The document summarizes 13 social media trends for 2013. Key trends include the growing popularity of image and video-based platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine. Twitter is focusing on live events and customer service. Brands are increasing their use of promoted posts on Facebook. Community management is moving in-house more. Physical events and influencer collaborations will be designed for social sharing. Data collection will become more unified across platforms.

1. 13 SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS
for 2013
February 2013

2. 2013 Trends

3. 1.
1.
The image-powered social web
gets even more powerful

4. 1. Image power
• 2012 was the year of Pinterest and Instagram
• Both platforms (and the other major ones) showed that
the average web user loves consuming image-based
posts
• In 2013, this phenomenon will only gather more
momentum
• Smart brands have recognised this and are using imagery
in the right ways to generate the right interaction

5. 2.
The 6-second video app called
Vine might get huge

6. 2. Vine time
• Vine has been the most talked about new social platform of
the year (so far)
• Just like Twitter before it, Vine has put a limit on the form of
content it shares (video)
• It solves the biggest problem people have traditionally had
with moving imagery: producing quality long form content
• When you only have six seconds, you can tell a story without
that pressure
• It’ll be interesting to see how brands capitalise on this
potential opportunity

7. Twitter’s evolution takes it down two
very specific paths: Live events and
customer service
3.

8. 3. Tailored Twitter
• Twitter is the only true real-time social platform (of scale)
• Brands have started to realise that unless their Twitter
presence has a big real-time component, they won’t be
very relevant
• Customer service is one way they can do this
• The other is using major events to enter large-scale
conversations
• Look for this to become more pronounced in 2013

9. 4.
The rise of semi-guaranteed
engagement on all platforms (but
especially Facebook)

10. 4. Semi-guaranteed engagement
• Facebook continues to develop new ways to make money
from its captive audience
• The introduction of promoted posts in 2012 was one
such development and brands quickly got drunk on the
potential reach of these amplified updates
• However, brands need to ensure that these posts
genuinely add value to the Facebook eco-system if they
want to achieve any real value from this investment

11. 5.
The long-overdue maturation
of brands on YouTube
(hopefully)

12. 5. YouTube for real?
• The majority of brands still see YouTube as a place to get
famous on the back of a viral videos
• In 2013, I’m hoping we see more brands use YouTube as a
place for on-going engagement with their audiences,
creating and curating content by adding value
• This might be in the form of sharing the wealth of
knowledge that can be found within organisations
• Or, it might be through content that entertains while
telling useful stories
• Fingers crossed!

13. Community management will
move in-house more and more
6.

14. 6. In-house management
• Agencies have made a bit of money over the last few
years by being able to provide the talent and resource to
effectively manage social media profiles and
communities
• Brands will bring this responsibility in house more and
more in 2013 to save money and provide a more genuine
consumer experience
• Agencies need to recognise this and develop other ways
of adding social media value beyond this service

15. 1.
7.
More sophisticated
The long-overdue maturation
collaboration with online
of brands on YouTube
influencers

16. 7. Sophisticated collaboration
• Genuine collaboration between brands and online
influencers happened more in 2012 than in any previous
year, but it was still more a rarity than a regular
occurrence
• Brands will be forced to think more collaboratively if they
want to work with the people that have the resonance
with the people they want to reach
• This should happen more in 2013 (hopefully)

17. 1.
8.
Physical events will be
The rise of semi-
designed with social sharing at
guaranteed engagement
the heart of the concept

18. 8. Offline / online
• The relationship between offline production and online
amplification is talked about a lot
• In 2012, we saw more and more physical events, and
especially sponsorship activations feature elements that
appealed to people’s propensity to share experiences of
note
• In 2013, the ‘social event’ within the physical event will
be more obvious than ever before

19. 9.
Public figures will seek out
more advice around being
better online participants

20. 9. Celebrity challenges
• Public figures that have been able to develop big social
media followings have predominantly done so on the
back of the things they’re famous for
• This has meant that haven’t necessarily been the best
online participants
• In order to maintain an engaged audience, these public
figures need to think more about what they can do to
add value to the lives of the people that follow them

21. 10.
‘Big data’ is replaced by
‘unified data’

22. 10. Meaningful data
• There is no shortage of data out there, but how much of
it is actually actionable?
• Smart brands have started to think differently about the
way they collect and use all forms of data to better
inform business decisions

23. The obsession with numbers
gets worse
11.

24. 11. Meaningless numbers
• One of the big trends from 2012 was the attempt from
many to create a universal value for social media
engagement
• But, like all social media metrics, things like engagement
rate can be manipulated
• I personally don’t see this changing much in 2013 (or
anytime soon)

25. 12.
Facebook will look very
different in 12 months time

26. 12. Changing Faces
• Facebook’s one constant is change
• It always responds to broader online trends and is always
evolving (as it should)
• This won’t change in 2013
• What will these changes look like? Who knows? But
they’ll happen. Guaranteed.

27. 13.
Brands will continue to make
catastrophic mistakes

28. 13. Catastrophes continue
• Social media is still a very new discipline (in the whole
scheme of things)
• The media is still obsessed by it
• So, brands will make big and small mistakes and we’ll
hear about them again and again and again
• As long as lessons are learned, these mishaps won’t be
futile (again, I hope)

29. ABOUT

30. About Adam Vincenzini
• Currently head of social media at
Mango, part of DDB Worldwide
• Previous to that, head of digital
at one of the UK’s most highly
regarded independent agencies
• Also worked with the Australia
Cricket Team for a number of
years, especially in its early
stages of digital asset
development and community
engagement

31. My online footprint
Twitter:
@adamvincenzini
Slideshare: Instagram:
Slideshare.net/adamvincenzini @adamvincenzini
Blog:
AdamVincenzini.com
(Hub)
Facebook: LinkedIn:
facebook.com/adamvincenzinidotcom au.linkedin.com/au/adamvincenzini

32. Social media touch points
Paid Owned Earned
Display Ads Website / Blog Word of Mouth
Paid Search Social Media Profiles 3rd Party Social Profiles
Sponsorships Apps / Digital Assets Bloggers
Email Lists Forums / Boards
Niche Communities