How Will Social Networks Rock in 2012?

In the beginning of each year our tendency is to analyze what was good or not so good in the social media world the previous year to know what to expect during the following months. Let’s see what the new social trends are and what to look for from social networking in 2012:

Facebook

• Facebook's new Timeline feature is about to become permanent for everybody's profile.
• The Subscribe button which lets you follow public updates of other members, not necessarily your friends,will allow users to subscribe to companies’ profile updates. This will help increase brands’online popularity.
• Facebook’s developers will create Gestures buttons. These buttons will enable users to perform any action they like, for example they could post a “Hug” button to show their support to their friends.

Twitter

•  Featured Tweets will help brand managers reach lots of users, followers, potential customers and business partners. Different from “favorited” tweet, a featured tweet highlights specific campaigns, stays longer and is able to display embedded photos, videos and even media.

LinkedIn

• Polls in Groups will engage and encourage the members of the group to express their thoughts easier and faster. Voting on polls refines the information that comes from a large number of users and has similar advantages to “Like” on Facebook, but enriched with comments.

Klout

• Nicknamed “The standard for influence”, Klout enables users to find out who the big influencers on important social platforms are, and what their network score is. The result: Klout is going to be a useful tool for your blogger outreach campaigns.

Pinterest

• Pinterest will become a great way to help social media campaigns go viral after it entered top ten of the most trafficked social platforms last year;
• The possibility of marketing products via a Pinterest account, or making brands more personal with nice pictures pinned on a virtual board shouldn’t be ignored;

This year social media will see the development of lots of useful apps, will transform itself, and will be seen as a valuable helping hand for branding, customer service and B2B marketing. Businesses will focus their attention more on promoting their products and services through social media. 

Companies will talk more with their customers; more time will be spent on blog posting, creating fresh and interesting content, and answering followers opinions on social platforms. It is clear that the social media’s potential for B2B marketing cannot be ignored.

What do you think: will B2B branding experience significant growth in 2012 through the use of social media?