2013

Social Media Predictions

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Contents

Whats in store for social media marketing in 2013?

We asked some of the worlds most respected and proven marketers what changes they believe are in store for social media in the new year.

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What did they have to say?

Browse the index below to nd what each of the following social media inuencers predict for 2013 and beyond.
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2013 Predictions Overview Anita Campbell

@smallbiztrends

6 7 8 9 10

Lee Hopkins
@leehopkins

11 12 13 14 15

Ray Wang
@rwang0

Lee Odden
@leeodden

Rohit Bhargava
@rohitbhargava

3 4 5

Ann Handley
@marketingprofs

Michael Brito
@Britopian

Shel Israel
@shelisrael

Gaurav Mishra
@Gauravonomics

Paul Gillin
@pgillin

Toby Bloomberg
@TobyDiva

Geo Livingston
@geo iving

Philip Sheldrake
@Sheldrake

Valeria Maltoni
@ConversationAge

2013 Social Media Predictions Overview

The polled experts predict changes in some of these areas.

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Facebook and Twitter were absent from the experts' list of social networks primed for growth. Making the list of networks likely to grow, the team consistently identied LinkedIn, Pinterest, Slideshare and...Myspace. The biggest opportunity for businesses in 2013 is to be a social business, not simply a business in social.

Please note that the opinions of those interviewed do not necessarily represent the views of Dell.

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What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Google+ is primed to grow the most, simply because you can't a ord to ignore it. With Google tying it to other products such as local search, and using it as a 'signal' (however nebulously they dene it) in search results, it's not just another social network. It's shaping up to be much much more. We won't see any major social channel completely disappear, but I will predict that MySpace's recent redesign won't broaden its relevance. It's pretty much been relegated to bands and artists, and brands distinctly seeking the teen market. Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? Make yourself and/or your team visible, with names attached. That way the public, customers and prospects know there are real people behind the social accounts. For example, on Twitter, if you have a company account, identify who exactly is doing the tweeting. On a company blog, identify the writers by name (I don't know about your company but I don't have anyone in my company named "admin"!). Use photos of your people too. Our engagement on one site I own increased 20% after we put up a rotating Featured Moderators box and a Moderators page listing them all.

Anita Campbell
Founder, Small Business Trends
@smallbiztrends Website: smallbiztrends.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? Social media is still a corporate blind spot for business-to-business execs. In a recent article at MarketingProfs, we cited research that found 43 percent of B2B executives say they never consider or rarely consider their social media reputation when making a business decision. But, in 2013, Im hoping to see that percentage decrease signicantly, with B2B companies embracing social media tools and platforms. ...And what needs to stop? Social spamparticularly friend spam. To wit: Why do robo-DMs exist still? Its heartbreaking how often I get a robo DM from a new Twitter follower. What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Poised for growth: LinkedIn, which Ive long held is the dark horse of the social sweepstakes. LinkedIn, surpassing Twitter, is now the social media channel of choice among B2B marketers for content distribution: 83 percent of them now do so, followed by 80 percent who use Twitter. Poised to disappear: Foursquare, unless they nd a way to make it less a standalone application and more integrated with others that can make use of its geolocation and recommendation features (rumors of which have been rumored...).

Ann Handley
Chief Content O cer, MarketingProfs
@marketingprofs Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is the most underrated? Likes on Facebook. Shares on Facebook.

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What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? I'm reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's 'Antifragile', and he says that any technology that's in use today is likely to be in the middle of its life cycle, which means that the older a technology is the longer it's likely to last. So, older social networks like Facebook are likely to grow their audience base the most and newer models like social video are most likely to morph into something else.

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? My best advice for a brand is to create social products and platforms that do one of two things, and perhaps both: solve a problem or connect around a shared purpose. Again, Nike Plus and Nike FuelBand are so powerful because they do both: solve the problem of keeping oneself motivated to become and stay active and connect people around the shared purpose of health and wellness.

