As an infant, social media spurred conversations, enabling users across the world to share photos and links. As it progressed into toddler phase, brands jumped on board exploring ways to best communicate with customers. Evolving into a boisterous adolescent in 2011, social media contributed towards riots, social movements and political revolutions as its true power and force gains momentum to create change for individuals, brands, businesses and political regimes across the world.

2012 is the year when social media comes of age.

If it didn’t already, social media will infuence sales in 2012 – ROI will develop and become measurable where marketers continue to seek appropriate methods of accounting for budget spend. Attention currency remains vital in 2012 with brands seeking initiatives that will maximise time spent with the business. We run down Part 1 of the future of social media and creative technology for 2012.

Facebook becomes the media:
Social media became the medium of choice for citizen journalists. With the onslaught of daily updates about political crisis in Egypt and the Arab Springs, the immediacy of social media is forcing major media organisations to change the way they approach news. In the recent case of Indian student Subhash Bidve killed in Salford on Boxing Day, his father learnt of his death via Facebook before police had time to issue a formal statement, highlighting just how vital a role the media outlets play in how we receive and consume news stories today.

Video streaming services such as UStream and Bambuster allow citizen journalists to broadcast live video connected via Twitter or Facebook, used for the first time providing updates for the Occupy movement both in the St Paul’s occupation and Occupy Wall Street.

Often removing the need for a reporter on the ground, these services offer a window to the world, a pair of eyes and point of view in every city around the globe to broadcast from.

Social commerce:
Social shopping and the concept of fashion entrepreneurs will develop into 2012, with services such as ShopMyLabel offering commission based affiliate sales from users own personalised storefronts on Facebook. Expect to see bloggers making the transition from tastemakers to businesses, as they maximise on their following to sell accessories and DIY fashion to fans. Astraea jewellery by blogger Penelope Armstrong of Fashion Fade is sold via Facebook and Paypal as an ideal outlet to begin F-commerce.

Apps including The Fancy and Svpply bring together that aesthetically pleasing Etsy storefront to a social platform as product-sharing networks, where items are pinned and ‘fancied’ with seamless transactional links and clickthroughs, expect to see these apps become especially effective for generating exposure for smaller independent brands with great products.   Highly successful for image-led fashion and homewares brands such as Aubin and Wills and Burberry, expect to see tech savvy retailers experimenting with these platforms in 2012.

News aggregation servcies:
Slotting in nicely with curation of the Internet, aggregators such as Flipboard and Zine tap into 2012’s trend for content curation and discovery. As social media develops and users relationship with it matures, along with the number of friends and people following, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff on first glance at a feed. These services pull together content from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Google Reader to visually bring to life content in personalised magazine-like formats.

Expect to see a rise in the use of list making services such as Listorious to order content. Despite Facebook Subscribe and groups, the average user does not have time to organise their feed. Aggregator services overcome this by pulling together the best of the web in a visually appealing way.

Gamification:
The term has been bandied about will come of age with intelligent, location-based applications that encourage mass participation with thought-out content that truly engages users. Applications such as SCVNGR will direct users around real-world maps via their device, performing challenges and tasks – either for fun or sponsored by a brand to win prizes.

Examples of this in action, connecting the online world with offline works especially well for reinventing activities such as going for a walk. Natural Lands Trust used SCVNGR recently to encourage kids to engage with the natural woodlands, plotting treasure trails, competitions and activities accessed via phones and tablets to encourage kids to get out more.

Augmented reality:
Image layering and gaming using smartphone cameras wil become more commonplace, as applications explore ways to innovate in tying AR layers to real world objects. Apps such as Stiktu allow users to create augmented reality image layers that tied to real world images so that whenever and wherever the original image is scanned, the attributed image will display.

Instagram and the Museum of London made waves in 2011 with StreetMuseum, expect to see more informational AR services used within art galleries and museums as personalised tours and exhibition experiences via mobile are shared with Facebook and Twitter. The trick here is how to weave augmented reality into branded communications – expect some hits and misses as the technology finds its feet in 2012.

Keep your eyes peeled for Part 2 of our Need to Know: Future of Social Media & Creative Tech 2012 series next week.

The startling statistic is that social networking – with Facebook as the leader – is growing at an alarming pace. As of October 2011 Social networking accounts for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online, as the most popular Internet activity for 82% of the global internet population of 1.2 billion.

Most engaged countries:

If you’re thinking about launching a global brand or internationalising your brand aboard using Facebook as the facilitator, these global stats are key for ensuring brand message reaches its desired audience.

In October, Facebook reached more than half (55 percent) of the world’s global audience and accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world. It also accounted for every and 3 in every 4 social networking minutes.

