Social Media Predictions for 2012

My predictions for social media in the year 2012 (more like why I agree with the predictions already out there):

Small businesses will use more social media in 2012: Social media has become quite the sensation over the past few years and research into the effects of social media has been an even bigger deal. Large corporations, businesses, non-profits, etc. have all proven how social media can be effective in creating awareness as well as influencing attitudes and behaviors. Small businesses should and most likely will jump on the social media bandwagon to stay current and active with audiences. As audiences go from being passive to active (a shift we have been seeing more and more everyday), business must follow suit by keeping current with popular media channels.

Google+ will survive: Google + will not overtake Facebook like it was originally suggested that it might do, however, Google + will not be a failure. Google + is already gaining success as a social media tool because of its main target audience, businesses. New statistics about the use of Google + pages by businesses is quite impressive. It will be interesting to see how many more organizations and businesses join Google + and create brand pages in the next year; I predict a large number will become active users.

Facebook will continue to grow: Facebook will continue to obtain more users. Currently it has 800 million so I predict that Facebook will get close to or even hit 1 billion users over the next year or so. Yikes!

Improved customer service through social media: We all know that customer service is important for the image of any company, yet social media has taken customer service to a whole different level of awareness. Thanks to sites such as Facebook and Twitter, a customer can write one complaint about a company and it will be heard by thousands of people.  I think businesses will begin focusing not only on gaining followers but also on learning about their followers. Once companies understand the customers utilizing their social media pages, businesses can be more efficient in customer relations and in improving customer service. This is not a new concept, just one that I think will be focused on more in 2012.

What are your predictions for social media for the year 2012?

Holiday Stress Gone Thanks To Online Shopping

Holiday shopping can make people go crazy but now that the holiday season is here, I find myself not as stressed out about shopping for Christmas gifts as I once was. I don’t know about the rest of you out there but I did about 75% of my holiday shopping online this year and it was amazing! Saved so much time and hassle. When you think about it, prices really didn’t vary that much this year in comparison to previous years. Shipping was free and discounts were huge! It really doesn’t get much better than that.

 My favorite holiday shopping sites this year were Amazon, JC Penny, Kohl’s, Bath and Body Works, Living Social, and Groupon. This is the first year for Living Social and Groupon to make the list but the deals were too good to pass up. Makes me wonder how people ever found the time and energy to shop for Christmas gifts before online shopping days such as Cyber Monday existed. In reality, online shopping sites have really only been a large form of retail for less than 10 years.

Retailers should participate in Black Friday sales online as well as Cyber Monday if they want to earn a sizable profit. However, stores cannot just post small sales and discounts on their website and expect to see large increases in sales.  For example, Best Buy was one of the highest grossing companies this year for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Last year they were not but thanks to factors such as affordable pricing, an easy to navigate website, and free shipping they came in first this year. Also, Target has been successful in earning a profit this holiday season too by not only having sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday but by offering discounts on items the whole week of Thanksgiving.

So tell me, how do you feel about online shopping? What are your favorite online shopping sites for holiday gifts? Do you prefer to shop online or in stores? Look forward to hearing from all of my readers and wish everyone a happy holiday shopping season!

Social Media in Dance

Author: Katelyn Jordan

It always brings a smile to my face to see a former dance instructor post on Twitter about an upcoming class or performance happening in New York. 

It amazes me how far social media has come even in just the past few years.  When I was taking dance classes, the only way to know if a class was cancelled or if a time was changed, was by phone or email.  Today, I am able to write (or tweet) a short 150 character update about upcoming classes or other cool things in the dance scene.  Not only am I able to connect with my students and share important information with them but also, I can keep up with my old instructors and see what new ideas they have about pedagogy in dance while staying up to date with new choreography as well.

I think that many people take the connections we make and information that we receive and share for granted.  And admittedly, it’s easy to see how easily that can be done.  I rarely think about the articles that I wouldn’t be able to read about new dance ideas thanks to someone’s link from a post.  Neither do I think about what it would be like if I couldn’t connect with my students outside of dance class or with my old instructors in New York.  We have this awesome tool, and take it for granted.  We rarely realize the impact that a single tweet, blog post or profile status has on the people that we connect with.  We see it as a normal, day-to-day activity, rather than a most useful utility.  It is crazy to me that we can post on the internet for millions to see but even more so that we can “tag people” or make a group solely dedicated to what the interest is at hand is.

I think that the ways we connect on the internet have allowed us for a great expansion in our own personal knowledge, whether it is about dance or any other subject you are interested in.  You can see what people all around the world think about one single idea and I find that fascinating. The route social media will go in the future is still unknown, however, the successes of social media thus far can only mean great things are to come!