socialmediaexaminer.com-21 social media predictions for 2013 from the pros

7/30/2019 Socialmediaexaminer.com-21 Social Media Predictions for 2013 From the Pros

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socialmediaexaminer.com http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-predictions-2013/

Viveka VonRosen

21 Social Media Predictions for 2013 From the

Pros

ByCindy KingPublish ed Jan uary 1, 2013

Are you wonder ing what 2013 mig ht l ook like for social media marketing?

If the ch ang es seen in 2012 are an indicator, there will be a lo t mor echan ge in 2013.

To g et a grip on what the near future may lo ok like, we tapped thekn owledge of 21 social media pros.

Heres what they had to say.

And if youre curious, here were the 2012 predictions.

#1: Ecommerce and Social Media Grow Together

I dont kn ow about the world in g eneral , but I am fascinated with themovement of ecommerce and predict that it will con tinue to tr end in 2013.

Wh en I asked my per sonal eco mmerce exper t Gideon Lask(CEO an dfounder ofBuyaPowa), he said on e huge trend in ecommerce will be the

con tinued empowerment o f the consumer.

No one telling the shopper what to buy, when to shop and how much topay. Too many retailers are failing by not realizing that consumers want to doit on their terms. Time to give them the key to the car. Empower them andyoull win loyalty.

Social media is a g reat venue for co ns umers because of the integrated communicationfeatures and potential ecommerce features. But even Facebook is missing the mark a bit.Twitter an d LinkedIn dont even h ave ecommerce option s. That needs to chang e.
http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2012/06/the-rise-of-vendor-relationship-management.htmlhttp://www.buyapowa.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/socialcommerceexperthttps://twitter.com/LinkedInExperthttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/30-social-media-predictions-for-2012-from-the-pros/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/cindy-king/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-predictions-2013/


2/15

Ecommerce and soc ial media will need to grow together. Image so urce:iStockphoto

EkaterinaWalter

2013 will be the year o f visual marketing. Image source:iStockphoto

Mitch Joel

can use social media to

build business, sellproduct and support oureconomy. Makin gpurch asing easier and mor efun is o ne way of doing it,and is th e reason I see themashup of ecommerce an d

social media as a h ugeg rowth trend in 2013.

Viveka Von Rosen, knowninternationally as theLinkedIn Expert and authorofLinkedIn Marketing:

An Hour a Day.

#2: Visual Marketing

2013 will be the year of visualmarketing . Visuals and video done rig ht ar e high ly effective in cuttingthro ugh the no ise. Its a snackable type of con tent th at resonates withpeople g lo bally and incr eases eng ag ement within co mmunities no matter

where th ey are located.

Brands will need to under stand what it takes to do visual marketingwell, whether within their current communities or n ew network s likePinterest, Instag ram and others.

This is applicable for any type ofcon tent: paid, earned and owned.

Ekaterina Walter, social innovator atIntel and author ofThink Like Zuck.

#3: Well See Media as

Either Active or Passive

I believe that we will s top seeingmedia as social an d start thinkin gabout our media as being either

active or passive. Th is will h appenin two stages.

Stage one is the consumer. When ar econ sumers active or passive withtheir media? When ar e theypassively watching a TV sho w oractively takin g par t on Twitter?

Stage two is the brand. When sho uld bran ds create media that are pass ive oractive?

These new lenses on both media and the con sumer will help brands figureout the best marketing mix, and help them optimize everything fromcontent cr eation and T V spots to the amount of time, energy an d effort theyshould lace on Facebook Twitter etc.
https://twitter.com/mitchjoelhttp://www.thinklikezuck.com/http://www.ekaterinawalter.com/https://twitter.com/Ekaterinahttp://linkedintobusiness.com/linkedinmarketinghouraday/http://linkedintobusiness.com/


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When are consumers pass ively watching a TV show? Image source:iStockphoto

JohnHaydon

With self-pay commerce apps being used, cash registers willbecome a thing of the past. Image so urce: iStockphoto

Mitch Joel, president of TwistImage, blogger, podcaster andauthor ofSix Pixels of

Separation.

