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.

Presented in a pleasing infographic, the research reveals some interesting statistics useful to incorporate into brand marketing strategies for social media. However it does over-simplify results, not considering the overall implications that different brands will attract different consumers with varying wants and needs from a platform.

We sum up the findings with some suggestions to develop your social strategy further below the drop:

1) Concentrate on building a Facebook presence if you want to reach the mass market:

Facebook reigns king as the platform of choice for the mass market with 85% of those asked with a profile, compared to 49% on Twitter.

Enagagement levels were far higher on Facebook with 74% using the service daily compared to 35% on Twitter.

Facebook users had more friends, with 57% with 100+ friends, compared to 25% on Twitter, translating into more opportunities to see for the brand if users share content via Facebook.

2) Users are becoming more comfortable interactive with brands online, brands should make this as easy as possible:

The like was the most common interaction with a brand over social networks. 58% of those surveyed had liked a brand on Facebook with 39% tweeting about a brand and 29% retweeting about a brand.

41% have shared a brand video or link to company site, which indicated the importance of shareability of content that is optimised for not only desktop but mobile devices.

3) Brand sentiment is shifting to positive. Harness this and find  opportunities to increase kudos with minority audiences:

The presence of brands on social network sites is encouraging positive sentiments from customers. Where previously CRM was seen as a customer service tool, a brand only  mentioned as a way to voice negative feedback, consumers are now swaying to praising brands online.

50% more people said their brand status updates on Facebook were only positive and nearly twice as many people said their brand tweets were only positive. Harness this power of positivity by asking you community about which products and services they like and which campaigns worked well to discover what you should be repeating for future success.

Females are 2.3x kinder on Twitter. Instead of just targeting the ladies, work on strategies that can improve relationships with men to improve all-round brand kudos.

4&5) Understand the different types of Facebook  users and leverage their behaviour to create better brand communications:

The infographic explains this well, not every Facebook user will react in the same way to your content. Understand your target consumer, what category do they fall into on the chart: Mary, Joe or Fred?

Consider generating content that caters for these different needs so that your core demographic always feels included.

6) Give consumers what they want, predominantly discounts:

Again, understand consumer requirements of a brand social space and provide your faithful with what they want. Whether it is news, product information, questions and feedback, how-tos, interviews or coupons and discounts, be intelligent with what you provide.

Coupons and discounts were by far the favourite type of content with 80% of respondents listing them as their most appreciated.

7) Chose your communication tools wisely, depending on purpose:

32% of users said they preferred short updates from Facebook and Twitter, followed by 27% liking emails and 22% traditional offline ads.

At the bottom of the scale was videoclips and audio/podcasts, highlighting a key area for development for brand social channels. Remember; just because users don’t currently use a certain type of media or platform, it doesn’t mean it isn’t worth investing attention. That way brands can become possible pioneers to  set themselves apart in an increasingly growing social media sphere.

Top 10 Twitter tips to improve your reach

1) TweetDeck:

If you need to manage multiple Twitter accounts, regularly run keyword searches and track and monitor hashtags, TweetDeck is the ideal Twitter client to use. In desktop, web and mobile app formats, TweetDeck’s developers have community managers in mind, with all platforms covered for easily viewable results 24/7. With its black, white and yellow interface it also gains serious bonus points for looking like Nasa Control.

2) PeerIndex:

Mapping out the internet via a series of complicated algorithms, PeerIndex identifies opinion leaders and tastemakers across your networks. Return on influence is key for brands’ social media presence and this easy way of rating reputation gives you an indication of who to target with products or services to spread the word.

3) Twitter Grader:

Like many social measurement tools, Twitter Grader is a free tool that grades your usage behaviour and influence on the platform. As a quick indication of the type of user, Twitter Grader is the perfect at-a-glance tool generating keyword tag clouds and a health-check for your account.

4) Klout:

Sign in with your Twitter account and Klout will analyse your usage to produce a Klout score which can be compared to others’ in your network. Highlighting your most common topics of interest and the level of influence you have over your followers, Klout is an insightful way of comparing social media influence between users.

