Wednesday, December 14, 2011

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?

1 comment:

  1. I enjoy your predictions about social media for 2012... I gotta say, I agree with you. I also think a new social media platform will come about in 2012-- Not sure exactly what it will be, but I have a feeling that people are ready for significant changes.
    I predict a social media site that ties in other sites but offers a clean, user friendly platform with defined / clear privacy features.

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