Social media trends have been shifting on a monthly basis, but here’s a look at some which left an impact—whether good or otherwise
There was a time, not too long ago, when charting out the social media trends that made an impact over the year was easy. Entrenched players took their time to change, and new entrants were few and far between. That time, however, is not now. With the unprecedented pace of disruption and the ground shifting below your feet on a monthly basis, what worked on the social scene in January may no longer be useful as you read this copy right now! Even so, in our yearly wrap-up of what made the news (and notoriety) this year, I try to assess the key trends that have shaped the social agenda in 2012.
The Internet of People: Till recently, you’d use a news portal or a search engine to find your way around the cluttered mass we know as the Internet and find out what’s happening. Today, your Facebook and twitter feeds are where news breaks first, and user generated content – news, videos, photos and opinion – are increasingly driving our daily reading habits.
Curation is Key: That said, with so much data bombarding our lives throughout the day, the need for curated content – content that has been chosen, either manually or algorithmically, to be worth your time – has grown by leaps and bounds. This year saw names like reddit and Techmeme creep into the mainstream, and they’re here to stay.
Are you Pinterest-ed: One brand that really rode the social wave this year was Pinterest. The image-sharing network, while being the newest of the big kids on the block, had more clickthroughs than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined! Not to mention research that shows significant sales that are driven off the site. Imagine how much traffic that could mean for your brand’s website if you engage fans on the platform.
Kickstart It!: Kickstarter may be the perfect platform to get crowd funded, but more and more folks are realising that it’s an equally effective way to grab big media attention and make a hard sell for a product before its launch. Plus, projects that are well on their way to being funded get noticed by VCs and angel investors as well. The moral? Make that pitch video for your Kickstarter funding perfect!
Social becomes Human: If you’re using your brand’s twitter channel to send out robotic sounding messages like “Hi! Please DM us your contact details and we’ll get in touch” for just about every customer interaction, you’re missing the point of being social, not to mention becoming the object of much ridicule on the platform. If anything, your social presence should be more like people you’d want to spend time with. Case in point: look at the playful banter that Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart engages in on its twitter account, while handling customer queries and complaints.
Mobile First: More and more folks are only accessing social media from their phones. And with smartphone users globally tipping into the 1 billion figure in 2012, that’s a vast market, one that has to be addressed in a manner that is very different from the days of the desktop. Imagine this – brands can now reach potential buyers at the exact time when they’re out looking for the service or product, with relevant messaging and up-to-date offers. Plus there’s the brand opportunity with apps as well. Brands that ignore this rapidly growing segment do so at their own peril.
The Social Enterprise: Social media in the enterprise is no longer just implementing a bunch of tools and ensuring your presence on social networks. The social enterprise goes one further, integrating social across all platforms of engagement, be it sales, marketing or service. Think less 'social for social’s sake', and focus more on social media as a business tool to facilitate communication, engagement and loyalty. Large B2B companies spent much of 2012 boarding the social media train, as the acquisitions of social startups by players such as Microsoft and Salesforce indicate.
Wherefore art thou, Google+?:It’s nearing on 18 months for Google+, and the stark reality is that while it has its niche, it just isn’t working. Not with all the resources and engineering at Google’s disposal can the internet giant crack social. Want more evidence? Look back at Google’s previous attempts – Buzz, Wave and Orkut.
Videos Work!: Getting your brand video to go viral may have been the elusive holy grail for most online marketers, but even for those that didnt, online video represented a huge opportunity this year. With broadband and 3G penetration levels rising, customers are no longer shy of engaging with your brand via rich video content. Combine this with an ever-decreasing barrier of entry for the average person to quickly become a video-sharing ninja, and you’ll notice that in 2012, video quality (picture and sound) and entertainment quality rapidly increased across the board. Brands like Red Bull crossed the fine line into entertainment channel territory, offering sports, TV, music and lifestyle content, all shared socially and linking back to the company’s website.