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2010 is set to be the year that social media marketing graduates. The year when it will be included, as a matter of course, in 360 communications plans. We have seen many brands in the last year turning to social as an answer to stripped down budgets. And only to be surprised that creating an engaging voice in the social web is not as “free” as first assumed.

The 2010 graduation will bring with it a host of changes - technical, communicative and cultural. All of which will contribute to the marketing mix becoming ever more integrated. However, that true integration is not only dependant on the structure of agencies and businesses but on cementing a true social media approach in both PROs’ and clients’ attitudes.

As the web becomes ever more “real time” the inevitable question is what will happen when it can anticipate our movements, thoughts, feelings and wants before we actually have them. Brian Solis started discussions about the “Predictive Web” this month on his blog, and he may well be hitting on a point of interest for 2010. Services such as PlanCast, that allow us to update followers ahead of time about what we will be up to, are likely to be a focus of 2010 and beyond.

2009 was about getting involved with social media. Many brands were grappling to develop their online presence by tacking social media amplification at the end of a campaign, rather than adopting a fully integrated strategy. 2010 is the year of measurement and social media’s full integration into communication plans.

As users will require ways to access all of the sites they are involved with from one place and manage them all at once. This will lead to the rise in the popularity of lifestreaming tools and the management of online presences.

The popularity of applications, widgets is rising as consumers require easy-to-use tools to navigate the social web. Brands are increasingly likely to adopt this way of interacting with consumers by producing something of use and interest to their customers.

Sending a DM tweet to a contact whilst out for lunch and updating your Facebook status on the way home from work is nothing new. However, the idea of being in contact wherever and whenever is set to reach new heights of popularity this year as more and more people choose internet enabled mobile devices for staying connected 24/7 with GPS and location based capabilities to tie into new services such as Four Square.

It has come to my attention that I am literally inhaling media. I know I work in PR, and am a “Generation X”er and all that Jazz. But doing this little log over the past 24 hours is quite startling when you look at it all laid out like this. The little subconscious checks of twitter, the musing of blog posts yet to be written, it wouldn’t suprise me if I start unwillingly speaking in 140 character sentences!

So much of this media has just become 2nd nature, a part of the stream of our consiousness, and so little of it we actually question. Monday Morning. Office. Sit Down. Boot Up. Log On. Tweet. Eat. Tweet Again. Blog. Read. Digest (Digitally & Physically). Google. Email. Tweet Yet Again. Tag It. Digg It. Cast it. Download. Power Down. Go Home.

You get the picture…

So back to where we started - I decided to conduct little survey of my media diet. Consumption. Call it what you will. Let me take you back via the medium of blog (and some wavy scoobie doo effects) to Monday morning…

6:50 AM -  *Beep Beep Beep… THWACK!* Alarm clock knocked lazy from bedside table, rolling over, pushing girlfriend aside reaching for iPhone. Missing iPhone. Rolling back over. Snooze Button. 20 Minutes of Chris Moyles drowning out my dreams and bringing me (not so gently) into the new working week.

7:00 AM - I take a second attempt at reaching for iPhone. More successful this time. Read/Delete Spam.

7:50 AM - On tube now, dive head long into the wonderous hub of investigative journalism that is The Metro… lose interest around page 13…

7:59 AM - Once again distracted by Twitter on iPhone… *silent wish that people would not keep writing “Good morning everyone!” tweets… the old adage rings true, if you haven’t got something nice to say…

8:00 AM - 8:35 AM … Listen to Podcast.

Monday: Friday Night Comedy - Radio 4 (Listen)

Tuesday: Relevant Magazine (Listen)

Wednesday: This American Life (Listen)

Thursday: NPR - Poetry Magazine (Listen)

Friday: Genius Playlist on iPhone… (Info Here)

8:37AM - 9:02Am - As i’m plunged into the darkness of the Jubilee line* (See More…)  and am severed from my 3G connection to the world I revert to a analogue approach in the form of Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller’s fantastic mini essay series on non religious spirituality… (He blogshere). Until I succomb to the inevitable release of a Amazon Kindle 2 UK Version, paper reigns supreme for sub-terrainian entertainment.

9:10AM - 9:45AM - Arrive at work, bum on seat, Latte in hand, croissant in front of keyboard and all is well. Boot up, Log In, wait for work Email server to get it’s act together, then begin to breathe in 1’s and 0’s in the form of Twitter, Facebook, Hotmail, Google Reader, Delicious Tags,Radian6 (our social media monitoring tool here at Ogilvy) and news source of choice (for usability not politics) Guardian Online…

11:00 AM 11AM jumps out from behind a bush at me, startling me somewhat about it’s urgency in getting through the day. It’s about this time (usually musing over a latte) that the latest round robin email from the London Ogilvy Interactive group catches my attention - usually in the form of a YouTube distraction or some other digital delight. Sip. Click. Sit. Click. Back to work. Wait. This is work.

11:10 AM Check back into the twittersphere… Not much happening. Does FollowFriday do anyone else’s nut in or is it just me! (As an aside it is important to bring to light the troublesome issue that the MacBook - wonderful that it is - doesn’t feature a hash key on the keyboard! Grrrr…)

12:50 PM As hunger strikes (cue the Shreddies soundtrack) heading for lunch deleteding more (and more) spam from personal email on iPhone - ooo. My next LoveFilm is on it’s way… Michael Macintyre! 

13:45 PM - Stomach full, email inbox equally bloated. Quick twitter update before some serious digital digestion takes place, predominantly in the form of some Radian6 fishing and the odd blog inspiration from Google Reader.

2:00-5:45PM -As the sound of the neuvo-classical Flight of The Concordes hit thuds in my head, this point in the afternoon is officially “business time” - (for those of you unaquainted a little help from YouTube can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGOohBytKTU)  The result of which means, that aside from the spiradic twittering and lingering tap of the iPhone, very little goes on here other that - as would be expected - work.

6:00 - 7:00PM - Pretty much a repeat of 7:45 AM - 9:15AM but in reverse order. After a fairly media heavy day I tend to tail off by the time I get home. Suprisingly I still remember how to speak to people face to face! (Those who know me well will know this has never truely been a problem however…)

So there we have it, that pretty much wraps up the day. And sadly (possibly not the case for you routine junkies out there) - most days it’s the same story. Living a truely digitally native life, as one of the first generations to have never known what it is to not have a PC in the house is quite a priveledge I suppose. However this does provoke an almost subconscious dialogue within me, that is constantly thinking of the angle, the wall post, the tweet, a constant desire to replicate my offline life digitally. So how do you describe that? Inhalation. Breathe In.

This blog can also be found at jamespoulter.wordpress.com where James blogs on all things digital from the wrong side of caffiene

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