15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012

15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australia in 2012 by David Wesson www.davidwesson.typepad.com

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 20121.The Quantified Self 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #1 People increasingly turn to digital tools & social media to track & monitor their lives Summary Example-Fitbit A wireless device and an I phone app Fitbit is one of One of the fascinating tech trends to come out the early leaders in building connected portable this year is the concept of the quantified self health devices .A fitness and calorie tracking and mobile health. People are increasingly service/ device small enough to clip on to the turning to digital tools and social media to track user’s clothing. Fitbit leverages an internal motion manage monitor their lives more effectively. detector to track the wearer’s movement, sleep, and Need further proof Apple’s App Store currently calorie burn during both the day and night and offers 9,000 mobile health apps (1,500 cardio provides users with metrics like: steps taken, miles apps, 1,300 diet apps, 1,000 stress and travelled, calories burned, etc….. relaxation apps, and 650 women’s health apps). By mid-2012, this number is expected to reach 13,000. Indeed there is whole movement associated Example-Livifi A mobile app for building whole life health. It pairs with the trend whom exchange information education on 40+ fact-based healthy behaviours through blogging, face to face meet ups, and for your body, mind & relationships with an easy online collaboration. Founder of Quantified self to use tool for setting goals & tracking progress. Gary wolf explains all in a fascinating TED Video. Livifi was inspired by Founder & CEO Lowell Winer’s struggle with lymphoma and the belief that no-one should have to wait for a health crisis to find a path to a better life.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20122.Looking beyond Facebook & Twitter 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #2 The growth of niche social media sites that offer alternative ways to engage with your target audience . Summary Example-Instagram When most brands think of social Instagram allows users to filter, share, and tag their media they inevitably think of photos and comment on other peoples photos. Since Facebook ,Twitter and YouTube its inception in June 2010 it has experienced stellar however there is a fine line for growth and there are currently has 14 million users worldwide and is on course to become the largest brands using social media and mobile social network when it launches on Android where you decide to focus your later this Brands using the network to great effect efforts. You want to avoid include Burberry, Pepsi Max, Jamie Oliver and opening up a brand account on Starbucks every single social platform just because you can, but then you also want to focus on the niche Example-Pinterest Voted as one of Time Magazine’s top 50 most important sites where you will gain the websites of 2011 Pinterest represents curation in the most traction .According to e- form of a vision board styled social photo sharing marketer 2011 has seen a sharp website and app where users can create and manage rise in niche sites that I predict in theme-based image collections. The mission statement 2012 will be the focus of many of Pinterest is to connect everyone in the world through different brands trying to gain shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting. Check out how the following brands are actively using cut through amongst all the the platform: Nordstrom ,Wholefoods, Etsy, The travel noise channel