#4: Facebook Offers

Better Tools for

Businesses

In 2013, well see Faceboo koffer ing a premium versionofFacebook Pages. Thispremium version will in cludeadvanced anal ytics that willgive marketers g reaterinsight around specific fansegments (top co mmenters,customers, new fans) an d the

ability to do friction less email acquisition (cl ick join within a Page updateto opt in).

Th eyve alr eadyacquired Thr eadsy(an an alytics tool ) and earlier this yearthey allowed third-par ty develo pers to cr eate actions beyond Co mment, Likeand Share.

Well al so see n ew ways Facebook is used for hyperlocal co mmerce. Forexample, a cloth ing store will allo w store visitor s to l og in and pay for theirpurch ases all thro ugh their Facebook account. We are alr eady seeing self-pay commerce apps being used (Square, GoPayment). Soo n after 2013, cash reg isters will

on ly be seen in museums.

The oth er area that will see hugechan ges is con tent creation an dcuration. Mark eters will h ave theability, thro ugh automation, to getsuggestions for Page updates

based on how Facebook usershave been reacting to a Pag esprevious posts.

John Haydon, co-author ofFacebookMarketing for Dummies. He advisesnonprofits on marketing strategy andthe effective use of Facebook, blogs,Twitter and other tools.

#5: Content Marketing Is

the New Social Media

Marketing
http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Marketing-Dummies-Business-Personal/dp/1118107403/http://www.johnhaydon.com/http://gopayment.com/https://squareup.com/http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/24/facebook-threadsy/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-fun-facebook-page-examples-to-spark-your-creativity/https://twitter.com/johnhaydonhttp://www.twistimage.com/book/http://www.twistimage.com/blog/


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Rich Brooks

DaveKerpen

A need for brands to have more beautiful, engaging content.Image source: iStockphoto

Joe Pulizz i

,unprecedented clutter coming fro m both people and brands , the need for

beautiful an d engag ing co nten t is greater th an ever .

In B2B, content marketing has already taken center stage with whitepapers, ebook s, webinars, info g raphics and articles.

In 2013, as Instag ram, Pinterest and o ther multimedia social n etwor ksg ro w, youll see mor e and more B2C bran ds using social media to produce

and share beautiful photos, sophisticated comics and other visualaids, and brillian t TV-level videos.

Dave Kerpen, CEO of Likeableand author ofLikeable Social

Media andLikeable Business.

#6: SlideShare Is theFastest-Growing Social

Network

In 2013, the fastest-gro wing socialnetwork will be SlideShare, whileFaceboo k and Link edIn eachlaunch their own o riginal con tentcreation strategies to drivefurther engag ement and openup sponsor ed contentopportunities.

Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, author ofManagingContent Marketing and co-author ofGet Content, Get Customers.

#7: Twitter Personalizes Your Twitter Feed

In 2013, Twitter is g oing to start person alizing your Twitter feed based onan alg orithm that so cial media pundits migh t call TweetRank , or perhapsTwedgeRank.

The alg or ithm will include the following factors:

Influence: A measure of ho w influential th e person tweeting is,bas ed on th e ratio of followers to fo llowin g, th e reg ular number of

retweets he/she gets, mentions an d favorites received, ho winfluential his/her fo ll owers ar e and ho w often h e/she is added toTwitter l ists.

Engagement: How often you eng age with th e tweeter in th e form of mentions,retweets and favorites.

Alignment: How closely the tweeter r esembles you, based on your bio, geog raph icarea, the lists you foll ow and the lists you both appear on.

Gravity: How often th at par ticular tweet has been r etweeted and favorited.

