The global trend towards digital socialization is around the corner and will make quite an impact on digital culture in 2010.

In 2009, we saw data portability (more simply described as logging onto “other” sites with your “Faebook” login.  We also saw people begin to understand what Twitter is good for.

We’re in a time now when countries such as India and China are quickly getting on board with social media.  Facebook’s explosive growth in the last few years was driven largely by non-US members.

What this means is that an unprecedented opportunity to globally extend communities is arriving.

The challenge will be bridging offline cultural gaps online, and the businesses that can enable this osmosis to the benefit of their brand will be the largest winners.

Another powerful social media trend will be around eReaders.  We are about to see an explosion in the adoption of eReaders that might very well outpace the iPod’s.  And as people replace their source of information from paper to digital, the advantages of digital will arrive as well.  There will be eReader apps, communities, and networks swirling around our sources of information in ways we have never seen.

And with game-changing changes in social media, we will also see businesses struggle to keep their social media policies up to date, flexible, yet risk-adverse.  As the global communities extend further, and digital reading begins quickly burning paper, the potential upside and downside will be a challenge for businesses to navigate.

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Here’s a great piece of advice.

Treat people online the same way you would in person.

Think about it.

I am now finishing three books on Social Media (Groundswell, Join the Conversation, The New Influencers).

While I find the books very insightful, I have one minor issue that I can’t stop dwelling on. Two of the books above (Groundswell and Join the Conversation) have some very bold statements about the end of “shouting” and how marketing as we know it is being forced to change by the online communities.

And I have to say - I believe we are seeing, and will continue to see, the “conversation” explode.

But then I start to think:

When I look around my apartment at all the brands I have, I can think of a traditional marketing campaign for many or even most of them, but I can’t think of why I would want to have a “conversation” with the vast majority of them.

I’m sure the people at Canon, Trader Joe’s, Ragu, and The Bank of America are nice people. But I don’t want to talk to you. Please don’t join my conversations - I barely have enough time for the friends who have earned my respect. If I need customer support, just pick up the phone quickly and please don’t offshore it to India.

Additionally, the vast majority of successful case studies of conversation marketing in the books I have never heard of. I guess I was not a part of those conversations. But I did see the traditional campaigns from those companies.

I do think there is a place for the “conversation” in the overall interaction mix (not always marketing), but let’s not get carried away with it.

I think the “shouting” these authors reference is going to be replaced less by “conversation” and more by the one way message (the shout) evolving into a more entertaining format. I posted about Bud’s hilarious swear jar ad. (I consider this a form of buzz marketing and not conversation. I am watching, not having a conversation). This is a great example of something I totally enjoyed watching.

I could be wrong. Maybe I’m right. Time will tell.