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20123.Being Human 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #3 More and more companies & brands realise the value of being human Summary Example-Deloitte Social Media Rock stars Deloitte are one of Thanks to the growth of social media companies and Australia ‘s pioneers when it comes to brands alike in 2012 have begun to see the real promoting better employee engagement and value of being human brands to their customers and empowerment .Not only does it have the employees alike. Being a social business has been all largest global Yammer network worldwide but it the rage in social media circles for the last few is also using Facebook and YouTube to highlight months and this means companies whom are their internal culture as part of their graduate adopting social media marketing need also to be program. Their Green room on Facebook hosts a open and transparent on the inside to genuinely regular Live Q&A for graduates in conjunction create a connection with their consumers. Zappos with as specialist graduate Twitter stream and Best buy with Twelpforce being the obvious @greendot. examples however at a local level expect more brands and companies alike to highlight their Example-Dominos By admitting their Pizza was crap and internal culture and actively engaging and doing something about it Dominos has empowering their employees to act as ambassadors helped the brand reconnect with its to the brand. This would seem to be backed up by customers. The company has also taken the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer which saw the step to improve its customer service by credibility of CEO’s and Government officials introducing a real time tracker & even plummet and peers and regular employees went to the length of posting feedback dramatically rise. received on a real time billboard in times Square in New York.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20124.Hypertargeting 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #4 Companies will begin to realize the opportunities of uncovering the various segments as part of their digital strategies Summary Example-Social mention Last year Mckinsey research showed that a granular approach to user market targeting Social Mention is a social media search and accounted for as much as an 80% variation in analysis platform that aggregates user income across the fortune 500 companies it generated content from across the universe studied. Instead of focusing on purely 2/3 user into a single stream of information. To help segments it recommends as many as 20-30 uncover more information about particular segments as part of your hypertargeting segments it also provides associated marketing strategy. Using social media data is keywords & hashtags with search query. possible to uncover these segments using tools such as Social mention, People Browsr’s Kred , Klout and Peer Index which allow you to Example-Peer Index identify your ideal user in the form of an influencer and reverse engineer by working The new Peer index Groups function is a your way backwards and look at your their great way to go more granular around friends links follower’s friends ,what groups & particular influencers and what groups they communities they belong to keywords they belong to if you wish to uncover segments belong to uncover and understand these around a particular topic and starting with micro-segments. your ideal influencer/user.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australia in 20125.Mobile marketing becomes more Social & local 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #5 Mobile marketing becomes entwined with social and local Summary Example-Yelp With the Australian launch of Yelp this year in In 2012 we will see increased Social Local Mobile conjunction with Telstra’s Sensis arm location (SoLoMO) marketing prevail in existing geo-social based marketing has taken a leap forwards to apps like Foursquare, and Yelp. take advantage of user generated reviews at a Retailers will experiment more with geo-fenced local level . mobile marketing with Social buying companies like Groupon and Living Social becoming Example-CBA -Facebook Check-in Deal more app-focused and provide push content and alerts on real-time local deals. Brands will create Selling out inn just 72 hrs the trial of Facebook more of their own apps that tap into both geo- check-in deal to win a free movie pass was a location services and social networking. Brands resounding success for Commonwealth Bank. will also continue to increase the relevance of Expect similar promotions once the service is their messaging in traditional mobile ads by using launched Australia wide . more location targeting and embedding social content and shareability. Improvements in Example-Microsoft Office Foursquare Promo technology and Ogilvy’s PR’s 360DI team’s pioneering Foursquare richer mobile ads will help facilitate these Mayor campaign for Microsoft office 2010 launch approaches. We’ll start to see less purely mobile was a great example of using location based marketing in exchange for more SoLoMo marketing to generate positive word of mouth strategies. amongst tech influencers.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20126.Social Commerce 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #6 Brands adopt social media tactics as a way to drive Sales in the through sharing & recommendations. Summary Example-Noni B Whilst Australian brands have been slow to Having only launched its social presence last embrace e-commerce 2012 will see brands adopt year in a short space of time has grown the social media tactics as a way to drive sales in the sales in their webshop to comparative levels through sharing .The underlying principle of social of their bricks and mortars shops through commerce can be described in a really simple way running a number of successful Facebook .it is not about creating a shop on Facebook .it is promotions. The company has recently about driving sales through sharing by issued a 60% uplift in its profit forecast for recommendations and other people online. You 2012 are no longer shopping around on an ecommerce site .You are shopping around on blogs, twitter, and Facebook. The strategy therefore is how we Example- Uniglo integrate buying a product into our customers Taking the notion of group buying to social interaction with a direct conversion to sale another level is the innovative Japanese directly from a wall ,from a tweet or from a blog brand Uniglo. Their ‘lucky post. For this reason brands that have built counter’ website utilises user communities online will begin to connect the dots contributions in a unique way by and start to convert their fans into paying incentivising customers to drive down customers by providing the natural call to actions in the price of goods by tweeting about a non evasive way. them. Read more .