Your Interests: If the topic of the tweet is of interest to you, based on your pr evioustweets, retweets, favorites and hash tags.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/new-twitter-profile/#more-27360https://twitter.com/therichbrookshttp://joepulizzi.com/books/http://joepulizzi.com/books/http://joepulizzi.com/http://www.slideshare.net/https://twitter.com/juntajoehttp://www.davekerpen.com/bookshttp://www.davekerpen.com/bookshttp://www.likeable.com/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/b2b-social-media-marketing-research/https://twitter.com/DaveKerpen


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Twitter will s tart "personalizing" your Twitter feed. Imagesource: iStockphoto

AnitaCampbell

Google+ will become the central hub for managing your"official" online public presence in the eyes of Goo gle. Image

source: iStockphoto

,that they can no lon ger g et theeng agement they once got onTwitter, at which po int Twitter willro ll o ut an advertising platformthat all ows you to buy a betterTwedgeRank for your tweets.

Th ere, no w I said it.

Rich Brooks, president of flyte newmedia.

#8: Google+ Is a Must

Place to Be

Google+ will be a must useservice. But it won t be due to th esocial elements. Rather , it will be

because it beco mes th e centr al hub

for manag ing your official onl ine public presence in th e eyes of Goo gl e.

Go og le will con tinue to rol l services and products under the Goo gl e+umbrella, for cing businesses to use it if they wish to get the advantagesthat Google+ offers.

Already its th e place to manage your local business pr esence withinthe Goog le ec osystem; and its central to establishing author ship o f your

writings ar ound the web (Google Auth or Mar kup).

But when it comes to pure so cial, itsuse will contin ue to be limitedmostly to tech earl y adopters andmarketers. It hasn t caugh t on fromthe social standpo int in the same

way th at sites like Facebook,Twitter, Pinterest an d Instagramhave manag ed to captivate andtrans form users into raving fan-addicts.

So ir respective of whether yourfriends or customers spend any

time socializing on Go og le+ today,you stil l need to be active o n it.

Anita Campbell, founder of SmallBusiness Trends and author ofVisualMarketing.

#9: Google+ Appeals to

Niche Segments
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-engagement/http://www.visualmarketingbook.com/http://smallbiztrends.com/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/instagram/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/using-pinterest-for-business/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-twitter-tips-for-enhancing-your-tweets/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/improve-facebook-engagement/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-plus-to-boost-your-marketing/https://twitter.com/smallbiztrendshttp://www.flyte.biz/


6/15

Ric Dragon

Both Google+ Communities and Facebook Groups can be private or open.

MarkSchaefer

. ,eng ineers h ave been quietly building features l ike Communities that migh t

yet build up participation on th is pl atfo rm. Mean while, fr ustration may bebuilding with Facebook, as it rolls out in cr easingly in tr usive adver tis ing.

The h istory of Facebooks g rowth makes for a fascinating read. The way itwas rolled out slowly acr oss co lleg es an d un iver sities helped to cr eatedemand. Th e photo and a lbum features of Facebook were key in attain ingtheir rapid popularity, yet those very features have been lag g ing in the

pho to and album features of G oog le.

The differences between Go og le+ Communities an d Facebook Gr oups are pretty slimrig ht now. Both can be private or open, and both can have multiple thr eads ofconversations.

Goog le+ still has theedge with videointegration usingGoog le Hang outs.

Googl e is also rol ling

outAuth or Ran kwhich pr omises tomake a connection

between contentand the author ofthat content. Authors

wil l th en be g iven ag reater or l esser

weig htin g sco redepending on wheretheir content appears

and ho w theyre conn ected with other relevant individuals in the so cial g raph . This isyet an oth er example of h ow a per sons or organ izations participation on Goog le+ wil lhave an impact on their findability in search .

In th e 1991 landmark book , Crossing the Chasm, author Geoffrey Moor e demonstratedho w techn ol og y companies could build up momentum by appealing to n iche segments ofearly adopters. This appears to be Go og les playbook as it attracts photog raph ers,search marketers and o ther creators of media.

Ric Dragon, CEO and co-founder of the digital marketing agency DragonSearch and author ofSocial Marketology.

#10: Instagram Grows Bigger

2013 will be a big year for Instagram. While its a co mparatively mino rplatform now, research fr om The Social Habit shows that social mediausers plan to increase their use of Instagram at a rate high er than thatof any other network .

