LONDON: Social media will become "utterly pervasive" in the future, and could even render entire professions obsolete, speakers at this week's Social Media World Forum Europe have predicted.
Toby Beresford, commercial director of Nudge, a social mediaagency, said sites like Digg, which aggregate news stories from many different sources, would "take over" the role traditionally performed by human editors.
Meanwhile, Facebook, through which users can keep up-to-date on information ranging from their friends' status updates to brand innovations, was described as becoming the equivalent of "a daily newspaper" for its members.
Beresford compared the rise of these networks – including Twitter and LinkedIn – to the invention of the printing press in the 1400s.
"We are in an equivalent period to when the printing presses and the calligraphers co-existed," he argued. "But there can be no doubt as to which way the wind is blowing."
This sentiment was echoed by a later presentation at the same event from Paul Charles, the chief communications officer at LEWIS, the PR specialist.
"Consumers are bypassing journalists because they want to make their own news," he claimed.
However, Charles added that the "age of instant judgment" ushered in by social media could have negative implications for brands that fail to respond to negative events effectively.
This often occurs when firms do not react quickly enough to customer displeasure via their corporate social media accounts.
Recent examples of this include Eurostar, which saw its services suffer mechanical failures and delays in December 2009, and Toyota, which recently had to recall millions of its vehicles.
"The speed of these channels is making and breaking brands," Charles said. "We trust individuals and not companies."
Meanwhile, another speaker at the conference, Dirk Singer, of digital agency Rabbit, offered a slightly brighter prognosis for print news media, suggesting certain high-end magazines would survive the rise of social networks.
These titles - including The Economist and Monocle - occupy an exclusive "niche", enabling them to charge for content.
Singer added that this would result in the type of brands buying print advertising space becoming more upmarket.
Elsewhere, Evan Solomon, vp for marketing at web streaming service Justin.tv, unveiled new figures suggesting that engagement with media platforms increases exponentially for heavy users.
Those who had watched a TV show through Justin.tv on each of the previous seven days were found to leave 6,000% more comments than those who had only used it for one day in the week.
Full reports from the Social Media World Forum Europe will be available on Warc soon.
Toby Beresford, commercial director of Nudge, a social mediaagency, said sites like Digg, which aggregate news stories from many different sources, would "take over" the role traditionally performed by human editors.
Meanwhile, Facebook, through which users can keep up-to-date on information ranging from their friends' status updates to brand innovations, was described as becoming the equivalent of "a daily newspaper" for its members.
Beresford compared the rise of these networks – including Twitter and LinkedIn – to the invention of the printing press in the 1400s.
"We are in an equivalent period to when the printing presses and the calligraphers co-existed," he argued. "But there can be no doubt as to which way the wind is blowing."
This sentiment was echoed by a later presentation at the same event from Paul Charles, the chief communications officer at LEWIS, the PR specialist.
"Consumers are bypassing journalists because they want to make their own news," he claimed.
However, Charles added that the "age of instant judgment" ushered in by social media could have negative implications for brands that fail to respond to negative events effectively.
This often occurs when firms do not react quickly enough to customer displeasure via their corporate social media accounts.
Recent examples of this include Eurostar, which saw its services suffer mechanical failures and delays in December 2009, and Toyota, which recently had to recall millions of its vehicles.
"The speed of these channels is making and breaking brands," Charles said. "We trust individuals and not companies."
Meanwhile, another speaker at the conference, Dirk Singer, of digital agency Rabbit, offered a slightly brighter prognosis for print news media, suggesting certain high-end magazines would survive the rise of social networks.
These titles - including The Economist and Monocle - occupy an exclusive "niche", enabling them to charge for content.
Singer added that this would result in the type of brands buying print advertising space becoming more upmarket.
Elsewhere, Evan Solomon, vp for marketing at web streaming service Justin.tv, unveiled new figures suggesting that engagement with media platforms increases exponentially for heavy users.
Those who had watched a TV show through Justin.tv on each of the previous seven days were found to leave 6,000% more comments than those who had only used it for one day in the week.
Full reports from the Social Media World Forum Europe will be available on Warc soon.
Data sourced from Warc
