There is no question that in 2009 we saw huge growth in social media across the country, so what could social media look like in the second half of the year?
Your company (or university) will have a social media policy. These policies will govern employee behavior, your entity will formalize what is appropriate and not appropriate in social media usage.
Currently there is around 70% of companies that ban social media usage for their employees during the day? This is going to continue to fuel the already explosive usage of mobile applications. Have you been noticing that smokers have been using those breaks to update a Facebook page with their smart phone?
The next thing is social business and Foursquare immediately comes to mind. As I posted a couple days ago Foursquare is a game like social media site that focuses in on local bars, restaurants, etc. The members of the site are incentivized to participate through various badges and awards. I look for business to capitalize on this by advertising with certain badges (lets say a TGI Fridays or Honda badge) exclusively for participants in a certain area. Social business is the next big thing!
Social media is going to start to be used more and more for things other than sales. For example, Best Buy is currently using social media for customer service. Has your cable or satellite provider offered to solve your problems over Twitter yet? This is also a great way for businesses or universities to cut costs through free social media accounts.