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20127.Google + is the big new opportunity 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #7 Google + brand pages offer a viable alternative for companies to grow their social presence online Summary Example- NAB Chris Brogan’s latest book Google + for business The first bank in Australia to conduct a Google+ hangout discusses how the social network changes with its customers .NAB use their Google + platform as a everything and in a short space of time the way of engaging with their customers providing support platform has amassed 90 million+ users which ,news and product information.“NAB’s Chris Smith, makes it the fastest growing social network. In General Manager of Digital said. “It’s another way we 2012 I think we can expect to see more brands can build stronger relationships, improve overall take the plunge and experiment with the customer service – and help them manage their money innovative hangout feature and start to better.” I think we can expect more experimentation on leverage the speed at which content gets the platform over the next year. indexed into Google from the platform. The circles feature Is also a great way to create different interest groups to cultivate whilst one Example- Telstra of the major pluses is the seamless integration with all other Google services. Technology is Telstra one of the pioneering corporate companies of changing at a amazing rate and those brands social media in Australia were quick to launch their that change will be the ones to take advantage brand page and use the page to extend their reach to of the opportunities it presents . tech influencers by providing the latest tech news, product updates and competitions.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20128.Channel integration-the key to success 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #8 Successful channel integration is the key to Social Media Success Summary Example-Share a coke with One of the biggest problems facing companies The success of a share a coke campaign with in looking to be successful in social media Australia is testament to the power of a fully marketing is channel integration .Too often social integrated campaign where users were asked to media is an afterthought or an add on and download names via mobile and then vote on the wholly integrated into a company’s Facebook page for the top 150. This was then communications strategy as a whole. followed up with a TV ad campaign to drive the How does online fit with offline? and how does campaign home. Would this have really been mobile and social fit with TV, I’m sure has keep possible to the same level a few years ago without many a CMO up at night. In 2012 having learnt the power of social media ? the lessons expect companies to implement social to be a lot more fully integrated into across Example- NAB break Up a company’s overall communications where customer service, PR and marketing begin to The impressive thing about the campaign was how understand how each of these channel need to NAB was able to leverage different mediums. The work together a lot better. campaign started on Twitter, carried over to print and then involved a number of guerrilla marketing stunts, with it all backed up by the bank making the head of its retail banking division, available for interviews and TV .Whilst This kind of marketing push takes planning, having all the elements working at once delivers a bigger bang.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 20129.Brand Advocates vs. Influencers 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #9 brand advocates take a more important role than the influencer alone Summary Example-Fiesta Movement 2011 has seen the rise in services like Klout, Peer Fords innovative fiesta movement was index or most recently People Browsrs’s Kred but how important are these groups compared with replicated locally this year in the form of the the hardcore group of advocates that use your Ford Focus ultimate test drive in partnership products on a day to day basis and tell all their with car sales.com.au with 12 blogger selected friends about it. to take part to and undertake a series of In 2012 companies will being to realize that challenges with the eventual winner walking marketing to those top 10 influencers is too away with a new car voted by an engaged simplistic a framework to base your social audience. marketing around and we will see a rise of brands engaging with it’s advocates. Example-Fiskas Fiskas looked at how people were actually Besides tapping into the emotional equity of using their products and it turned out that customers will result in long term (and possibly a large number of crafters were already profitable) relationship with them. Hence we will active online so they recruited four part see a focus on engagement on an ongoing basis time paid crafters to lead the charge and with social media advocacy programs. post onwww.fiskateers.com/blog about their lives -- never "selling" or saying things they dont believe.. They now have 6000+ members spanning 70 countries.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201210.Social TV 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #10 Social technologies and platforms that enable people to interact with TV will explode in 2012 #Social TV Summary Example-Twelevision Social tools, technologies and platforms that enable people to interact with TV programs will Launched last year Twelevision aptly named explode in 2012. We will see innovations that the lovechild of live TV and Twitter allows allow people to engage with shows in ways we Australians to enjoy the 2nd screen haven’t even thought of yet. Facebook Apps experience and follow all Australian TV as it integration will see rise in the use of online happens online in a neat iPhone app. video online The consumption of video will begin to take on evolved forms in new contexts. As the adoption of increasingly consumer-centric, multi-faceted home entertainment technology catches on, Example-Fans video that had previously been consumed online, including YouTube videos, episodes, and The brainchild of Sydney based company even professionally curated content by B33hive whom have been in the social TV established media companies will begin to space for some time working with the likes of “reverse-migrate” to the living room. US companies NBC & The CW this TV fan based community looks nicely positioned to Key resource: the future of TV is social and the take full advantage of the growing demand for revolution is coming social interaction around TV programming.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201211.The rising importance of Content Curation2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #11 Curation offers brands an opportunity todifferentiate themselves online Summary Example-Storify One of the essential PR tools of 2011 Storify makes Making sense of the fire hose of information the the process of the manual process of manually internet offers remains one of the biggest curating content around a particular topic quick challenges in the digital realm. We find ourselves in and easy. It brings together Tweets, Facebook what Eli Pariser describes in his great TED video as Status Updates, videos and more from social living in a filter bubble where we are being served networking sites to create a real-time view into a up information based on what Google thinks it story or issue which you can share anywhere. should serve us. Rohit Bhargava in his 2009 Expect this platform to rapidly grow in use over manifesto for the content curator said that “the 2012 future of the social web will be driven by content curators, who take it upon themselves to collect and share the best content online for others to Example-Flipboard consume.” What we have seen in 2011 and will continue to see this year is the rise of curation as Since it’s launch in July of 2010, the IPad app has an opportunity to being found on the web accumulated over 4 million users and with the alongside original content being produced and any launch of the IPhone app it added over 1 million brand that makes this process easier for its users in a week. The app allows you to aggregate audience will win more trust and attention from news feeds from Facebook ,twitter linked in and consumers. Google reader and turns them into a lush social magazine interface which has spawned a series of copycat services recently.