5) Alert Rank:

Used by PRs, SEOs and online marketers to identify authoritative buzz in their key sectors, Alert Rank is a time saving tool that highlights points of interest to follow up, so you never miss a story again. Jumping on breaking news, use Alert Rank to raise your authority and get your name heard using associated hashtags.

6) FYITag:

A one-stop-shop social media planner to schedule Tweets, links, Facebook messages and more via an easy to view calendar application. FYITag has the time-saving option to post to multiple sites from one social media dashboard.

7) FavStar:

Discover the best of Twitter with FavStar as a nifty tool that highlights favourite tweets as points of interest. Displaying personal favourites or favourites of selected tweeters, it acts as a quality control button generating key quotes, profound musings, quips and revelations from your followers.

8 ) Listorious:

Great for finding experts in a given field, Listorious scrapes all public Twitter lists and compiles them by their tagged keywords in an easily searchable  format. With the ability to ask each member on the list a question you can save key lists to your own Twitter account.

9) Twibes:

Grouping Twitter users together into tribes of tweeters or ‘twibes’  brands is useful for gaining an insight in what’s going on around that topic. Whether you join the conversation or listen to users, Twibes is as a vital tool that can easily tap into enthusiasts to build  solid relationships with users.

10) Mentionmapp:

Find out who  interacts with who by entering a username into Mentionmap. This nifty then creates an interactive mindmap of Twitter user mentions including hashtags to identify key influencers in that person’s network.

…And two more for luck. Not solely Twitter based but great for managing multiple social media networks.

11) Vocus:

Vocus is a huge media database of journalists, bloggers and key-industry contacts that can be utilised by your brand to monitor news and distribute press releases. With easily trackable features you can listen, measure and engage with content to see what is successful and where opportunities lie in the market. You have to pay, but give the test-drive a spin and see if you think it is worth the investment.

12) Sprout Social:

Indicating audience demographics, group trends,  buzz-words and taste-makers in each sector, Sprout Social presents tip-top analysis results in a visually pleasing way. The 30 day free trial may just sway you.

Michael Jackson – as the King of Pop, a Jackson costume is not complete without pallid face as his whitest incarnation yet. Failing that, dress up as Dr. Conrad Murray with a cup of poisonous ‘juice’ to sample…

Twitter Fail Whale – for the discerning Tweeter the fail whale hat is the dressed down Halloween costume of choice. Minimal effort, maximum impact and one you can whip off quickly should the, ahem… tweet arises.

Gaddafi (or his assassin) – just when we thought the Man with the Golden Gun theme was buried and forgotten, cue a NY Yankees cap, baseball jersey wearing bounder who only went and shot one of the most wanted war criminals of the 21st century. Don’t forget the pivotal Golden Gun.

Amy Winehouse – solidly backcombed beehive and lashings of smudged eyeliner is all you need to recreate this young lady’s sad parting. Optional props include death report addressed to rightful owner and tattoo gun ready to mark the occasion.

Charlie Sheen – dressed in a black T-shirt and trilby hat, clutching a signed Polaroid of yourself, garnish with some incoherent ramblings about winning and Tiger Blood.

Witches of Wall Street – to show your support for the Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s, why not get suited and booted as a banker, complete with Darth Vader or witchy masks and Monopoly money stuffed down your trousers?

The Kadashians – if you’re spoilt for choice on which one, we suggest Kim. Think long dark wig, short skirt and a pocket full of psoriasis skin flakes to scatter at your feet.

Jersey Shore’s Snooki – every day’s a chance to sport a new Halloween creation for this lady, which one will you chose?!

Facebook page – grab a large piece of cardboard, create a cutout top left as a profile picture, fill in some atrociously self-indulgent wall posts and voila; you’re very own nightmare.

Lindsay Lohan – her latest prison mugshot got tongues a-wagging for looking like an alleged addict. Peroxide blonde mop and orange boiler suit is all you need to nail this one; crack-pipe optional.

Below is a cute little “Spooky Stats” infographic by Webtrends

Send us your favourites or any pictures of your own creations below.

