Seattle Social Media Club’s monthly meeting hosted at Microsoft’s Conference Center on December 8, 2010 in Redmond, Washington raised key questions for 2011 with panelists from non-profit, for profit and government organizations. This last post includes comments from Kathy Gill, who teaches at the University of Washington in the Department of Communication, Digital Media Program and Sean O’Driscoll, co-founder and CEO of Ant’s Eye View.

Final in a Series

There are numbers and there are numbers. Numbers are not be ignored, especially in emerging fields, like social media. The University of Washington’s Kathy Gill began by reminding listeners of some of the interesting numbers from recent stats. Lots of people are way deep into apps and app development, but as of now, only 21% of Americans are using smart phones. Nielson forecasts that 51% of Americans will have smart phones in 2011, a huge increase in user numbers. Kathy notes that it no real surprise that women are dominating the social media market, but currently more men have smart phones. Kathy suggests 2011 as a year to watch not only mobile shifts in critical mass, but that bandwidth delivery will become a key factor for commerce. Also, watch for more pressure for social media privacy protections, like the bill introduced by Senator Charles Schumer, NY last April.

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