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201212. Future Tense Social Networking 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #12 The past and present of our lives are already established online — therefore, the next frontier in social networking is the future. Summary Example-Plancast “Future tense” social networking asks: Where do Plancast is a platform from which you can you want to go? Who do you want to meet? What share your plans with your friends, so if do you want to buy? By sharing your plans, desires you’re heading to a conference, sporting and aspirations, you enable real-world event, festival, party, movie premiere, or interactions. For example, when you push a check- whatever, Plancast can help you let others in to the future, you shift the paradigm from “I’m know your plans ahead of time. here now” to “I’ll be there later.” You increase the likelihood of connection. Likewise, “future tense” social networking has the potential to transform location-based marketing Example-Shaker Facebook app because users are directly expressing their intent.“ Future tense” social networking catches people at Shaker attempts to transform the social a unique moment in the buying cycle. The network into a virtual bar. While buying consumer hasn’t entirely made up her mind about someone a virtual beer is a poor substitute for where to go or what she plans to buy, which means the actual experience, Shaker connects you businesses can take an active role in the decision- with new people you might actually become making process. friends with in real-life by mashing up your social graph with people interested in the same things.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201213.Real Time PR 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #13 More brands adopt real- time communication programs Summary Example- Avaya’s $250K Tweet David Meerman Scott in his book Real Time Marketing and PR talks about the need for Avaya’s real time monitoring team responded to companies to develop a real time mindset and a tweet within 15 minutes of it being posted being able to communicate quickly is essential in and won a $250k sale off the strength of their today’s always on 24/7 environment. Think about response which shows it pays to listen . On in terms of a bond trading desk where how quickly average, Avaya interacts with a couple of dozen you were able to trade can depend on how much customers through social media on a weekly money you can make, with social media it is the basis and comes across regular sales same thing but brands have not woken up to this opportunities. yet. It used to be the amount of exposure used to be size of wallet would help determine how much Example-Taylor Guitars attention you would receive by media buying but now speed and agility are decisive competitive Taylor guitars took full advantage of the advantages. In 2012 we will see more companies United Breaks Guitars saga by posting a and brands become savvier to the opportunities a video online on ways to avoid getting your real time mindset presents by adopting robust guitar damaged whilst travelling. Half a listening programs, and engaging with your million views later the company brand has customers in real time .Who knows we could see garnered significant brand exposure and the formation of the first social media control sales by acting quickly and decisively. room in an Australian corporation this year.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201214.Gamification 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #14 Brands become more playful integrate gaming into their social programs Summary Example-Samsung Nation There has been a lot of talk of about gamification in 2011 but will all the hype translate into reality ? A social loyalty program run via the The idea of gamification is a simple one: to badgeville platform where you earn motivate and engage people by applying game badges, move up the ranks and have fun design techniques and mechanics to non-game discovering everything Samsung.com has situations. Points, level progression, badges, to offer. Unlock badges and level up just achievements, power-ups, virtual currency, quests, by visiting, reviewing products, watching puzzles, loss aversion – all of these game concepts videos, participating in user-generated are involved in this growing trend that spans areas Q&As, from education and work to keeping fit and green actions to improved brand experience and loyalty Example- Sydney festival Treasure Hunt schemes. Festival-goers were invited to complete a in 2012 I believe we will see companies and series of real-time challenges, via a gamified brands become more playful as we move from the event guide app specifically designed to both crudest forms of gamification such as Foursquare- personalise and (vitally) share their Festival style badges and points-based reward to perhaps experience. The App was downloaded 25,000 the first massive multi-player multi-brandmulti- times . Completing five challenges unlocks channel real-life game systems. the final in-person ‘Ultimate Challenge’ (a la The Amazing Race!), with an Ultrabook from sponsor Intel up for grabs.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 201215.Social CRM 2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #15 Social CRM becomes more important in the continued quest for ROI in Social Media Summary Example- Radian 6 Social Hub In 2012, expect to see much better social monitoring and engagement tools integrated into CRMs. These bring two essential Following the Salesforce acquisition of Radian 6 The functions to the table. Firstly, they make social hub is the natural intersection of traditional monitoring for commentary on social CRM and social data for the complete 360 customer networks easier and, where commentary is lifecycle view . Expect other products to follow as adverse, putting out spot fires much faster. part of the Salesforce ecosystem. Secondly, social CRM allows for faster community-building and management, across sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn — providing businesses to create Example- Sugar CRM An open source software solution that as well as and (as far as possible) control the online providing traditional CRM has a whole range of conversation space & clear measurement social features .The system enables users to decide around their marketing activities. how to leverage their social data whether you would like to monitor twitter or uncover relationships from linked in. In addition to offering a flexible take on social data Sugar CRM has layered next generation collaboration capabilities into the product that enable users to collaborate and share data.

