12 Social Media Trends To Look For In 2012
It’s that time of the year again where everyone starts their social media and/or technology predictions for 2012 blog post. In the past few years one I look forward to reading is by David Armano @armano on the Harvard Business Review website. This year David list six social media trends to look for in 2012 which includes:
- Convergence Emergence.
- The Cult of Influence.
- Gamification Nation
- Social Sharing.
- Social Television
- The Micro Economy
While I agree with David’s post here are six more trends I think you should keep an eye on in 2012.
7. Mobile Commerce/Payments
Everything from NFC, QR Code payments, Visa mobile payments and the social web favorite Square will be become more main stream and integrated with social behavior analyst. Also more custom mobile payments like Starbucks has.
8.Niche Social Mobile Local Communities
In 2012 instagram will continue to grow and we’ll see more niche mobile platforms launch and gain traction. Expect to hear a lot about Path and Pinterest. With something new launched or become the instagram of 2012.
9. Social Identity Verification
With more social networks and other platforms being launched the big three Google, Twitter, Facebook will be doing more to try to solidify your one identity for the social web.
10. Cross Posting APIs
This is for the programmers. APIs are the secret sauce to an app or platform. We’ll see more APIs being used and created for cross platform integration to add feature sets to gain users. Hint… google+ API.
11. Virtual Goods and Gift Cards Offline Transactions
I’m not a big gamer or into gift cards but I have a feeling that between the millions of virtual goods being paid for with real cash on platforms like Facebook they will start to merge into offline transactions for products with marketers.
12. K.I.S.S. Design
Many people don’t think about design when it comes to social media but they should. In 2012 everything is even more K.I.S.S. ( Keep it simple stupid). 2012 is the year of mobile and not just smartphone, tablets! As the number mobile users increase it means you need to think about how your customers use social media on mobile devices. Keep your design, simple, slick and shiny.. . yes shiny with big pictures. That’s the trend.
Where do you see social media going in 2012?
Category: social media | Tags: 2012, social media, social media 2012, social media trends
About the Author Wayne Sutton is an entrepreneur, advisor & technology Journalist. Co-editor at BlackWeb 2.0 . Partner at NewME Accelerator. You can find Wayne active on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook.
See all posts by Wayne Sutton.