The Phillipines, Russia and Argentina most are the world’s three most socially active countries. In October 2011, social networking accounted for an astounding 43 percent of total time spent online by Filipinos, and the typical Filipino spent a significantly higher than average 8.7 hours on social networks during the month.

The average hours per visitor were highest in Argentina, Russia and Israel – perhaps due to the p0litical unrest in the Middle East – but acts as a stark indicator the impact the global adoption of Facebook is having on the way we communicate today.

Although cultural and demographic differences will affect adoption rates and must be considered before comparing statistics from any two countries, generally, Latin America as a whole leads the way with Asia-Pacific (predominantly China) as the least engaged.

Over 55s:
Previously Facebook was only used by the digitally-savvy 18-24 age group, but as adoption spreads the reach of social networks has caught up to near enough equal across the board of old and young demographics.

In fact, people aged 55 and older represented the fastest-growing age segment in global social networking usage, increasing nearly 10% since July 2010 to 80% in October 2011.

Not only does this present huge opportunities for marketers to showcase their products to a demographic notoriously under-catered for, it also presents countless chances for businesses to tap into a group of people with time on their hands and disposable income in their pockets to spend.

For an older market, Facebook and social networking sites present an ideal way of keeping in touch with relatives both locally and globally as the ultimate online family photo album. It also appeals to an older demographic in terms of Social CRM services; product reviews and recommendations by friends, customer service questions and complaints, all help encourage trust in parting with cash online.

Women:

Whether this can be contributed to the ‘housewife effect’ or that women have personality traits more  in-tune with Facebook’s services, the research reveals that women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men, as 2 hours extra per month.

Across every age group women are up to 10% more engaged with social networking sites but adoption rates amongst men are rising, up 10% from July 2010.

Understanding audience behaviour traits is one of the first steps of converting these millions of eyes into money. Facebook has been collecting usage data  from its global new additions, with 2012 expected to be the year that Zuckerberg fully capitalises on it.

The research does raise questions however, as the service becomes well and truly mainstream. Facebook launched as a way for college students to keep in touch with an emphasis on tech-savvy users. With the introduction of adverts into the news-feed as of next year, only time will tell audience response to the commercial changes and how this will affect usage.

Possibly we’ll see a decline in figures in the current day 18-24 age groups as they move onto alternative social networks minus advertising, remembering the ‘good old days’ of Facebook. What is for certain though is the way people use Facebook will change, as it becomes a passport and gateway to other services. Either way, social networking is most definitely here to stay.

Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora also this week claimed the company did not see Google+ as simply a social network: ‘It is a platform which allows us to bring social elements into all the services and products that we offer. So you have seen YouTube come into Google+; you’ve seen Google+ with ‘direct connect’ go into our search business,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘We are trying to make sure we use social signals across all of our products… It’s not just about getting people together on one site and calling it a social network.’

Visualising Return On Influence (ROIn):

Allowing brands to easily visualise where, when and how their content is being shared enables companies to highlight key social influencers in their network. Unlocking powerful Return On Influence (ROIn) this means brands cam begin to monetise social media, one of the greatest challenges in the social media marketing sphere.

We take a quick run through the four key improvements for brand pages and what these will mean for your business.

1. Post Editing – Even the most diligent community manager has posted a typo or wrong information. Yes, it should never happen but it does. On Google+ brand pages added an edit function much to the rejoice of community managers.

2. Segmenting Likers – Large communities are diverse things. Among thousands of Followers/Likers, there is a wide array of interest. Google+ allows you to segment your community so that your posts are as relevant as possible.

3. Hangout with your Fans – Face-to-face connections are about as close a connection you can make with people when online. The Hangouts function gives community managers an excellent way to make a deep connection with their community. Expect to see weekly hangouts where members and managers meet and discuss how to improve the community.

4. Frozen Photo Strip – This one is a simple shift. In Facebook, the photo stream moves around. You can’t designate an order to them and it drives some people nuts. Google made them static. It’s a small change that can really add to the branding and image of a page.

Google+ Niggles and No-gos:

Despite the changes there are  still, some would say, shortfalls of the service. Apart from specific developer niggles we explain what Google+ currently cannot do:

1. Places – Considering the strength of Google Maps and in light of big scope for location based searches, you would assume that Google would implement to easily silence Facebook comparison critics.

2. Ownership of brand pages – Considering many people may be working on a page at any one time, still only one person can “own” or “post to” an account. There’s no way for a social media team, or a customer service team, to split up duties or on the other hand identify who is posting to the account. Google, take heed and creating a hierarchy of logins with certain privileges, please as trusting the sacred Google password to an entire social media team may just be too much for developers to bear.

