Predictions for Social Business in 2012, Part II: Knowing Your Customer - Founder of Altimeter Group, Author of Open Leadership, Coauthor of Groundswell Rather than simply make prognostications, I wanted to give actionable advice based on these trends. This is the second of my three predictions and priorities for Social Business in 2012 (read the first prediction). Prediction #2: Your customers want to be known. Your customers don’t merely want you to understand their needs or pain points. Companies sure know a lot about us, without knowing much. What I want instead is a relationship with companies that feels more like the ones I have with small business owners in my community. The problem is that this is hard to scale on two levels. For example, I can check-in on Facebook or FourSquare when I enter my local grocery store, but the store won’t know it’s me until I punch in my loyalty code in the checkout lane. Instead, what if I could automatically “check-in” to my grocery store and receive a list of tailored specials on my smartphone dedicated app. The master at this process has been Facebook. Next up: How connected are your employees?
30 Social Media Predictions for 2012 From the Pros How will social media impact businesses in 2012? We sought expert opinions from a wide range of pros you’re likely familiar with. We are grateful for the dozens of social media professionals who have written over 600 articles for us since we started Social Media Examiner in October 2009. To give you a glimpse of what we can expect in the next 12 months, we decided to tap their knowledge and expertise. Here are their predictions of where social media is headed in the next 12 months. #1: Businesses consolidate social media activities Michael Stelzner @mike_stelzner As the social media landscape becomes more crowded in 2012, businesses will pick their battles and dig in. The old mantra of “be everywhere” will quickly be replaced with “be where it matters to our business.” The major four players have all gone through massive changes in preparation for the battle for users. Have you picked your battle? Michael Stelzner, founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner. Jay Baer @JayBaer Now is the time.
12 B2B Social Media Predictions for 2012 2012 is going to be a big year for adoption of social media for B2B companies. We expect that early adopter companies will move even further out in front by becoming social in many areas of their business, while more of the second wave adopters will begin to see value in social media and move forward with planning and execution. This means that there will be a greater spread of B2B social media activities than ever before. The following predictions for 2012 reveal many of the ways B2B companies will leverage social media for their business success. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Let us know what you think of our predictions, and if you have any of your own.
The Power of Lists and Collected Resources for Social Media Marketing inShare38 To avoid being ignored, follow these tips on what you can do to tap into the social media power of lists and collections. If you've ever been included on a popular list of credible resources online, it feels pretty good, doesn't it? Great lists get socially shared, linked, and emailed, giving those included quite a bit of valuable exposure. Imagine finding a list of resources for a topic in which you absolutely dominate and yet neither you nor your company is to be found. Lists by nature exclude, so rather than complaining about why you should have been included, either focus on continuing to dominate the category or make an even better list. Plenty of business websites and blogs are making lists this time of year, reflecting on the past 12 months as well as predicting what 2012 has in store. Like them or not, credible, sorted lists and collections of resources are powerful content and social media marketing tools. Resource Collections People Lists Sourcing. Creation.
Predictions for Google's 2012 Last year's predictions weren't that great (the predictions for 2010 were better), but predicting the future is an addictive game, so I'll try again. Here are my predictions for 2012: 1. [ update: not true yet ] 2. [ update: Google Play Music All Access, launched in May 2013 ] 3. [ update: Android Studio, automated malware scanning, 60000 low-quality apps removed ] 4. [ update: Google Play Games (May 2013) ] 5. [ update: not true ] 6. [ update: true for the Chromebooks (best selling laptop on Amazon); ARM Google TV boxes are cheaper, but not that successful ] 7. [ update: 500 million users in December 2012 ] 8. [ update: Google Knowledge Graph (May 2012) ] 9. [ update: launched in June 2012 ] 10. 11. 12. [ update: search plus your world (January 2012), Gmail Field Trial (August 2012) ] 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. [ update: paid YouTube channels (May 2013) ] 18. [ update: $22.5 million in August 2012 for Safari tracking ] 19. [ update: launched in April 2013 ] 20. 21. 22.
