As we flip the calendars to January 2009, I wanted to showcase some of the tool predictions that people have speculated about. Beth Kanter posted a great summary of Peter Kim‘s Social Media Predictions of 2009 which collects predictions from a number of social media and nonprofit tech types.

But, since we’re all about the tools here at Social Source Commons, I wanted to pull out a few excerpts on what the group had to say about what nonprofit tool use will look like in the new year.

Peter Blackshaw predicts Social Media dieting:

“Many of us are going to wake up in 2009 wondering ‘what did we eat?’ and ‘why did we devour it all so fast?’ – everything from hastily assembled friends list to Twitter followers to groups, apps, and widgets that we “impulse adopted” (usually while shadowing others) yet rarely revisited. Some of us will join the Social Media equivalent of Weight Watchers, eager to trim the excess and rediscover a modicum of ‘don’t follow everything’ discipline. Meanwhile, a new wave of ‘diet’ apps and services from the still-revenue- hungry social media entrepreneurs will flood the market. ‘For $10 a month, we’ll promise you a downsized, manageable, and authentic Friends list.’ ‘You TOO Can Resist the Urge to Download Every App Robert Scoble References or Touches!’ In the end, this humbling exercise will deepen our connection with consumers.”

Chris Brogan sees social networks getting smaller and more specialized:

“We’ll still have Facebook and Twitter, but the real interest will be in making targeted networks that aren’t ‘come one, come all.’ I believe we’ll have more focused velvet-rope social networks in 2009 where the tools and the goals match verticals of interest instead of the general commons of Facebook. Identity Aggregation and Segmentation Moving beyond OpenID, we’ll have a sliced profile for social networks that will carry both our full profile plus the ability to break out specific segments for specific sites. I might not share my passion for beer on my church network, and I might not want to bring religion to my business social network.”

Scott Monty thinks that Twitter and Online Video will continue to rise to the top:

“1.Twitter will continue to achieve legitimacy. Already having gotten publicity by being featured in (gasp!) mainstream media in 2008, the rise of Twitter is a certainty. Brands will adopt Twitter for everything from media/influencer outreach to customer service to crisis communications. But more than any push-channel, Twitter will give customers, advocates and critics unprecedented access to corporate personnel and vice versa. It’s been a key tool I’ve used on behalf of Ford because it’s given us a strategic advantage over GM: they’ve largely used the mass-marketing approach of social media through blog posts and (mostly) RSS-to-Twitter feeds; I’m in the process of humanizing the Ford brand, and individual accounts on Twitter make that possible. Skype, Google‘s chat function being enabled with video, and more widespread adoption of high-speed internet have thrust video chat into the limelight in 2008. In 2009, with corporate budgets slashed and the economy down, people will still need to have face- to-face meetings and communication; video chat will be a cost-effective substitute for that.”

And Greg Verdino sees 2009 as the year of MoSoSo:

“Location awareness will be the mobile utility of the year as more and more consumers use their GPS-enabled phones and mobile social software (mososo) to find great stuff to see, do and buy wherever they may be at any given time, and foster real world face- to-face connections with the people in their social networks. On the flipside, at least one major brand will abuse location awareness for marketing purposes and incur the wrath of some pissed off mobile consumers. friends with your mom will seem less ridiculous than following 4,000 strangers on Twitter.”

We’ll see what happens as the new year starts to roll in, but rest assured that Social Source Commons will remain your place for nonprofit software tools! Happy New Year!