Pew poll: more evidence of A More Social Future?

A new Pew report on the future of social networking reveals that most tech experts believe that the Internet has been a mostly positive force, but that social networks can be used in harmful ways.This view supports the findings of PSB’s own study on the growth of social media from earlier this year, entitled “A More Social Future”. 

Overall, the data clearly suggests that social media is here to stay, with 85% of respondents to the Pew survey agreeing with the prediction that by 2020 the internet will have been a mostly positive force on their social world.This chimes well with the findings of our study of the general US population, which revealed that 6 in 10 respondents, and 3 in 4 of the 18-34 year-olds we polled, believe that social media networks will become more integrated into our lives. Furthermore, 56% of the Americans we polled feel that they will make friends in the future because of social networks.

So, with such a consensus believing in the pivotal role of social media in people’s lives, which networks will build lasting, profitable business models?

One clue comes from the question we asked about social media’s impact on purchase decisions; 80% of 18-34 year olds think that recommendations received from a social media network are the same or better than recommendations from traditional methods.

The winning social media sites in the future will be those which can build an enthusiastic community of users who believe in social media as a long term concept. It is within this environment that social-context advertisements (where data is collected on the preferences of other members of the network and displayed as an effective word-of-mouth tool) can gain traction. Companies will be very keen to pay for these advertisements if they feel that the endorsements of fellow users will lead to a greater ROI.