3. Brand circles – Some argue Google have missed a trick not tackling the brand page as an alternative implementation of Circles, to combat irrelevant content for users. Rather than adding a brand to one of your circles, there was a suggestion that you would add yourself to one or many of a company’s circles that you found relevant.

The use of Direct Connect may overcome this. Tying Google search and Google+ pages together, Direct Connect allows users to easily find brands and pages they want to follow. Simply by adding ‘+’ to the front of the keyword in the search bar, companies can direct traffic to their Google+ brand page, which also helps the index of  your brand raising  it within search rankings as a result.

The verdict?

If brands are going to create a presence for themselves on Google+ they should claim their brand page ASAP. Owning a brand page can not only help elevate results in Google search, but by creating a unique page using the scrapbook icons – fixable, thereby avoiding Facebook’s pesky floating problem – A mention of your brand page from these key figures will and you’ll gain traction with influential bloggers and opinion leaders for true value amongst early adopters.

Google+’s main feat for brands, pitching themselves way ahead of Facebook, is the ability to track leaders of influence and points at which content or topics sparked discussion, via timelines. Utilising the services provided, brands should view Google+ as a professional platform as a thinking man’s Facebook or LinkedIn on dress-down Friday. Only by understanding how Google+ works will brands be able to create true value from  the platform.

A recent infographic detailing the history of Facebook Commerce – or F-Commerce as it has come to be known – throws up some interesting facts about the way we use Facebook to shop and carry out our online purchases. 67% of shoppers spend more money after following recommendations of friends from their social networks, highlighting the importance of presence and increasingly the ability to carry out transactions straight from a brand’s Facebook page. Although research by Forrester argues the case against F-commerce, suggesting it offers only 1% click-through and 2% conversion rates (compared to email at 11% and 4% respectively), it is a new concept with huge potential for growth.

The digital generation has high expectations from brands. Continually plugged in, they want everything at the touch of as few buttons as possible. Research shows that although 11% of those surveyed have bought from Facebook only 8% of retailers’ FB pages currently accept a transaction; that’s an awful lot of missed opportunities for potential sales.

Not one of the top 100 Prestige Brands as ranked by luxury market experts L2, sell from Facebook. Although there is a lot of discussion as to whether social networks suit the exclusivity of the luxury market, surely an extra opportunity to buy wholly integrated within the Facebook page and other digital assets is a help rather than a hindrance? Then again for the likes of Burberry, D&G, Gucci and Chanel who do not allow fan posting (read our blog post discussing the pros and cons of this here), not listening to customers seems to be their current strategy.

Bucking the trend is US designer Diane von Furstenberg whose Wrap of the Month concept highlights how F-commerce should be done. Rolling out a new limited edition each month, the exclusive dresses will be available via Facebook only, with fans contributing comments and the ability to share the purchase once added to their shopping bag.

Instead of just replicating online stores, consumers want authentic social content that maintains brand integrity at all times, offering something more than just the opportunity to buy. Levi’s are leading the way with their Friends Store showcasing only products liked by your social connections and inviting friends to browse the store together. The Friend Store is proof enough that F-commerce is thriving: besides acting as an alternate storefront it also works as a social way of displaying and predicting sales, benefiting both customers and the brand.

Although the visual nature of fashion lends itself well to being showcased on Facebook, it is not just clothing brands and designers experimenting in the world of F Commerce. Delta Airways launched Ticket Window back in August 2010 to allow user to book flights directly from their FB page proving the convenience factor is high in the success of F-commerce initiatives.

History of F-Commerce SlideShare

With nearly half the teenage population of the UK armed with smartphones, reckless looting thugs “mis”-used such popular platforms to co-ordinate the uproar in anti-social disorder throughout the capital and beyond. These (mostly young) opportunists were able to determine the next target areas to attack and to summon other potential rioters to join them in looting and vandalising local businesses. The police issued warnings to individuals who were using tweets as a means to promote further havoc, that they wouldn’t go unpunished. A major surge of law-abiding twitter users expressed their anger towards the ghastly events. One tweet read “Only in the UK can rioters wear £100 trainers, arrange riots on £300 smartphones and claim they’re in poverty”.

It turns out Blackberry Messenger has been widely recognised as the main communicative medium among teens inciting the angry violence compared to Twitter and Facebook. Why? BBM is what you could call a “shadow social network” – this free and easily accessible service has managed to replace traditional SMS, and Government authorities as yet have no facilities to effectively trace private conversations taking place between Blackberry PINs. One-to-many BBM broadcasts send out messages to all saved BBM contacts in an instant. The Guardian discovered a remorseless broadcast in particular which said:

“Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O Dead the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother… SALUT! if you see a fed… SHOOT!”

