So Facebook gets Friendfeed. A big social media sites get what is essentially a social media aggregator, ensuring of course they have more social media aggregation.
At this rate there are an insane amount of social media sites out there (just take alook at a few of them at http://knowem.com/). There are many more sites that aggregate some of their information in feeds, gizmos, etc.
To lay it out blatantly, social media aggregation and integration is going to be the new norm. Social media became a norm, and it also became so incredibly widespread it's hard to track which service you're using.
Social media aggregation has gone from something others do to something social media companies MUST do. What's done at retaggr.com, meebo.com, friendfeed.com is going to have to be done at social media sites.
It will have to be done as it's becoming expected. All the social media sites I use reguarly have some feed and mutual integration going. It's the norm and getting, dare I say it with the acquisition of FriendFeed it's getting "normier"
It will also have to be done as it is UNAVOIDABLE. Maybe in the future some layered system like Google Wave and others will create a dekstop for our online lives, but right now they're a tad disordered. Integrating social media and soforth is just plain NEEDED. Being able to use my twitter to post to Facebook, etc. is invaluable. We need more integration.
Social media is becoming omnipresent – but so will social media integration. A lack of connection to other people's social media services is becoming a disadvantage to a social media company. In my book a few social media companies may already be suffering from doing that (though my speculations are a bit unordered, I intend to post more later).
I think ultimately where this trend could go will be aggegator and social media sites will become more and more the same thing. For technicians that means lots of feed and distribution work. For marketers, knowing what's required. For people using social media, it means awareness of the best way to communicate.
For people working in Social Media companies, it means a future of redefinition and even more marketing and financing challenges.
– Steven Savage