Social media predictions for 2012 are a risky business, but it's safe to say that social media will grow more intense and mainstream in its use this year -- so much so that businesses and employees will ignore social media trends at their peril.
That may be stating the obvious, but grasping the enormity of this trend is critical to success in most industries. It would be easy to get left behind as social media rewrites the rules of business communication at an acclerated pace each year.
Predicting the future is an oxymoronic game if you believe future events are indeterminate or not fixed until they happen. Yet social media's evolution is of great import to everyone working in media, communications, marketing and advertising. So we can at least study trends.
Top Social Media Predictions for 2012
One useful way to forecast social media trends is simply to identify areas where a lot is happening already and extrapolate from them. Which means a good starting point for 2012 social networking predictions is last year's social media news and, of course, major 2011 social media business trends.
If last year's trends continue, the following six areas bear watching for how social media will develop and make news this year:
- Mobile communication
- Video and TV
- Marketing strategies
- Labor, staffing, job issues
- Presidential politics
- Facebook's IPO and platform
Read more about how social media will evolve in each area on the next page. Along with social networking predictions for 2012, we'll offer suggested readings and examples of what analysts are forecasting.
