‘Tis the season for wish lists and our high hopes for next year so let’s not waste time warming up. Undoubtedly 2009 was the year of twitter, if it weren’t for Obama Time’s Person of the Year could easily be the twitter bird.

Here is my wish list for social media and interactive marketing in 2010:

• Twitter grows in quality not quantity
  • Grows as an information distribution channel
  • Creativity is key

Twitter has outgrown its frenetic buzz and with a lofty billion-dollar valuation it’s time to get down to business. While some major brands are counting big name celebs to twit the word I think the majority of twitter users will hone in on niche tweeters like Food Cart Vendors, or Pulp Fiction Screen Writer Roger @Avary supposedly tweeting from prison.

Great segway to my next point:

• Social Networks become more defined

Much of the unnecessary noise will be cut from twitter and Facebook will become personal again (for most of us…). Zuckerberg’s open letter to the 350 million Facebook users points to increased privacy controls for 2010 allowing for users to easily control exactly who see what. This is great news for LinkedIn who has seen a drop off in active users since Facebook popped. That along with twitter integration and pressure to open up their platform to more features should mean more professionals visiting LinkedIn more often.

Every indication is that consumers are breaking themselves into smaller and smaller segments and want products and services designed specifically for them. Ning got hot 2007-2008 but seemed to fall off in 2009. A bumper crop of technology-savvy users with more free time and easy access will bode well for Ning in 2010.

My final hope on this point is that people will stop listing Myspace as a social network. I always wonder when people talk about their Myspace account who else they talk to on there… Myspace has a great niche going for music and is the go-to source for checking out new artists, let’s keep rolling with that.

• Engagement applications running in real-time across multiple platforms

There are two thoughts here: Consumers prefer to connect with brands on a social network (Facebook) but Facebook’s coding language has limited capabilities and brands prefer consumer’s spending time on their site where they can direct their attention.

Kleneex’s Get Mommed campaign is a great example- overall a great campaign. Their site has a great application where you can pick your Mom, your symptoms and she’ll pamper you. The Facebook extension is also a great effort but lacking interactivity.

• White-labeled Phone apps

It seems like most major brands have an iphone app out of some kind.   Pepsico’s Amp energy drink released the “Amp Up Before You Score” app created by R/GA (Interpublic Group). The app had Pepsi apologizing before many customers got to test the cheesy pick up lines the application offered.

Done correctly, these applications could throw a major lifeline to local media properties. The application can offer local news, weather and sports on-demand as well as a submissions feature for eyewitness photos and videos. Technology and an attractive pricing model are the biggest challenges to get such a project off the ground but if built in a scalable model this could help change the fate of local media outlets.

There ya have it- four things that I think could really change the social media space for the better. Some of them are way out there and might be wishful thinking but I think the shift to a more focused approach to how we use social technologies.