What’s Next? Four Emerging Social Networks to Monitor

Pinterest? Been There, Done That.

Instagram? That’s yesterdays’ news.

Tell me what’s hot. Tell me what’s new. Tell me what, as a social media marketing professional, I should be paying attention to.

Well….after conducting exhaustive research and speaking to the so-called “experts”, here are four public emerging social networks that in my opinion have the potential to become the next great social communities:

1.- Spreecast – Spreecast is a social video platform. It connects people through video conversations. Users can use Spreecast to discuss current events, explore their interests, meet celebrities, host business meetings and conferences, and engage with customers. You can even privately chat with friends and family.

Brands can use Spreecast to engage with customers by promoting special events, announcing new products and building their social presence. Businesses can also use Spreecast to host video conferences and interactive meetings. In playing around with the platform, I noticed several well-known bloggers had already created channels and were promoting their spreecasts by embedding them in their blog and Facebook pages and sharing them across the web. My prediction is that this will become a great new and inexpensive platform for webinars and meetings where participants are in various locations.

2.- Spreaker – Spreaker is an audio platform that allows anyone to create, broadcast and share a personal live podcast across the Internet in a simple and accessible way. Spreaker offers a set of tools which include a web-based mixing console, a music & sound effects library and the ability to broadcast live audio through a widget which can be embedded across websites, social networks and blogs.

Users can create their own podcasts and then share them with their fans and friends on Facebook through the Facebook social graph. This a great platform for marketers and brands to easily create audio content and share it with their customers and prospects.

3.- Soundcloud – Soundcloud is the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music and audio on the web. Soundcloud allows members to post their sounds and share them with friends, fans and followers everywhere. It has a built-in community where you can build an audience.

Soundcloud has their own mobile app to record music or users can try one of many third-party apps to create music.  Users can share their music or sounds easily across social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest. They can also use simple widgets to embed sounds in their website or blog. I can imagine brands taking advantage of undiscovered talent and licensing their music or sponsoring their band.

4.- Keek – Keek is my daughters’ new favorite app. Think about Instagram but with video instead of photos. Keek is an easy way to share video updates with friends, fans or followers. Users can upload video status updates (“keeks”) using their webcam or the Keek app for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry.

Keek allows users to post video & text comments and send private messages. It has a dashboard and a customizable activity stream that is very similar to Instagram. It also has a notification center, a built-in analytics tool and it allows users to subscribe to favorites. This is a great new platform for brands and marketers who are already using Instagram. Think about how much more you can do with video instead of still images!

I am sure there are many other emerging social networks that I missed. Do you know of one? If you do please let me know by commenting. I am always looking for the next best thing…

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