Gaurav Mishra
Asia VP of Insights, Innovation & Social, MSLGROUP/ Publicis Groupe
@Gauravonomics Website: gauravonomics.com Blog: futurecrafting.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? The one I'd like to see more of is organic linking and sourcing of materials. We're living in a time when information is called into question more and more frequently. Sourcing information becomes more and more critical, especially when people take a position on certain issues. We want to be credible information brokers, and this is necessary. When something is an opinion, we should state that. The behavior that I think needs to stop is the blatant slamming of other people and brands. If we can't make a point without taking someone's head o , then our social skills are lacking. Hiding behind a keyboard to say something to someone that we wouldn't say to their face is just wrong. Civility, mindful speech and decency in discourse are worthy goals and shouldn't be dismissed, in my opinion. I know I struggle to achieve them sometimes, but they are worth the e ort.

Geo Livingston
Author & Marketing Specialist
@geo iving Website: geo ivingston.com

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? I really believe in events. Online becomes much more substantial when someone meets you face to face. Try to create ways to meet your stakeholders in person so you can cultivate a deeper substantial relationship.

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? I would love to see more businesses take social media seriously. Far too many businesses treat social engagement as something for the receptionist or an admin clerk to do. I would love to see them stop this and realise that those who run your social media channels for you are company spokespeople with the power to ruin your hard-won reputation in just one tweet.

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? Connecting with your audience is not something that happens overnight, or can be achieved in a short series of funny status updates. It is achieved through the consistent communication of values, insights, discoveries and experiences of organisations over time. One funny, timely photo with witty text may garner you some quick likes, but those likes pretty quickly become dislikes if you fail to live up to the expectation you have set of being funny, witty, and so on. It would be better time spent to research your audience more what are their likes, their dislikes, what makes their world rock or sad. Armed with that information you can better prepare thoughtful communications that create real, lasting and meaningful connections.

Lee Hopkins
HopkinsFounder & Social Media Strategist, Better Communication Results
@leehopkins Website: LeeHopkins.com Blog: LeeHopkins.net

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? Just one? OK. Let's talk about the hashtag shall we? Here's three hashtag behaviors that need to stop as soon as you nish reading them. 1. #followfriday - # has jumped the shark. It's over with people. Done. Buh bye. 2. Speaking of #hashtags, #let's #just #stop #with #the #hashtagging #of #every #word #in #a #tweet #OK? #You #keyword #spammer #you. 3. This one I am guilty of myself, so I'll come clean for all to see: Using the #hashtag in places it wasn't intended. Like on Facebook. And Birthday cards. Or the specials chalkboard at co ee shops.

What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? There are a few ways to look at growth in a meaningful way. There's quantity, as in which network adds more people. But are they the right people for your business? There's also quality, as in who adds the most people that actually use the service. Going to a party where no one talks to each other is #boring. Oops, there goes the hashtag. Then there are things like rate of growth or geographic growth like in the U.S. versus internationally. I think Pinterest and Google+ will continue to grow rapidly as will YouTube.

Lee Odden
CEO & Author, TopRankOnline Marketing
@leeodden Website: www.toprankmarketing.com Blog: www.toprankblog.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? More: Creative and real time content creation that is relevant, meaningful and tells a story. (think Oreo) Less: Branded content that looks like a gloried press release and/or corporate website. Branded content is good but it must add value to the conversation.

What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? The New Myspace. Yes, I said it. The look/feel is stunning. The usability is polished (and in some cases better than Facebook). The platform is not for all brands though; only the ones that can successfully align themselves with music. On the decline, I would say Foursquare. I see more people checking in to locations with Path and Facebook.

Michael Brito
Senior VP of Social Business Planning, Edelman
@Britopian Blog: www.britopian.com

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? This is really di cult for a large brand with a large community. However, the best way to appear "human" from a brand standpoint is to "be human". This means that brands must empower, enable and activate their employees to engage in conversations with the community. Employees are not only the best "brand advocates" but they are also trusted by the community and by their peers per the Edelman Trust Barometer.

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What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? This should be a make-or-break year for Myspace. Can it redene itself as the prime destination for entertainment for young people? I dunno. This is also a critical year for AOL and Yahoo, both of which are in urgent turnaround mode. In terms of audience base growth, Instagram still has a lot of potential. Its popularity will parallel the growth of smart phones. I also expect to see Google+ show nice growth in 2013, if only because Google is concentrating so many of its services around it.

Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is the most underrated? No question that fans and followers are the most over-rated metrics. There are dozens of services that sell Twitter followers by the thousands for just a few dollars. What value does a follower count have in that context? It's di cult to choose one most-underrated metric. I would say engagement metrics in general deserve more attention. These include shares, comments, downloads, retweets, subscriptions, lead generation and anything else that prompts human beings to take action based upon the quality of something they've read or seen.