Also, 85% of In stag rammer s use th e platfo rm at work, way abo ve anyoth er social media for mat.

Its ease of use lowers the barriers to content cr eation and h elps fuel postson other networks.
http://socialhabit.com/social-habit-pricing-and-products/http://instagram.com/https://twitter.com/markwschaeferhttp://www.dragonsearchmarketing.com/social-media-process-and-the-social-marketology-book/http://www.dragonsearchmarketing.com/http://www.geoffreyamoore.com/http://www.amazon.com/Crossing-Chasm-Marketing-Disruptive-Mainstream/dp/0060517123http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1408986http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/google-hangouts-on-air-guide/http://www.facebook.com/about/groups/http://www.google.com/+/learnmore/communities/https://twitter.com/RicDragon


7/15

Research from The Social Habit shows that social media

users plan to increase their use o f Instagram at a ratehigher than any o ther network.

DavidSitemanGarland

Mark W. Schaefer, marketing facultymember at Rutgers University and authorofReturn on Influence.

#11: Mediapreneurs Focus

More on Building Their Email

List

Warning: This pr ediction mig ht besomewhat ironic because, heck, I lovesocial media. Social media rocks. That

bein g said, in dul ge me for a seco ndabout my prediction.

Over the past year, there has been amajor trend in th e mediapreneurcommunity (entrepreneurs who createmedia online; i.e., blogs, podcasts,

webshows, whatever) an d its going tocontinue righ t into 2013.

The trend is NOT o vertly encouragingpeople to fol low you on Twitter,Pinterest, Faceboo k, etc., on your

website, but instead making sure folkssubscribe via email.

Dont believe me? Thin k Im nuts?

Check o ut Marie Forleo, ChrisBrogan, Social Trigg ers and my siteThe Rise To Th e Top.

Wh at do th ey all have in co mmon ? The common th read is enco urag ingfol ks to subscribe via email.

Wh y? Studies have shown time and time ag ain th at if you wan t an engag edaudience and buyers , they are most likely go ing to come fro m your email l ist.

And Ive found that to be extr emely tr ue and yo ur email l ist is tr uly th e onlylis t YOU OWN. Its yours.

Does this mean social media isnt impor tant? Phoo ey! Of course no t (duh) .However, my prediction is you will s ee fewer sites next year encourag ing

eo le to follow them ever where and instead foc us on the often-
http://www.therisetothetop.com/http://socialtriggers.com/http://www.chrisbrogan.com/http://www.marieforleo.com/https://twitter.com/TheRiseToTheTophttp://www.businessesgrow.com/publications/http://www.businessesgrow.com/


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Encourage people to subscribe via email. Image source:iStockphoto

Ed Gandia

Users will have tough choices to make when deciding where tospend their time and energy in the year ahead. Image source:

iStockphoto

forgotten but extremelyimportant email address .

David Siteman Garland, creator of theweb show and resource The Rise ToThe Top and author ofSmarter,

Faster, Cheaper.

#12: Marketers Use FewerSocial Sites

As social media user s beco meincr easing ly savvy, they will focustheir social media time on fewersites. Marketers will fo ll ow theirlead.

Faceboo k and Twitter have no wentered the la te major ity stage of th e adoption curve. So h as LinkedIn

within th e business co mmunity.

But as Goog le+, Pinterest and oth er rapidly gro wing platforms continue tog ain adoption an d increased acceptance, users will h ave to decide where tospend th eir time and energ y. Theres only so much time in a day, and theno ise is deafening .

From the mark eters stan dpoint, its becoming incr easing ly clear that itsmuch more effective to have a solidpresence in one or two channelsthan it is to try to do minate every

single platform.So Im predicting thatentrepreneurs , small businesses,freelancers and con sultants willhave to make some tough cho icesthis year as to where to eng agetheir fans and foll owers formaximum impact.

With th ese chan g es wil l co me anincreased focus on attracting

hig her-quality foll owers an dconnections rather than on sheernumbers. Sharing only relevantcontent to each tar get g roup will bemore impor tant than ever. That

wil l require improved s eg mentatio nand a smarter communication s strateg y.

