Digital Marketing

Marketing and social media trend setters of 2011 and what we can expect in the year 2012

• What were the trend setters of 2011 &
• What we can expect in terms of digital & social media technology integrated brand, product and services marketing for 2012

The top trend setters, Power house websites and applications in 2011 were:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Google Plus
• Google Android
• Foursquare
• WordPress
• Instagram
• YouTube

 What they achieved and what we can expect from them in the year 2012:

Top trend setters:

Google Android: We saw the globe going gaga over the rich sweet OS treats offered by Google Android in terms of Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread and so on. Google Android with its open source and scores of free apps, made its presence felt more with the launch of Gingerbread and that was coupled with Samsung’s ample choice of smartphones and tablets powered with Android OS. It has over 85% of its users now upgraded with Android 2.1 and 3.1 OS.

Facebook: The ‘F’ word. Facebook still remains as the top social networking site with over 700 Million users and sure enough, we are looking ahead at an early Billion user milestone mark this 2012.

Twitter: This site which was started merely as a social bookmarking tool or site, now is looking to be a threat to the mighty facebook too. Twitter crossed the milestone of users now sending over 200 Million Tweets per day and with the amazing platform now reaching to over 100 Million active users, the little bird was simply trending across the globe.  With its all new Activity stream, available across more countries and in many more languages, addition of TweetDeck, integration of tools for Sharing photos, videos and more content from popular streams across, Twitter will be the site to watch out for brands and users across the globe.

Foursquare: Foursquare set a record of Billion Check-ins in 2011.  That, further boosted with its user base now growing over 10 million people,  this location – based check-in site made it clear to the world ‘when it comes to geo target or location based application, foursquare rules the lot. (Foursquare Interesting infographic )

Google Plus: The much awaited Google Plus was launched with more anticipation than probably any other news with a frenzy of users paying scores of dollars for getting an “Invite” into Google Plus. Though the initial rush has eventually seemed to settle down with many users opting to stay a little bit longer with facebook than jump on to the G+ wagon, this power site of Google will surely add up some amazing surprises for brands, marketers and users across in 2012. Especially with the One+ button going live across search engine for users to use the tool and popularize real-time content streaming.

LinkedIn: In early quarter of 2011 LinkedIn crossed the 100 Million members mark and its looking better than ever. With its IPO soaring  and creating the most amazing financial buzz around,  it is a site to look out for. With its newer features of Live news, popular stories and more, professionals across the globe want to be a part of this amazing network. Lot is riding on it this year and if the past experience is anything to go by, 2012 will be a year of positive updates and surprises for LinkedIn users across the globe.

WordPress: WordPress crossed the 50 Million mark in 2011 and this popular Blogging platform now empowers over 70 Million sites (70,112,513 WordPress sites across the Globe.) With its ease of use and flexibility for users to add their own codes, app integrations and widgets, we wont be surprised to see it cross the 100 Million mark this 2012. With more and more bloggers and readers around the world, WordPress seems to be an obvious and unanimous choice.

Instagram: With over 150 Million photos, this site seems to be raging with creative and rich content in terms of “captured moments’ which are shared by users every second. Its easy to use, very  fast and empowers users to express themselves amazingly. This app would be a game changer in terms of rich media content sharing especially for pictures and we would not be surprised to see picture editing and effects features integrated more with the instagram apps in 2012.

YouTube: This video stream site turned Five in 2011 and with that it achieved a remarkable milestone of over 3 billion videos viewed a day.

Do we need to say why it’s going to make more eyeballs move on your computer screen in 2012. Keep watching.

 Most important points for BRANDS:

• Its very clear. The year 2012 will be the year of RICH CONTENT (Pictures, Videos, Pods & more)
•  With Brands understanding more clearly about social media quotient analysis and Consumer responses, metrics, the year 2012 will be about “BEING at the right place (Being present only in social sites where the brand and products presence really matters) at the right time.
•  2011 was the year of smartphones. While that can only see an uptrend, 2012 will be the year of Tablets across users. The fight between Apple’s iPad and Samsung Tablets will see a much stronger and more varied availability of tablets from other major players like Blackberry, Motorola, HP too.
• 2012 will be about real-time content streaming and data sharing with users that are genuinely useful to them and will add value to them on a daily basis.

Who will win:

• BOTTOM-LINE: Brands that can capitalize on giving Spontaneous responses to their in-house marketing teams or external agencies will only be able to capitalize. There will be no time for “Delayed responses” this 2012.
•  It’s all about bringing together Marketing and Branding strategies with technology that the user is comfortable with for that particular brand, product and services.
•  Detailed social media analysis, combining various digital strategies like viral marketing, keyword and SEO optimization, Creative Content writing, Online PR Campaigns, will need to go hand in hand with the brands campaigns across social sites like Facebook, Google Adword campaigns and social bookmarking and real-time content and trends streaming across power tools like Twitter.

Do share with us your views, suggestions and comments on “How YOU see the strategies, newer trends and social media marketing-technology integrating in terms of going social will evolve in the year 2012?

Have a wonderfully social year ahead.

Your SMQ Team

Techdivine Creative Services

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