A new wave of multichannel video service providers, or MVSPs for short, are transforming the television experience by kicking the traditional TV viewing format into a far more  social sphere. Maximising on interactivity by offering second screen capabilities, revolutionary new forms of usage behaviour are emerging relating to social discovery. For example in advertising breaks, a large number of brands and retailers now mention the ways in which you can connect via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. MVSP systems will allow viewers to tap into these social channels via multi-screen technology at the click of a button, without leaving the program.

The main selling point however of social TV is its ability to provide personalised information connected to either the show or logged in user.  Taking this concept further, tailored advertising such as that found in the right hand columns on Facebook can draw on information gathered from the user’s viewing preferences or activity whilst logged in on social networking sites to offer personalised advertising solutions. 150 billion minutes of video content is downloaded from YouTube each month – that’s the equivalent of 4 million TV channels – proving that social television is the next logical step to connect social media and mainstream television.

Considering reports that Facebook will reach one billion users by 2012 out of two billion internet users worldwide, that’s a staggering statistic; a mass audience beyond the wildest expectations of any broadcaster for advertising possibilities. “We want to be your partner in unlocking 750 million friends,” Facebook’s European head Joanna Shields told broadcasters at IBC 2011’s keynote on Social Media. To be successful, social TV needs to be executed in alignment with a brand’s existing social strategy. It is for this reason we focus the attention of our broadcast clients on developing the right strategy to take full advantage of the opportunities available through social TV because the solution is nothing with the strategy.

Social television presents opportunities for extended content related to either the television show itself or brands featured in advertising breaks. Along with a broadband TV viewing experience comes countless opportunities for audience engagement and monetisation via additional content videos; real-time conversations related to the TV show and interaction between fans. Social television opens up opportunities to use smartphones and tablets as remote controls and program guides, not only making use of extended functionality and inter-connectivity but streamlining the whole viewing process.

“Social TV solutions provide the canvas for creative content producers, advertisers and merchandisers to create social TV experiences that matter” concluded Alex Blum, COO at KIT Digital. When social TV is adopted into the mainstream it will open out countless opportunities for brands to engage with their consumers more closely by understanding their purchasing behaviour and viewing habits. Furthermore, by tapping into this information brands can offer solutions to problems at points where the viewer is most susceptible to take note and buy, converting views to sales via ecommerce platforms on broadband enabled television sets. Welcome to the dawn of social TV friend!

It seems as though Facebook is pulling out pretty much all the stops as competition begins to intensify in a fierce attempt to stay put at the top. Have you noticed any of the new changes on the social network? The giant has recently announced an overwhelming plethora of sharing and privacy updates (amidst a number of recent changes already made) to fend off threats from the up and coming Google+.

Google, the top dog of all search engines certainly has its heart set on stealing the social networking crown from Facebook, just as Facebook killed off Myspace. The site hasn’t officially been made available to the general public, however a limited field test entitled the Google+ Project has been ongoing since its pre-debut on 5th July this year. Even though it is not the finished article, it has already been dubbed as the “fastest growing social network in history” with around 25 million unique visits and 20 million users received in less than a month after launch. In just 16 days Google+ reached 10 million users, a benchmark that took both Facebook and Twitter over 2 years to reach. Google have managed to step-up their game despite two previous attempts with Google Buzz and Google Profiles. There has even been talk of how Facebook have tried to sabotage Google+ invitations by limiting its distribution within its platform.

The escalating success of Google+ has not gone unnoticed, Mark Zuckerberg’s team of Facebook developers have been working frantically to establish as many new “friend management” improvements as possible, all of which are being rolled out as we speak. This is possibly due to the declining number of Facebook users in the last few months. According to a report by Insider Facebook, the number of users on the social networking site has decreased in the U.S. by 4%, accounting for 6 million of the population; from 155.2 million in early May, to 149.4 million by the end of the month. For Canada, the U.K. and Norway, the Facebook user count has also dropped, albeit in much smaller proportions.  That said, U.K. users in particular, have fallen by approximately 100,000 users to 29.8 million (from May to June) and have been lessening for several months in a row.