Ed Gandia, founding partner of International Freelancers Academy, author of the 2012Freelance Industry Reportand co-author ofThe Wealthy Freelancer.

#13: The Content Marketing Arms Race Continues and Gets MoreHeated
http://thewealthyfreelancer.com/http://www.internationalfreelancersday.com/2012report/http://internationalfreelancersacademy.com/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-for-using-pinterest-for-business/https://twitter.com/EdGandiahttp://smarterfastercheaper.com/http://www.therisetothetop.com/


9/15

MarcusSheridan

Competition will grow more fierce between industries and niches.Image source: iStoc kphoto

StephanieSammons

,embrace content marketing soo n, they may repeat the KmartPhenomeno n and g o fr om the top to th e bottom of their industryall

because th ey refused to look fo rwar d and embrace a new way of thin king asKmarts competitorWalmar t did years ag o.

As 2013 is upon us, I see more and mo re businesses racing to make up forlo st time on the web. I see mor e journalists and writers being hir ed bycompanies larg e and small in an effort to produce blog posts, ebooks,

videos an d s ocial media conten t. Fr equency an d mass wil l be th e name o fthe g ame.

Th e results o f this will be go od an d bad. Con sumers will co ntinue to be better in for medthan they ever h ave been in the h istory of the wor ld before makin g a purch ase.

At the same time though, competition wil l grow more fier ce among industr ies an dnicheswhich inevitably leads to black-h at practices an d poo rl y though t-out tactics.

In many ways, this con tentmarketing arms race will be amajor area of con cern for

businesses worldwide over th enext decade.

Marcus Sheridan, co-owner of RiverPools and Spas, the founder ofPoolSchool.usan educational siteon selecting the right pooland

founder of the The Sales Lion.

#14: More Industries Get

Serious About Social

My on e social media predictionfor 2013 is that businessprofessionals in the financial, legal , accounting and medical fields ar eg oing to begin to g et serious about building their dig ital por tfolios an dimplementing social eng agement s trategies.

Th ere are regulator y issues in these industries that h ave caused fear anddelay in moving forward with investing in a dig ital remodel of theirpractices in or der to meet the expec tations and exper iences oftodays connected c onsumer.

With th e policies an d tech nolog y solutio ns in pl ace to day th at can helpto pr otect them, I predict that we will soo n see a tidal wave of financial advisers,attorneys and medical pr actitioners who will emerge as digital tho ugh t leaders in th eseimportant relationship-centric professions.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-steps-to-an-effective-social-media-strategy/https://twitter.com/StephSammonshttp://www.thesaleslion.com/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-create-content-that-sells/http://www.walmart.com/http://www.kmart.com/https://twitter.com/TheSalesLion


10/15

Medical practitioners will emerge as digital thought leaders,along with other industry profess ionals. Image source:

iStockphoto

Kristi Hines

Soc ial advertising will become more of a necessity. Imagesource: iStockphoto

find great succ ess in becomingmore visible, valuable,approachable, and acc essible totheir clients, customers andpatients thr ough social media.

Stephanie Sammons, founder andCEO of Wired Advisor.

#15: Social Media

Advertising Becomes a

Necessity

I see social advertising becomingmore of a n ecessity, whether peopl elike it or n ot. Especially for

businesses tr yin g to reac h alarger audience but who arestrugg ling to build up an eng ag ed community.

Theres also th e possibility that more social n etworks will foll owFacebooks l ead of creating a system or alg orithm that essentially for ceseveryone to buy advertising in or der to h ave their messag es seen.

Than ks to easier tar geting options, social advertising could be simplerand less expensive than paid search advertising such as Google

AdWords. Th is will lead to ROI becoming even more of a h ot topic,because co mpanies wil l be in vestin g not just th eir time but al so major advertis ing do llar sinto th eir social media campaign s.