Who would have thought a Blackberry phone originally made for corporate business folk would be a threat to national security in the hands of misguided teenagers? Thankfully, the police intervened and the West End plot fell through. The power of social media was quick to counteract the intense level of the damage done for an exceedingly uplifting cause in a desperate attempt to reclaim the streets of London. The “R.I.P Mark Duggan” Facebook fan page has received almost 30,000 likes in support of his family and the police since it was created last week. Wall posts were urging those partaking in the disruptions to stop.

Meanwhile, Twitter played a crucial role in organising one of the highest trending topics of the week – #riotcleanup – which saw hundreds of amazing people from all backgrounds respond with a united heart for their communities. Anti-riot locals eagerly volunteered to clean up the mess in their neighbourhoods with the help of good old rubber gloves, brooms and heavy-duty bin bags.

Furthermore, the ever-growing collation of released photographs on the Catch a Looter Tumblr blog bluntly exposes looters caught on camera in order to encourage members of the public to help the police identify and crack down on those involved in the burglaries. The Metropolitan police have also established a Flickr photo set called London Disorder – Operation Withern as an additional method to track and prosecute destructive criminals. So far, this has proved successful and police have made 1,051 arrests since the London riots subsided on Wednesday – a number of which were connected to provoking violence through social media. In addition, almost 600 people have been taken to court and charged, and a 17-year-old girl from Croydon even handed herself into the authorities after photographs of her standing at the crime scene were shown on national television and newspapers.

Yesterday in his speech at the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron claimed: “We are making technology work for us, by capturing the images of the perpetrators on CCTV – so even if they haven’t yet been arrested, their faces are known and they will not escape the law.”

Cameron has also proposed banning suspected rioters from having access to social media tools, in an attempt to stop them being able to cause further trouble. Despite the obvious ethical and freedom of speech issues, home secretary Theresa May is expected to meet with Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion to discuss their perceived responsibilities. This could mark a shift in UK internet policy that will doubtless spark tension between freedom-of-speech believers and the government. Attempting to ban Facebook and Twitter from the younger generation is a pretty impossible mission and it will be interesting to see what final decisions are made in light of the Government’s love/hate relationship with the industry.

Fair enough, social media played a part in stirring things up, but this was only the case in the hands of criminally minded agitators. However, we also think that social media deserves some credit for turning things around and helping to bring communities back together. Let’s hope calmer heads will prevail in a few weeks and both the Government and local communities can move beyond calling for knee-jerk reactions.

What have the CIA, Lady Gaga, Fox News, and Hugh Grant all got in common? They’ve all been hacked of late and we’re pretty sure they’d rather avoid a repeat in the future. Whether it’s unscrupulous newspaper publishers or activist groups, the internet is awash with pesky rogues of the digital generation all ready to pounce, bringing down your brand’s hard-earned reputation.

The amount of destruction caused depends on the hackers’ motivation; “Hacktivists” – unlike serious cyber criminals – are usually low-scale and low funded, seeking to embarrass companies, individuals and even parts of government by exposing humiliating internal emails or contact information in order to make a statement or gain publicity. On the other hand, true cyber criminals hacking for payroll or credit card information, or committing bank fraud are far more serious.

Groups such as the much publicised Lulzsec and Anonplus fall into the former category, taking advantage of coding errors called SQL injections behind the scenes of the website. Whilst LulzSec may have hacked into the CIA, many describe their efforts as “pranksters” putting cyber security in the spotlight as the silver lining of the hacking thunderclouds.

So how exactly can you protect your social media account against these digital fraternities? We’ve rounded up 8 tips on minimising accessibility to hackers:

1. Maximise privacy settings on social networks by enabling Secure Browsing (https) and Login Approvals on Facebook to encrypts and protect your activity to prevent anyone accessing information without your permission.

2. Become familiar with Google’s “Me on the web” tool. With a Gmail account you can remove URLs of not only pages containing confidential information but Blogger, YouTube and Maps content that may breach privacy.

3. Beware of links that look like this: “hAha Is tHIS you in VIDoe? – http://www.infectedlink.ru“. They are worms and once clicked self-replicate to spread and infect networks.

4. Check it out. Zone Alarm’s made an infographic on which social networking sites are most secure.

5. Log out of any mobile devices. If the phone is lost or stolen you’ve already granted immediate access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

6. Change passwords regularly. Think outside the box and include capital letters, numbers and punctuation, even incorporating shift and alt key symbols for maximum security.