In their defence, Facebook have argued that, “Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn’t designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook.We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook. More than 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day.”

Even though early adopting countries are logging out of their Facebook accounts permanently, traffic to the site is at an all time high.  Google owned ad network Double-click claims Facebook peaked at an immense 1 trillion page views in June 2011, however comScore’s findings beg to differ. They claim Facebook achieved 467 billion page views for June, either way it is a staggering amount by anyones standards. The sheer power that Facebook wields has stirred up anxiety from people who continue to question Facebook’s privacy settings, especially with many users unaware of just how much of their personal information is stored online and Facebook’s ability to leverage that data. The latest Facebook changes certainly address such security concerns as well as enhance the relationship interaction experience. The following (hefty) list breaks down what to expect/can already be seen on a Facebook dashboard near you:

- Online profile/sharing controls

- Profile tag review

- Content tag review

- “View profile as…”

- Word change: “Everyone” to “Public”

- Change your mind after you post? (Edit/delete options)

- Tag who you’re with or what you want to talk about

- Tag locations in posts

- Bigger and faster photos

- Remove tags or content from Facebook

- Tag people, places and things

- Tell people about stuff they’re in

- Help tag things other people have missed

- Removing and reporting tags

- New left-hand Navigation

- Promote It

- Facebook’s messenger app

- Newly designed chat bar

- Expectant parents can add unborn children under friends and family

- Topic groups

- Old status updates from 2010/2009

Facebook is evolving at an ever increasing rate in order to give their 750+ million users enough reasons to not switch to other new-kids-on-the-social-networking-block. Google+ has upped the ante and this can only be a good thing for marketers. Forrester researchers have proposed that U.S. interactive marketing spending is expected to reach $76.6 billion by 2016, more than what is currently spent on TV, with social media spending predicted to rise to $4.9 billion.  According to their report, $1.59 billion has been spent on social media this year. This total is predicted to ascend to around $2.1 billion by next year and over $2.7 billion by 2013.

Google+ has been quick off the starting blocks, with an impressive record-breaking uptake of users, but how long can we expect this to last for? No official date has yet been confirmed for the official launch of Google+ brand pages, however word on the tweets is that it is likely to be within the next month or so. In comparison, brands on Facebook have invested considerable resources and effort into their communities, plus with Facebook media expenditure forecasted at $4.05 billion worldwide for 2011, Facebook is still the dominant “go-to” social network for brands across the globe to engage and build relationships with their target audiences. Thanks to loyal users who have invested much of their lives into the social networking site, and as the numbers have revealed, Facebook is still the king. Long live the king!

Trolling- noun:

A key perk of social media is encouraging social activism, offering power to the people in making a change for the greater good. But what if social media was in being used promote violent, bullying behaviour, with the instigator hiding behind the pseudonym of an anonymous username?

Mindlessly selecting their victims and hurling streams of abuse, trolls take a ‘moral vacation’ from what they find socially acceptable in the ‘real’ world. Labelled ‘deindividuation’ by psychologists, the term describes the withdrawal of social norms and acceptable behaviour we’d normally abide by offline, as a result of our identities being concealed online.

Whilst hating celebrities is now a social activity – programs such as Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor inviting viewer comments and tweets via designated hashtags and Facebook pages – social media makes it an awful lot easier for these pages to spread, thereby opening up a torrent of potential abuse. An ‘I Hate Katie Waissel’ Facebook page with a devoted following of over 12,000 fans was a prime example, with anti-fans hurling unfounded abuse at the singer.

Although Facebook users generally operate under their real names, Twitter still offers the possibility of anonymous. With many celebrities flocking to the site to regain their own voice in the media after losing it to weekly glossies and gossipy internet sites, they too are open to the wrath of the troll.

The threat of the troll throws up a couple of questions; now that we can completely identify ourselves online surely if our opinions are worth typing, they’re worth putting a name to? Why should anyone listen if they don’t? That way unscrupulous marketers and advertisers could no longer use the power of anon to market their own wares or slander their competitors, in a truly transparent media environment.

Arthur Schopenhauer summed the topic up nicely when he wrote on the subject over 160 years ago, “Anonymity is the refuge for all literary and journalistic rascality.”

