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. What used to be simply Facebook and Twitter is now Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (and who knows what’s next). On top of this, you have many specialty networks like Foursquare, Yelp and Instagram.
The old mantra of “be everywhere” will quickly be replaced with “be where it matters to our business.” 
How Google Analytics Is Impacting Business
In this video I interview Avinash Kaushik, the digital marketing evangelist for Google and author of Web Analytics 2.0.
Avinash shares how the free enterprise-class tools available through Google Analytics impact businesses today.
He explains how your social media activity influences the behavior of your business audience to help you improve your results.
Be sure to check out the takeaways below after you watch the video.
8 Social Media Trends Impacting Businesses
As businesses continue to integrate social media and become more confident and comfortable with social media tools and platforms, we’re starting to see a change in social media usage. A new study reveals what’s changing with social media.
SmartBrief recently partnered with Summus Limited to survey more than 6,000 of its readers across a variety of industries.
They benchmarked and measured the state of social media usage among businesspeople. The data identified eight prevalent trends that give great insight into the social media behaviors, beliefs and challenges of the majority of businesses today.
9 Ways to Sell Social Media to the Boss
Conversations are happening online with or without you. This is one of the most frequently used social media sayings. If you’re engaging with social media for your company, it’s almost second nature.
However, there are still many who are struggling to ‘sell’ social media to their executives. And as Doug Frisbie, Toyota National Marketing Manager says, “The price of inactivity is greater than the risks of anything we’d be doing in social media.”
Let’s explore 9 ways you can make a good case for social media programs.
Are You Looking to Track Social Media Metrics?
When Intuit wanted to analyze market sentiment about TurboTax, they used Radian6 to collect approximately 40,000 blog posts about Intuit and its competitors between January 1st and April 15th of 2008.
“None of [the team working on this project] felt artificial intelligence was going to come to their aid any day soon,” says Jim Sterne in his book, Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment.
How to Cash In On Your Passion With Social Media
Have you heard of Joseph Campbell?
He was the famous mythologist—author of The Hero With a Thousand Faces and many other books—who told us all to “follow your bliss” in his Power of Myth PBS specials with Bill Moyers in the late 1980s.
“That’s all well and good,” you may have thought at the time. “But I have to make a living. How do I make money by following my bliss?”
If you’ve been asking that question for the past 20 years, you’ll be happy to know that someone has finally answered it. Gary Vaynerchuk has written a book to teach us how to make money by following our bliss.
Many of you may know Vaynerchuk as the host of the video blog WineLibraryTV.com. Now he has written a book titled Crush It! Why Now Is the Time to Cash in on Your Passion.
How to Boost Your Personal Brand With Social Media
Want to build your personal brand? There are few tools as powerful as social media for quickly building a positive personal brand. Whether you’re focusing on a global audience or a local one, social media can help you get visibility and help you forge connections.
In this article, I’ll share some tips to help you leverage social media to gain more exposure.
#1: Reap What You Sow
What are you aiming for? What is your goal?
If you want to get yourself known, social media is a great way to build visibility and a platform. Getting known might be your goal or it might be a means to an end. Again, social media can help you build connections that pay off in terms of opportunities and offers.
Social Media Differences Among Teens, Boomers and Moms: New Study Findings
Relationship building via social media marketing is not a one-size-fits all endeavor. Moms, teens and Baby Boomers are three big social media subgroups groups that are unique.
Just like with traditional marketing, the more you know your audience, the more successful you will be at grabbing their attention and keeping it.
In terms of marketing opportunities, recent online buzz shows teens, Boomers and moms as three of the most desirable social networking groups. They are active on these sites and their behaviors have been studied closely.
Each group is unique, and the secret to success is understanding where they are spending their time and how they are using the social sites to engage and connect.
Chicago Pizza Guy Creates Social Media ‘Domino’ Effect
When it comes to social media, it takes a lot to impress Amy Korin.
Her resume includes digital strategy for global companies like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Sun Microsystems and Zappos.
But her local Domino’s Pizza joint left her “completely shocked.”
On a rainy Sunday night, her Domino’s Pizza order took an hour to arrive and then was the wrong pizza. She turned to Twitter to vent: “hardly any room for human error, but still a mistake.”
What followed went way beyond the mea culpa tweet increasingly more common in business today.
Top 5 Social Media Articles from 2009
The year is coming to a close and there’s been lots of great social media content developed.
Here are our top five articles (in order of popularity) from this year…
#1: Five Must Read Social Media Marketing Studies
Here’s a quick overview of the this article:
Study 1: By 2010, 26 Million (1 in 7) U.S. Adults Will Use Twitter Monthly
The study by eMarketer found the following: “In 2009, there will be 18 million U.S. adults who access Twitter on any platform at least monthly. That represents a 200% increase over 2008 levels. Usage will reach 26 million U.S. adults in 2010, a further 44.4% climb.“