Wh en it comes to social mediacon sulting , the most successfulcon sultants in 2013 will be the on es

who can not only h elp their cl ien tsgrow an engaged audienceorganically, but also h elp themcraft their paid advertisingcampaigns o n top social network s.

They will al so n eed to pro videproo f of h ow social media

marketing as a whol e is benefitingtheir clients thr ough advanced useof various anal ytics prog rams.

Kristi Hines, freelance writer,professional blogger and author of theblog Kikolani.

#16: A New Social Site Rolls Out
http://kristihines.com/http://www.google.com/adwords/https://twitter.com/kikolanihttp://www.stephaniesammons.com/


11/15

Chris Garrett

A new social media service will appear that hardly anyone willsee coming. Image source: iStoc kphoto

MichaelStelzner

,and learn ing fro m that experience. My prediction? Th atwe will be taken

by surprise by a new social media service that hardly anyone willsee coming!

Just look o ver th e last few years and see how we have been blindsided.

Back in March 2007, I was on e of the many people who dismissed Twitter,on ly to have to eat my wor ds and rejoin. I ign or ed Pinterest in much th e

same way. On the oth er h and, I was sure Goo gle would be able to take a h uge bite out ofthe so cial media lands cape with th eir many attempts, but that h as yet to happen.

Think of al l the social services thatwent away or ar e l impingalong: Digg, Delicious, Powncemaybe on e of th ose will come backto l ife? It could even be MySpace.

So with th is in mind, I predict therewil l be yet an oth er new service th atsh akes up the social media

lan dscape in 2013, and I lo okforward to it!

Chris Garrett, VP of EducationalContent at Copyblogger Media andco-author ofProBlogger.

#17: The Number of

Podcasters Doubles

With more th an 1 bil lion smar tphone users an d h undr ed of millionsmore coming in 2013, the consumer demand for quality on-demand talkin the for m of podcasts will gr ow enormously in 2013.

As mar keter s beg in to realize th is new publishing opportunity, we wil l seea lan d g rab as more and more podcasts are released to appease anever-g rowing demand for audio content. NOW is the time to startpodcasting.

Michael Stelzner, founder and CEO of Social Media Examiner and author of
https://twitter.com/Mike_Stelznerhttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/starting-your-own-show-tips-for-creating-an-online-show/https://twitter.com/Mike_Stelznerhttp://probloggerbook.com/http://www.chrisg.com/http://www.myspace.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powncehttp://delicious.com/http://digg.com/http://pinterest.com/http://twitter.com/https://twitter.com/chrisgarrett


12/15

Podcasts will grow enormously in 2013. Image source:iStockphoto

BenPickering

People will begin to realize the full potential of "social advertising" across the weband mobile.

t e oo s aunc an r t ng tePapers.

#18: Facebook Ad Network

Will Make Waves

Since go ing public in May,Facebook h as been working

overtime to uncover n ew and betterways to monetize its enormous userbas e.

In 2013, we will al l beg in to realizethe full potential of soc ialadvertising acr oss the web andmobile. It has been much rumoredover th e past several months andrecently appears to be coming tofruition: the ability for advertisersto leverage Facebook user datato target ads outside ofFacebook.

Wh ile Facebo ok is cur rentl y just testin g th e water s, 2013 wil l surely see thefull rol l-out of an ad network for third-party websites an d mobile.
http://www.strutta.com/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-social-media-tips-for-finding-and-engaging-your-target-audience-new-research/https://twitter.com/bpickshttp://www.writingwhitepapers.com/book/index.htmlhttp://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/launch/


13/15

HeidiCohen

Average cost per lead.

Cost per lead with long-term yield of co ntent marketing.

marketing at theexpense of advertisingto build brands, attract prospects, generate leads and c lose sales .

Con tent mark eting (especially as part of social media) is mor e cost-effectivethan digital advertising (including search). You own th e media and don tneed to pay for advertising space.

Further social mediaincluding ratings, reviews and photosprovide thewisdo m of crowds . Fin ding s byKapost/Eloqua an d HubSpot consistentlyprove this point.

