Social Media 2012

2012 saw a lot of changes with social media.  Some were good, some not so good.   I thought I would take my turn in highlighting some changes in social media this past year and take a glimpse into what is in store for us in 2013.

In 2012 we saw…

• Pinterest grow in leaps and bounds. More referrals are generated through Pinterest than Twitter. They also introduced business accounts too.
• Google+ up their game with their new Communities. Similar to Facebook groups, this ill allow you to grow a community around a common topic of business.
• The world going even more mobile. Statistics show everyone that social media via a smartphone or tablet is up greatly over 2011. This is a trend that is not going to stop growing anytime soon. I use Twitter more from my phone than from my laptop.
• Facebook introduces the Timeline for business pages. Earlier this year, this caused such a stir in the social media world. People hated it, thought it wouldn’t work, but I loved it from the get-go. I think the Timeline is one of the best changes Facebook has done. More graphically-driven, businesses have gotten creative with it and see a positive response.
• We saw Twitter cut ties with some third party applications. Twitter severed their connection with LinkedIn, IFTTT and now Instagram. How this proceeds in the future is something to watch in 2013.
• This last year LinkedIn got a makeover and debuted a killer iPad app. LinkedIn redesigned the layout of their website and brought it up to speed and now they are rolling out a newly designed profile. I got mine this past week. If you are an iPad owner, you need the iPad app. It rocks and now I prefer to use LinkedIn on it. It reads like a magazine.
• In early 2012 we saw Facebook go public. My personal opinion is that this is and was a mistake. The stock has not performed well and they are scrambling to make shareholders happy, hence the changes to EdgeRank, the debut of Facebook gifts, etc. They are looking for more ways to make money.
• Facebook now has over 1 billion users. That’s more than entire population of the United States.
• Twitter rolled out a new design with their profiles. Now users have a header that you can customize. I like it.

Looking towards 2013, this is what I see…

• Facebook scrambling to find more ways to make money. *sigh* And users will get frustrated and spend more time on other platforms.
• Google+ seeing a huge increase in use because of the new communities.
• Mobile will be huge, especially with tablets. Everyone should be thinking about how mobile can fit into their business plan.
• We will hear about new and world events first through social media.  Since this moves faster than the normal, over-the-air news broadcast, Twitter and Facebook is where you will hear it first.
• Customer Service will take the internet.  More and more companies are already using social media for their customer service.  We will see this even more in 2013.
• Social media will no longer be an option for a business, it will be a requirement.