Is Social Media About to Get Easier For Businesses?

With blogs about businesses not using social networks properly or maximizing their marketing potential appearing more frequently than Google product updates there may now be a single answer to all of these ‘top tips’, ‘things you should know’ type of blogs – fish!

Okay so not exactly fish, but a new protocol called Salmon could see social networks work in sync, rendering the need to have profiles on numerous networks redundant. As a quick caveat to that, that’s not to say there isn’t some value in still doing this.

Communicating Through Different Social Platforms

Last week Cliqset and Status.net became the first two separate social networks to allow users to communicate between the two, even if one wasn’t signed up to both social networks. Using the Salmon protocol users of the different social platforms were able to communicate despite not necessarily being on the same network.

What’s more the Salmon protocol is on Google Buzz’s list, which could see it grow its mainstream influence.

As social media continues to grow in importance the need for businesses to engage in this field is intensifying, especially as it can have a positive effect on branding.

Stream-Lining Social Media for Businesses

The potential value of the Salmon protocol could be of great benefit to businesses that haven’t got the time to manage a Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Buzz account. Essentially, a business could be able to communicate through all and any of these mediums using the Salmon protocol, through just a single platform.

Some people have even argued that it could decentralize social media like emails previously.

Yet this utopian ideal of social media is some way off. If Google Buzz does decide to use it, it could well speed things along but even Buzz is a small fish in the social media pond.

Whether the likes of Twitter or Facebook will bite will remain to be seen but it could be the next step in creating a greater social media community.