Yesterday we focused on the importance of integrating social networking into your business model, but today we’d like to focus on the bigger picture – social media. Social media not only includes social networking, but also blogging, podcasts, message boards, video and photo sharing – to name a few.

There is no denying the popularity of these key social platforms, but where will social media take us next? With the end of the year coming to a close, the buzz about 2010 social media trends has begun. With hundreds of sites casting their predictions as to what will be the next must-have in the social media world, we’ve decided to highlight a few we think will benefit the Enterprise Network. If you haven’t already signed up for these sites, we suggest you add it to your 2010 to-do list.

1. Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to manage webpages, blogs, etc. from one source. This enables you to access your bookmarks from any computer, anywhere. In addition, it serves as a great sharing tool among you and your friends and colleagues by letting you share bookmarked items with each other. By utilizing the site’s quick search feature, you’re also able to view popular tags and other sites that may be of interest to you.
2. Apture is an extremely useful plugin for bloggers using WordPress. It brings visual appeal to your site by allowing you to add multimedia to your postings and gives users a reason to stay. With this plugin, you’re able to upload files from 50+ sources including Wikipedia, YouTube, Google Maps, Power Point presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. This is an easy way to add “sticky” content to your site.
3. StumbleUpon is a great resource tool for you as well. By signing up for an account, the site matches websites that may be of interest to you based on your chosen topic areas. When like-minded people find a site useful, they click the Stumble! button which automatically updates it to the site. Offering nearly 500 topics, you have your own personalized browsing tool that delivers relevant content derived from what other users have deemed important.
4. Digg is another site to subscribe to for information pertaining to content. Everything on their site is submitted by users, with the popularity of postings rated by peer evaluations. If a subscriber sees content they like, they “digg” the page, thus increasing the submission’s popularity. This is also a gold mine for submitting stories, blogs, and news yourself that will help drive traffic to your site. Thousands of information tidbits are contributed to Digg in categories ranging from entertainment to technology.

Keep in mind the most important aspect surrounding these sites is communication. It is estimated that 78% of people trust peer recommendations, so by participating in these sites, you’re able to establish a dialogue among consumers. Not only that, but all of these sites are great ways to establish a better SEO standing. By getting your company onto these sites, you’re increasing visibility. Let other users decide if your story or blog is useful. If they like it, the numbers will follow.

So as 2010 fast approaches, keep in mind the many ways your company can leverage social media sites to your advantage.