How Social Media is Affecting the Way We Speak and Write — Online Collaboration Do you speak “social?” There is a lot of writing out there about the effects of social media on business, marketing, branding and customer services. But what about how social media communications is impacting our written communications, or even our oral communications? Anyone remember when email was going to destroy letter writing, and even the art of writing altogether? Well, it did destroy letter writing, but did it really destroy the art of writing, or just change it? The Impact of “Social Speak” on the Written Word I’d argue that email, SMS and social media communications tools have made irreversible impacts on the way we write, but that is not to say we should write in that “social” manner. The social web has changed the written word in a couple of key ways: 1. 2. “Social” Spoken Here “Social” as “Anti-Social” In social settings or face-to-face interactions, there is a distressing attention deficit problem. How do you feel social media is affecting our oral and written communications?
10 Startup Trends That Will Be Huge In 2012 In his inauguration speech, President Obama paid homage to entrepreneurs. The path to greatness, he rhapsodized, has been paved by "the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things--some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom." Almost three years later, it's clear he was spot on. Consider American Express' slick ad campaign featuring Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard; foursquare's founders as models in glossy Gap mag ads; and the cults of celebrity surrounding "the Zuck" and the late Steve Jobs. "Entrepreneurship has become sexy in a lot of ways," says Clay Newbill, executive producer of ABC's Shark Tank, which features people pitching their dreams to a panel of deep-pocketed investors, including Mark Cuban. Entrepreneurship has never been more practical, either. Here, 10 sectors to get in on while they're trending up. If you like this, then … Discovery fuels invention (and purchases)
How to Make Your Startup Go Viral The Pinterest Way On Thanksgiving, Pinterest’s co-founder Ben Silbermann sent an email to his entire user base saying thanks. It was fitting, as Pinterest was born two years ago on Thanksgiving day 2009. Ben had been working on a website with a few friends, and his girlfriend came up with the name while they were watching TV. Pinterest officially launched to the world 4 months later. Some startups go crazy with hype and users right after launch. And some don’t. Take a look at Pinterest’s one-year traffic on Compete from Oct 2010 to Oct 2011, which is the picture in this post, and shows Pinterest rising from 40,000 to 3.2 million monthly unique visitors. Backing out of Compete’s numbers, we see Pinterest grew about 50% month over month from a base of zero since its inception (on average, smoothing the curve). Note these numbers are approximations and also do not count the significant traffic the service sees from mobile (Pinterest’s app currently takes the #6 social spot in the iTunes store).
What’s NOT Going to Happen in 2012? New York, New York - 13 Dec 2011 As 2011 comes to a close, ABI Research is back again for its seventh consecutive edition of “What’s NOT Going to Happen.” Instead of trying to predict what will unfold in the next 12 months, ABI Research’s analysts are traveling off the beaten path to provide their best insight on all of the progress we will not be making this coming year. 2011 proved to be a turbulent year for the global economy. Although the economic downturn is reported to be officially over, the global economy still sits on shaky and uncertain ground. With this in mind, predicting exactly what 2012 will bring seems difficult. Will anyone stop Apple from bullying operators? Will RIM pull its ailing tablet business from the market? Will 2012 be the year of the smart city? Will LTE finally take the lead in 2012? What’s the prognosis for NFC? How will the home automation market shake out?
10 Non-Profits Leveraging Pinterest for Social Good There's no question that Pinterest is the hottest social network right now. From your friends and family to celebrities, athletes and designers, everyone's pinning visually interesting content. But did you know that non-profit organizations are pinning, too? Non-profits, like other companies and brands, are flocking to Pinterest and utilizing its features to gain exposure. They want to show supporters more about their missions and how their work makes a difference in the world. We found ten non-profits that are particularly awesome at pinning. Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mattjeacock.
5 Tech Trends to Watch in 2012 2012 promises to be a very busy year in all things digital, but, as with any annum, there will be just a handful of big, memorable trends. Here, I’ve collected five such movements that are likely to make a big impact in our technologically-enhanced lives. Augmented Reality It’s now in games, location apps, business cards and coffee shops and could start showing up in cars and even eyeglasses. Augmented Reality, which puts a virtual view on top of your real world, is really just a cool way of saying, “Reality with Style.” According to a report from Visiongain, 25% of all app downloads will feature some sort of augmented reality. The Micro-Payment Economy App manufacturers are not the only ones who can make money selling tiny wares and incremental upgrades. Sites like RedBubble do everything for the artist; all they need to do is upload the content. RedBubble is just one of many destinations popping up to help the aspiring entrepreneur. The Rise of the UltraBook Social/Digital Exhaustion