“When a man publically proclaims through the far-sounding trumpet of the newspaper, he should be answerable for it at any rate with his honour, if he has any; and if he has none let his name neutralise the effect of his words.” Here here.

The moral of the story? With effective moderation and a switched-on team looking after your clients’ social channels, you can nip the baying trolls in the bud. Having a strict comments policy specifying what you will and won’t allow is just one of the many other tactics utilised to minimise brand bashing; just ask us how.

The number one priority for search is to offer the best possible customer experience, and more often than not this leads consumers to informal sources of information for peer reviews and ratings. So it becomes pretty clear that most companies aren’t supplying anywhere near enough information for their customers. Here at Neoco we appreciate the value in providing a one-stop shop for consumers. One of our clients, Sony, has collaborated with independent authenticated review providers, Reevoo to do just that. By enabling customers access to product reviews and ratings on their own website, Sony is providing consumers with all the relevant information they need to make their purchase decision in the one place.

Now this obviously opens companies up to having negative content on their websites, but what is the alternative? Thanks to Google Instants, users are already confronted with a ‘warts and all’ presentation of your brand. A recent Economist study** showed how social media content was increasingly a key traffic generator, which makes sense when you consider the high percentage of user-generated content available online and the fact that Google now includes Facebook and Twitter as ranking criteria. For this reason it’s crucial for companies to supervise their search response and manage it appropriately through social conversations on Twitter, Facebook, forums, reviews and sites like Yahoo answers.

If you’re still not convinced, consider this; people have always feared innovation and change. The concerns around social media are nothing new and echo the considerations every time there’s a seismic shift in the technology between business and customers. Telephone and email hardly brought on the demise of business – far from it, and in reality the same thing applies to Social Media. Over 50% of companies admit to limiting employee access to social media and yet have much more relaxed policies relating to email and phone usage.** This is entirely the wrong approach; companies should be empowering employees as ambassadors of their brand.

This all leads to one conclusion – companies need to get more involved. If they observe word of mouth conversations, facilitate them within their own assets, and join the discussion, they will drastically increase their visibility (Search) and their brand value. Ignoring Social Media just isn’t an option and with the current trend of power shifting from corporate companies to consumers, there has never been a better time to embrace Social Media.

Sources:
* Seyd Ali, Reevoo, WOMMA UK, How Word of Mouth Impacts on Search
** Simon McDonald, Insites Consulting, WOMMA UK, How Word of Mouth Impacts on Search

The news on everyone’s lips is yesterday’s shock announcement that the News of the World is to close following a string of phone hacking and bribery accusations. The world’s most widely read English speaking newspaper will close its doors on Sunday after more than 168 years. But what role did Social Media play in its collapse?

Following the revelations in the Guardian alleging that News of the World journalists accessed voicemails left on the handset owned by the murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, social networks went into overdrive. A huge hate campaign erupted on Twitter, criticising the paper along with calls for Rebekah Brook’s resignation (then Editor, now Chief Executive of News International). One such tweet was heavily retweeted:

“campaigning for Sarah’s Law, while hacking into missing child’s phone & giving family false hope. #notw”

By 11pm the night of the scandal broke, four of the top 10 trending topics in the UK were News of the World-related.

Intense pressure was also applied to brands who advertised in the paper via their Twitter accounts, with Halifax, Co-Op, Vauxhall, Virgin, Ford and Sainsbury’s all pulling advertisements from the paper. These brands use Twitter to listen to their customers’ voices, and they received the message loud and clear.

As the Guardian shows, even the close of the paper did not silence Twitter, where a row broke out between the axed staff and the rejoicing hoards revelling in the newspaper’s demise.

And the debate and discussions continue, with many wondering if the situation will negatively affect Murdoch’s £8bn News International and BSkyB merger plans.

Check out this screengrab of a news cloud from the guys at Infomous to get a snap shot of the chatter happening around the world:

Find the full interactive version here

Following the Arab Spring, is this the latest example of the power of social media as a mass medium, effective at bringing about change? And who will be next?