2011 is fully gone, and 2012 has rolled in without missing a beat. The social media marketing industry keeps growing in leaps and bounds. I often hear people say social networking is similar to the Wild Wild West! So answer this question for me. Would it be valuable if you knew the future social media marketing trends for 2012? How wonderful would it be to know what trends are in store for the year ahead? Could you adequately prepare for this rapidly changing industry? In this posting, I provide my 2012 predictions for the evolving trends in the social-networking industry. It’s always gratifying when my predictions come true. My predictions are not predicated on any type of special powers. They are based on my industry research, what I read and what I see happening each day in my work. My accuracy rate in the social media marketing industry has been about 97 percent. However, even when I’m wrong it’s only because my timeline ended up being longer than I thought it had been going to be. I’ve a knack for spotting social media marketing trends. And this article lists four powerful trends unfolding at this time. You can benefit from what I say or ignore me, the decision is yours. Either way these trends will unfold because the year progresses. So read on and heed my advice. Ready your social media marketing campaigns to take advantage these trends for 2012 and beyond.
Prediction #1) SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Networks and Marketing will continue to grow at an alarming rate.
This past year Facebook grew from around 600 million to 800 million users based on whose numbers you believe. Twitter and LinkedIn also both showed growth and added many new features, (not to mention that they both acquired several new partners and internet assets). Increase this, Google started Google+, and Microsoft is said to be in the works of building their own social network. The adoption rate of small company will lead just how, but expenditures by large corporations will exceed that of both small and medium-size businesses. My first advice for you is; create and implement “an employee social media use policy” to control business hour usage. Second, create a social media marketing plan to reach and engage this enormous market. Combining both engagement and ppc campaigns work best.
Prediction #2) Among the largest players in the social media marketing arena can make a “miss step” in 2012.
I believe that one of the very best four SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Network companies will make an expensive mistake causing them to lose significant market share. At this time several of the larger social media marketing giants like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all share one crucial flaw. They try to make it extremely difficult to communicate with them. Take Facebook, for example. They do not list any contact information other than a Facebook page. Sure they have plenty of help pages. Yes, Facebook has a blog, lots of YouTube videos, but provides no contact number where you could call and talk to a human being? They do have a Facebook page it is possible to enter suggestions on, but that’s it. What goes on when you get a strange message from Facebook, or you’re having trouble together with your account? You post a message and never get yourself a reply! Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t much better. They don’t really list a contact contact number or address either. However, I’ve found that they do reply to your email and posted messages, although it sometimes takes as long as seven days to acquire a reply.
In my opinion, of the top three social media companies, LinkedIn supplies the best service. Google is new in this game. It isn’t as an easy task to lump them in with the rest of the social media marketing giants yet. However, I can tell you that Google has a notoriously poor customer support reputation. It has been my experience with Google that the grade of service you receive depends upon the person you get on the phone. Fortunately that you can obtain someone on the telephone! Google does list contact numbers. My advice to any business is easy, be ready to create changes to your social media marketing campaign if you need to. Furthermore, if you’re using any of the top four social media services, make a backup of one’s data. This is in case you opt to make “the switch” and ditch one of these brilliant players.
Prediction #3) Google+ will become one of many top 3, in the social networking arena by the finish of 2012.
I know I’m going out on a limb here, but I really believe that is inevitable. Google’ Motivational Content and current customer base allows Google+ to cultivate at a considerably faster pace than other social media marketing sites. The exact amount of Gmail users isn’t public, but we can say for certain that it is huge! I have read estimates which range from about 190 million to 250 million accounts. Furthermore, Google owns so many internet properties, that they can easily integrate the application of these properties into their social network. This adds value to their social network. Increase this, the fact that Google owns Google Search, Google AdWords, YouTube, Blogger and Picasa. Are you currently starting to obtain the picture? Google is gigantic. Google controls the lion’s share of internet traffic and advertising dollars.
Google has also had the opportunity to make a social-networking product that is user friendly, internet search engine friendly and innovative. These qualities’ have made them the web leader they are today. I am not sure they can keep this frantic pace forever, but also for 2012, it’s a done deal. My advice to you is to review what your location is spending your advertising money and see if it makes sense using the Google properties. If you’re an individual, and have been waiting on the sideline with Google+, stop what you’re doing and take the 10 minutes to create a Gmail and Google+ account. If you already have a Gmail account, this can only take you about 5 minutes. The bonus here is you may also create a Google+ Brand page without a lot of fuss.