David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 2012About the Writer Connect with me onAbout David David has over 10 years in digital & social media marketing industry Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wess experience in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Linked In: http://au.linkedin.com/in/davidwesson He is regularly contribute his thoughts on forums such as Digital Google + http://bit.ly/ADKcUZ Ministry as one of their foremost digital champions and global thought Social media Strategist http://bit.ly/knx3h1 leadership foundation the Futures Agency, and has led some of the most innovative digital campaigns in Australia. David’s work has included leading the social media strategy for the award winning Members Lounge for Virgin Mobile, the digital and social media execution for Tourism Australia’s Oprah Winfrey visit to Australia, and the online word of mouth marketing for the Star Trek movie in 2010. He has in-depth execution experience across the key digital and social media disciplines, including content curation, social community Contact creation for businesses, taking brands into the digital world and enabling brands to connect with their target audiences. e-mail: davidwesson@mac.com David has worked on numerous digital and social execution projects for leading digital agencies in Australia, including Ogilvy’s 360 digital influence team, Publicis Digital, Tribal DDB, and the White Agency... David Wesson’s Digital Culture http://www.davidwesson.typepad.com

http://wearesocial.com.au	2183
http://davidwesson.typepad.com	1181
http://digitalministry.com	879
http://huguesrey.wordpress.com	410
http://www.davidwesson.typepad.com	116
http://michaelbatistich.com	114
http://founddelights.posterous.com	65
https://known.createsend.com	28
http://translate.googleusercontent.com	20
http://www.typepad.com	16
http://feeds.feedburner.com	7
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com	4
http://www.linkedin.com	3
http://michaelbatistich.tumblr.com	3
http://cafi	1
https://si0.twimg.com	1
http://www.twylah.com	1
http://core.traackr.com	1
http://www.bonbudget.com	1
http://www.auto-jardim.com	1

15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012

by David Wesson

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

20 Embeds 5,035

Statistics