7. Check third party apps frequently and revoke access of the ones you do not use.

8. Lastly, if you do get hacked, follow Twitter’s advice here and Facebook’s here.

Are you or your company concerned about your security and safety on the WWW? What measures do you have in place to prevent hacks? If you have any further tips or advice to share please let us know!

The beauty of social media is its ability to give the consumer a voice and to encourage two-way conversations. However we are seeing an increasing number of companies barring fans from commenting on their Facebook pages. This raises the interesting issue of balancing brand control with customer feedback – the great social media tug of war.

Just last week we saw Versace revoke the free publishing rights for its 500,000 fans after activists hijacked the page amid claims of the use of sandblasting methods on their denim collections – the technique is known to have killed factory workers in both Turkey and Bangladesh.  The Italian fashion brand also deleted all of the offending posts.

In the world of social media, which until now Versace actively embraced, was this the correct course of action? By removing the free publishing rights, the brand severed a fundamental means of communication with both its customer base and those who aspire to wear its designs.

Instead of silencing the entire community, why did Versace not answer the accusations head on? Once the story was picked up, Patrick McGregor, group director of communications for Versace, was able to tell Mashable: “Versace’s denim is manufactured in Italy in accordance with the country’s safety regulations” and therefore the process does not pose a health risk to the workers involved. But this was not posted on Facebook to counter the activists’ accusations. Rather Versace’s actions suggested an admittance of liability, as well as rendering their page, and therefore brand, with a static broadcast presence.

In the real world, any marketing manager would be remiss not to remove derogatory graffiti daubed on the wall of their shop. But online, the suppression of a community can become a bigger story than the original negative comments. With manufacturing ethics such a prominent issue in the public domain today, surely any company reacting to accusations, such as those levelled at Versace, would serve to educate – not only activists but true fans – and silence the controversy. By being seen as a socially aware brand that listens to its consumers and important world issues, a company can replace bad publicity with good PR, and act to solidify brand loyalty.

The need to strike a balance between handling brand reputation and letting the consumers’ voice (good and bad) be heard, will remain a key issue for companies when dealing with social media. The question is, how many will get that balance correct?

Crafting the perfect résumé nowadays is a difficult task. Gone are the days of listing simply education and job history, instead we are seeing résumés that are social and interactive, that take advantage of our digital world.

With this in mind, some smart people at Colorado Technical University produced an infographic to guide us all on our journey to perfecting the modern résumé, with tips on how to go digital, as well as simply sprucing up your traditional version.

Some of the interesting facts it contains are:

• Video résumés are growing in popularity – YouTube search for ‘video resume’ returns 66,900 results (July 2011)

• Social networks can help or hinder – 45% of employees view potential candidates online BUT 33% admit to not offering a job after reviewing a social media profile

• Font is important – use Georgia, not Times New Roman, as it was designed to be read on computer screens

See the full infographic below:

What’s the most important social network? Facebook? Twitter? Well no, according to the guys over at Performics, it’s LinkedIn. Results from their new study “S-Net (The Impact of Social Media)”, show that 59% of respondents said it is more important to have a LinkedIn account than any other social network. And that number is on the rise, jumping from 41% the year before.

With the spectre of recession still hanging over many countries, it seems more and more people are turning to social media. “We may not necessarily be in a double-dip recession, but individuals have embraced social networking as a means to actively manage their personal visibility in the global economy,” Daina Middleton, CEO of Performics.

The report also reveals how technology and social networks combined have changed the way people behave, how companies and brands can capitalize on new social media marketing opportunities. Here are some of the interesting findings:

• People recommend companies and buy products they follow: among active Twitter users who follow at least one company, 59% are more likely to recommend a company they follow, and 58% are more likely to buy a product they follow
• Comparison shopping is prevalent: 59% use social networks to compare prices; 56% do so to talk about sales or specials
• People are split about getting and giving advice: Half of respondents use social networks to give (50%) and get (50%) advice about products/services, companies or brands on social networking sites
• Personal referrals wield power: 60% are at least somewhat likely to take action when a friend posts something about a product/service, company or brand

Read the full report here: S-Net (The Impact of Social Media)

Path is a totally different application for iPhones – rather than connecting to your existing social networks, such as Facebook, it creates a small private one for your timeline that you share with up to 50 friends. With privacy online being a hot topic these days, people are often (understandably!) worried about sharing their lives with the world.

By no means is this a full-blown replacement of something like Facebook, but it does easily let you share photographic and video moments with just your close friends. 50 friends might seem like a harsh limit when you probably have hundreds on Facebook, but if you think about it, you probably only communicate with a handful on a regular basis.

http://www.path.com