Few would disparage the growing potential of online social media in 2010 and in the years to come. Yet many businesses have only a vague idea about how to harness this powerful tool for business purposes. This will change in 2010. In fact, it is already changing. Some businesses already advertise for people who know their way around online social networking sites, understanding instinctively that engaging “experts” in this burgeoning field will help them increase their client base.

These online communities have begun to alter the way companies trade, and social media has played an ever greater role in the past few years bringing people together for business. In 2010 we will see a melding of all manner of social media, as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and others increasingly interact with each other. Google (NASDAQ: Goog) will move this integration forward, and Google Wave, their new concept of an integrated social tool combined with real time communication, will be the new big thing for 2010. Google already controls YouTube, and it is a safe bet that it will begin to invest in other social media sites that it can incorporate into its own social media platform.

Marketing

Whether for multi-national corporations, small businesses, or individuals, the social media phenomenon allows easy access to customers and a means whereby a producer can market its products and services quickly and with minimal expense. The growth of Twitter has shown how networks can be easily grown, offering information to ever-expanding networks of potential customers. By sharing links to websites, a person can easily find out more about products and services, and purchase them, without even leaving their desk.

As the use of social media marketing grows, we will see ever more clever advertising to engage and persuade potential customers to buy. Traditional advertisers will move more dollars online, and advertising on other forms of media will wane.

Media

As newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and other media merge with each other and go online, the lines between different types of media companies will blur. Time Warner’s (NYSE: TWX) CNN already offers news blogs, many written by citizen reporters. Citizen reporters will become increasingly important, and though many will lament the death of the professional journalist, there will still be a place for those professionals who can cross the lines between television, radio, print, and online media. Journalism will not die; it will morph into something new.

Movies, however, will not die in 2010. Neither television nor the development of video, or later DVDs, killed the movie theaters. Downloading of movies from the Internet may very well take business away from physical video stores, instead moving this business completely online.

Customer Service

Companies with social media presences will allow conversations to develop between themselves and their customers. Usually this will be a good thing, allowing consumers to help companies make products or develop services that become increasingly more consumer friendly. People will become attached to certain providers, depending on their preferences, and niches will develop that will provide a more directed outlet for customer service.

For example, a person with young children will go to those social media sites where they can meet others with young children, and makers of children’s products can offer sponsored advice on all aspects of raising children. In the same manner too gamers can go to sites where they can get hints for their favorite online games, and the makers for those games can offer support. In this respect, look at the lines between customer service and marketing to become increasingly more hazy.

Social media also levels the playing field between large corporations, smaller business entities, and individuals. If something goes wrong in a business relationship, consumers will increasingly use social media to get their complaints heard. State Farm is finding this out the hard way, as a widow who claims that she was unfairly treated by the company has set up a website and consistently tweets her story to thousands. Customer service becomes increasingly important when an unhappy customer can spread their bad experience around the globe in minutes.

Virtualization of Business

The way employees work will change dramatically in the coming year due to social media. Meetings and conventions will become fewer as companies seek to save money by having virtual meetings in virtual worlds. Microblogging will become a common way to communicate between employees, and cell phones will become increasingly more a part of this communication. Social networking will create groups of people working together on projects, and it will not matter whether they are in the next room or on the other side of the world. Blogs will become training manuals, and will be updated regularly. They will also be utilized as marketing tools, as they are now, though blogging specialists will develop to fashion tools to help employees become ever more productive.

Other Stuff

Social media has not limited its reach only to business. In 2008, President Obama showed how social media can drive a campaign. Look for the Republicans to take a page from this book and use it to their advantage in the 2010 Congressional elections next year. We also saw this year how Twitter helped protesters in Iran organize against a repressive regime. Look for this type of use of technology to increase and to make people around the world freer.

Non-profit organizations have also used social media to get out their message and to raise funds. This will increase, as will their presence online as they use their social networking sites to educate the public.

All of these social media trends and more will influence society, business and the markets in 2010 and beyond.