attempt to get this conversation started, I will answer it as well.

What I Am Reading
 

While I am currently buried in books (thank you BEA!) and I have started a number of them, there is one that I am focused on finishing first. It's Rush by Eve Silver which will be released on June 11th. Rush is a YA novel with wide appeal for both boys and girls.

The protagonist, Miki is an Asian American teen dealing with the death of her mother before she is thrust into a scifi parallel-type universe of her own. She is tasked, along with a team of other teens "pulled" out of their real lives, with battling a creepy alien race known as the Drau. As Miki gets thrust in between her ordinary real life world and her action-packed mysterious alter-life, I am fully engaged. In her real life she and her father battle with the realities set in by grief and she and her friends talk about boys, crushes and the hot new guy in school. When she gets "pulled" out of her real life there is no time to worry about any of that! She is fighting for very survival, while trying to figure a way out.

This book has been so much fun so far. It is a real page turner and I can't seem to stop talking about it. I'm still just as confused as Miki about what is happening to her right now, but that is so much of the fun. Pair that with the tension of what seems like a YA requirement: a love triangle, and  I am set. I look forward to hearing what other people think about this book when it comes out next week, but in the meantime I am just enjoying the ride myself!

What are YOU reading?

7 Big Take Aways From BEA Bloggers Conference 2013

I spent my entire day in the Jacob Javits Center for the BEA Bloggers Conference. I learned so much, met a bunch of super cool people and even brought home a nice stack of new reads. All that came from today can not be expressed in one post, but I thought I would do a quick, off the top of my head list of big take aways from the day. (I promise to expand upon these in the future!)

• "What are you reading?" is an important question that people have stopped asking each other for some reason. We should change that.
• It is important to develop relationships with our local book sellers and libraries.
• Love of books can be spread beyond your blog by getting involved in your community.
• Clear and conspicuous disclosure statements need to be written whenever on book reviews of books that are received for free. One disclosure statement in a sidebar of a blog will not suffice.
• The Vine APP is cool and I need to start using it.
• Triberr is another social media outlet to put on my "you need to check this out" list.

and, my personal favorite life lesson:

•  I SHOULD ALWAYS CARRY AN EXTRA PEN WITH ME. (I was seriously the most embarrassing writer on the face of this planet: my pen ran out of ink and I had NO REPLACEMENT!)

That's all for now. I have to get to bed to get ready for day two of my adventure. For your entertainment until my next post, don't forget to check into the BEA LIVESTREAM to see what's happening right now!