Predictions for Social Media for the New Year

I recently wrote a post in WhatsYourTech about my predictions for social media in the coming year.

Here are some of the excerpts:

Marketers know that the cost of acquisition by far is more expensive than retaining a customer. Social media provides opportunities to learn more about customers through dialogue but has also provided a consistent channel to optimize business product offerings.

Social Media will see increased budgets as CMO’s are seeing the light
The economy has constrained advertising budgets and it’s incumbent upon the marketing organization to maximize results on reduced spend. This means the channel needs to be measurable. Therefore it’s not suprising that CMO’s plan to allocate more budget towards more retention initiatives in 2012. CMOSurvey.org in their recent study indicated that average allocation for social media is 7.1% in 2011, doubled from 3.5% in 2009. This is expected to increase to 10% in the next year.

Reputation will be paramount for business in the next year. Listening of 2011 will quickly move into Engagement for 2012. Lowe’s can attest to the importance of reputation management in this week’s fiasco on their Facebook Page when the company decided to pull its ads from TLC’s All American Muslim. Companies are starting to realize that dipping their toe in social doesn’t only mean starting a Twitter and Facebook Page. It also means embracing all the responsibilities that go along with it.

Mobile payments will quickly gain traction. Last year, 35 Million Phones were sold in 2011 with NFC (Near Field Communications)-enabled technology. That number will quickly grow to 80 Million by the end of 2012, as reported by IMS Technology. Whose poised to deliver this in Canada? Rogers is expected to launch its offering in Q1 2012 with VISA Canada as the “expected” payment provider.

Local offerings should expect a surge next year. The growth of the mobile will begin to see the likes of Foursquare, Yelp and Facebook monetize their mobile offering. While Facebook shut down Places offering, there is no coincidence that it recently acquired Gowalla, a competitive location-based platform. The market is primed for growth and as businesses moves toward increased usage of brand monitoring platforms, they will have the ability to effectively test promotions in real time without necessarily relying on deal platforms.

Last but not least, “Privacy” will be a topic that continues to surge. The current news where Google will now include G+ postings into search results regardless of their relevance, strengthens Google’s desperation to own an increased share of the social pie. In addition, SOPA’s prevalence will need to force the legal system to begin to redefine intellectual property rules as social challenges these policies.