Polling nearly three dozen marketing strategists, brand marketers and thinkers from consulting firms and agencies — including me — social media marketing software developer Awareness compiled views on what 2012 may bring.
I’m flattered being quoted in the resulting white paper as part of an impressive roll call that includes Ekaterina Walter, Laura Fitton, David Berkowitz, Jay Baer, David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis, Erik Qualman, Paul Gillin, Steve Rubel and others.
Here’s a Twitter list with all contributors. You can download the eBook using the link at the bottom of this post.
Here are my complete answers to the survey — I have edited the questions a bit. How would you have answered?
What would be the biggest social marketing development in 2012?
Ubiquity. Large brands will have enough experience with social media marketing under their belts to act more strategically and better integrate social media into their overall marketing and operations. I also think they will start looking more carefully at the tools they are using and many will make changes informed by their experience.
SMB’s will be presented with more affordable and accessible DYI application choices, making it possible to be more proactive with there social media initiatives.
What role will “big data” play in social marketing next year?
There have always been companies who have used data to inform their marketing and those who have been foolish enough to fly blind. Will the greater accessibility of big data be of benefit to the former group and be a wake-up call to the latter? Hard to say.
I also am a big proponent of “small data” with particular relevance to brands or even individual products. SMB’s in particular have to look for data subsets that are of most value.
What new functionality will have the most impact on social marketing?
Better integration of location-aware services with consumers previously expressed interests. It’s real, real-time marketing.
What role will mobile play in social marketing?
Starting yesterday, brands should be planning all of their marketing for mobile platforms and then integrate with desktops.
What would be the top challenge for marketers engaged in social next year?
Being clear that social media channels are just that. Channels. While each has multi-threaded, user-generated social elements, bidirectional digital and linear broadcast facets also exist in most of them.
We need to be careful to parse the functionality and potential of each channel, as well as be aware of how those channels are used interactively by consumers.
What are the social marketing news resources you read daily?
The conversations by those in the “social media marketing industry” with others in the industry are secondary to keeping tabs on our culture andinnovative thinkers. The important social media news will surface — they have value and can be sought as needed — and, IMO, don’t need to be followed as one might follow a baseball team. I’m much more interested in having my brain bent by a clever idea to inform what I do for my clients.
DOWNLOAD: 2012 Social Marketing & New Media Predictions
Many thanks to Mike Lewis and Lora Kratchounova for the opportunity to participate in this project.
