2011 is 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 personally. Would Luxury Travel Guides be valuable if you knew the future social media trends for 2012? How wonderful would it not be to know what trends are in store for the year ahead? Could you adequately prepare for this rapidly changing industry? In this post, 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 predicated on my industry research, what I read and what I see happening each day in my own work. My accuracy rate in the social media marketing industry has been about 97 percent. However, even though 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 trends. And this article lists four powerful trends unfolding at this time. You can profit from what I say or ignore me, the choice is yours. In any event these trends will unfold because the year progresses. So read on and heed my advice. Prepare your social media marketing campaigns to make the most these trends for 2012 and beyond.
Prediction #1) Social Media Networks and Marketing will continue steadily to grow at an alarming rate.
This past year Facebook grew from around 600 million to 800 million users depending 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). Add to this, Google started Google+, and Microsoft is said to be in the works of creating their own social network. The adoption rate of small business 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 “a worker social media use policy” to regulate business hour usage. Second, create a social media marketing intend to reach and engage this enormous market. Combining both engagement and pay per click campaigns work best.
Prediction #2) One of the largest players in the social media marketing arena will 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. Right now 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 don’t list any contact information apart from a Facebook page. Sure they will have lots of help pages. Yes, Facebook includes a blog, lots of YouTube videos, but provides no phone number where you could call and talk to a human being? They do have a Facebook page it is possible to enter suggestions about, but that’s it. What happens when you get a strange message from Facebook, or you’re having difficulty together with your account? You post a message and never get yourself a reply! Twitter and LinkedIn aren’t much better. They don’t list a contact phone number or address either. However, I have found that they do reply to your email and posted messages, though it sometimes takes given that seven days to have 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 easy to lump them in with all of those other social media giants yet. However, I can tell you that Google includes a notoriously poor customer service reputation. It has been my experience with Google that the grade of service you receive depends on the person you get on the phone. Fortunately that you will get someone on the phone! Google does list contact numbers. My advice to any business is simple, 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+ can be one of many top 3, in the social network arena by the finish of 2012.
I know I’m going from a limb here, but I believe this is inevitable. Google’s share size and current customer base allows Google+ to grow at a considerably faster pace than other social media marketing sites. The exact number of Gmail users isn’t public, but we do know that it is huge! I have read estimates ranging from about 190 million to 250 million accounts. Furthermore, Google owns so many internet properties, they can easily integrate using 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 get the picture? Google is gigantic. Google controls the lion’s share of internet traffic and advertising dollars.
Google has also been able to produce a social-networking product that is simple to operate, internet search engine friendly and innovative. These qualities’ have made them the internet 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 for you is to review where you are spending your advertising money and see if it makes sense using any of 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 setup a Google+ Brand page with out a lot of fuss.