Heidi Cohen, actionablemarketing expert and

president of RiversideMarketing Strategies.

#20: Social

Media Focuses

on the Business

With IPOs, inten semedia focus, top-sell ing gurus, etc., thesocial mediaplumbing ofFaceboo k, LinkedIn,Twitter, Pinterest, etc.,has g otten moreattention th an it

should.

As we en ter into th enext year with theeconomic realities of

whats ah ead, there isno doubt in my mindthat 2013 will be the

year social mediastops worshipping theplumbing and final lyturn s back to focuson that which is trulyimportantROI,customers, leadsand sales.

The power of socialmedia is in what it l etsus do and whom it letsus conn ect with. Thestory isnt thatFacebook has 1 billion

usersthe story isthat you now have theability to co nn ect with
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-ways-to-convert-social-media-traffic-into-leads/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/a-simple-way-to-calculate-social-media-return-on-investment/http://heidicohen.com/http://www.hubspot.com/http://www.eloqua.com/news/press/Eloqua-and-Kapost-First-to-Integrate-Content-Marketing-into-Demand-Generation.htmlhttps://twitter.com/heidicohen


14/15

Once yo u've built your audience, your ROI goes up.

PaulColligan

Brian Solis

people, thank s toFacebook. The stor yisnt the 70 ho urs of

video uploaded toYouTube every min utethe story is thatanyone with a stor y totell can broadcast it to

the whol e wor ld onGo og les dime.

Th e difference issubtle, but it will resultin th e ROI, customers,leads and sales that

we all need rig ht n ow.

PaulColligan, education czar

for Traffic Geyser Inc. and CEO of Colligan.

#21: Social Brands Shift to Social Business

The funny thing about predictions is that most people dont g o back to seeif they actuall y happened. But I take the idea of pr ediction s an d mix in alittle bit of ho pe to see meaning ful trends an d chan ge come about. With thatsaid, come 2013, I think were g oing to see a real shift from social

br ands to soc ial businesses.

Social brands are org anizations that use social media as a for m of

marketing and communication. Larg ely run out of the mark etingdepartment, social media is typically sil oed within th e business.

Rogue accounts exist acro ss th e company. And often, central ization ismerely design ed to educate groups on h ow to use social media and fo ll owrules without considering ho w the market at larg e sees disparateapproach es while not h aving expectations ackn owledged or met.

2013 will bring about an expansion in s ocial media beyond a marketing and engag ementphilosophy to that of o neness. Social media strateg ywill start to take a more integr atedapproach where social media becomes an extension of important ch ann el strategies and

business fun ctions.

It will be driven by a ho listic effort where enterpr ise, business and functional strategieswork to acco mpl ish business objectives while meeting th e needs an d expectatio ns ofemplo yees an d customers .
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/3-steps-to-an-effective-social-media-strategy/https://twitter.com/briansolishttp://www.paulcolligan.com/https://twitter.com/colligan


15/15

An expansion in social media beyond a marketing and engagementphilosophy to that of o neness. Image source: iStoc kphoto

manag ed today will s tart toevol ve into a reso urce centerto empower teams toengage around a common

vision on their o wn accord.Th e business itself thus

beco mes social an d this pavesthe way for a foc us in 2014

around a mor e humanculture shift and businesstransformation.

Brian Solis, principal analyst atAltimeter Group and author ofWhats the Future of

Business andThe End ofBusiness as Usual.

What do you think? How doyou see soc ial media in2013? What trends do you anticipate? Please sh are your though ts and comments

below.

Images from iStockPhoto.

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About th e Auth or, Cindy King

Cindy King is the director o f editorial o f Social Media Examiner. She spent25 years abroad in international business development an d then built herown intern ational business fr om scratch by using social businessnetworking. Other posts byCindy King
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/author/cindy-king/http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/http://www.istockphoto.com/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118077555http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Future-Business-Businesses-Experiences/dp/111845653Xhttp://www.endofbusiness.com/

socialmediaexaminer.com-21 social media predictions for 2013 from the pros

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