6 Social Media Trends for 2012
There are lots around this year, but these are some of our favourite
key trends for 2012.
1 ..Increase
of quality over quantity
Applies to content – planning and designing your messages
for attention, usefulness and conversion. Make sure you focus
on how you can help your clients or customers succeed in what
they’re doing. This might even mean outsourcing content
development.
Also applies to picking your battles – the mantra of ‘be
everywhere’ will be replaced by ‘be where it matters
to our business'. Choose the social media that deliver the best
results – be it LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google + or
some more speciality networks like Foursquare and Instagram
2 ..Social
shopping
Social shopping will increase in volume. The fashion focused social
platform is the trend to watch as it will change the way consumers
shop, discover products and decide what to wear. Friends love
sharing great bargains and experiences. I constantly see sharing
on Facebook walls about great shopping experiences. It makes you
want to click and check out where they bought it!
3 ..Huge
mobile growth
Contents such as news, videos and social activity will be accessed
on mobile devices more frequently than ever – companies
need to think about how existing marketing initiatives carry through
the mobile web – smart phone or tablet. It’s important
for all marketers to embrace mobile, optimise current assets,
make it easy to access content and to think about this medium’s
unique characteristics, such as geolocation.
QR
codes (Quick Response Codes) will gain more awareness and
will be used more frequently….
4..Social
media and search engines
Social media will affect search engine results more and more as
the engines pull an increasing variety results from social networks.
This means we will see more real-time information in our results
from social media sites such as Facebook, blogs, Linkedin and
Twitter. So make sure your content is KING!
5 ..Social
media tools get smarter
The new social media tools will get smarter and will help make
you more productive and grow your online influence while minimizing
time commitment. One great example is Buffer
- an intelligent social media distribution tool. It can provide
some info as to when your followers/fans are likely to be paying
attention to updates and distribute content you’ve directed
into Buffer at those times.
6 ..
Social television
Many shows have already begun to integrate social TV, whether
through polling or integrating social elements. Social media played
a pivotal role in the last US election. The X Factor allows voting
via Twitter and highlights other social promotions. Another way
media consumption is becoming social is through Get
Glue which allows people to check-in to their favorite shows
(or other forms of media) and tell the world what they love. Expect
more of social television during 2012 as ratings rise for socially
integrated shows.
If you'd like to discuss any of these and develop a strategy
give us a call.
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