Paul Gillin
Social Media Trainer, Consultant & Author, Protecture
@pgillin Website: gillin.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? I'd like to see more active listening. Think about how much time you invest listening and learning at an industry conference for example, versus talking. Now carry that ratio over to social media and you will nd that the respect you pay and the insights you acquire will pay back in terms of your own content and contribution. You will secure greater resonance and higher relevance within your community. What needs to stop? Flawed metric design that encourages inappropriate behaviours. Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is the most underrated? Any output metric not correlated to your specic outcome metrics is not just overrated, it's irrelevant. If you don't understand how typical output metrics (friends, followers, likes, retweets, etc.) relate to your business success, why are you letting them guide what you do day to day? Metrics only work when they are designed to work in harmony to guide and gauge business performance. Your business and its goals are unique. Its market and place in it are unique. Your strategy and tactics are unique. So, therefore, your design and balance of metrics will be unique. This isn't a great surprise as that's how it is for every other part of business.

Philip Sheldrake
Managing Partner, Euler Partners
@Sheldrake Website: www.eulerpartners.com Blog: www.philipsheldrake.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? I'd like to see improved context. Relevancy is key to success. Context should come in terms of location, time, role, relationship, sentiment and even intent! What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Pinterest-like services that take the visual and make it easy. Also private social networks like Path will grow as folks become disillusioned by Facebook's lack of respect for privacy. Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is the most underrated? One metric that isn't e ective is engagement. We will move from engagement to meaningful interaction. Some actions are monetizable, others are non-monetary transfers of value creation. The renement of interactions will be the key change in 2013. What will go away? Share of Voice? Why because interactions will tell me if your big share is meaningful or not.

Ray Wang
Principal Analyst & CEO, Constellation Research
@rwang0 Website: www.constellationrg.com Blog: www.softwareinsider.org

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? Stay authentic. Be true to your brand and self. Authenticity is half the battle and an important one.

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What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? For B2B marketing, I am very excited about the new potential for using SlideShare even more centrally as a part of a thought leadership and lead generation tool. The reason that the typical "white paper" marketing strategy has been around forever in the B2B space is because you know your audience is information-hungry and sales cycles are typically longer. Slideshare is a visual medium (when used correctly) and for the same reason that Pinterest is taking o for consumer brands as people share photos -the same thing is poised to happen for Slideshare. And if that weren't enough, their integration with LinkedIn (the leading networking platform for professionals) will only make it more important to have a strong strategy focusing Slideshareas a part of marketing in 2013.

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with their audience on a one-on-one level? I think it still comes down to being human. This year I published a comprehensive 100-page-report on 15 trends that will a ectbusiness in 2013 (www.15trends.com) -and humanity is a theme that reoccurs throughout it. Now, just saying that you need to have a more human brand and actually doing it are two di erent things. It does require a stronger focus on creating a real voice for all communications. It also takes a deeper understanding of customer questions and how you can answer them. Ultimately, I think it will come down to nding the balance between tone and substance. Creativity for creativity's sake just doesn't cut it anymore.

Rohit Bhargava
Founder & Author, Inuential Marketing Group
@rohitbhargava Website: www.rohitbhargava.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? I would like more people to be more conversational. That is both the beauty and the power of social media. Incivility needs to stop. It seems to me that that people on social networks were adversely inuenced by the style and tone of the recent presidential campaign. They feel the best way to be right is to demean people who disagree with them.

What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Tough question. I think category-wide growth will be steady industry wide in 2013. But that growth will taper. Social media is maturing as a channel. It is coming to an end of disruptive growth and is now being worked into the systems and processes of most modern organizations. I think this year, we will come to understand what di erence social media makes as a mature and trusted platform.

Shel Israel
Author & Consultant
@shelisrael Website: blogs.forbes.com/shelisrael

Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is most underrated? Likes is by far. Companies think that by begging, cajoling, bribing and otherwise campaigning for you to click on the stupid button, that will somehow improve sales, relationships, engagement, inuence or any other legitimate goal. I see scant evidence that this is so, and the e orts to pursue it waste energy and money.

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What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Im going for Pinterest with Tumblr along for the ride. As for disappearing, probably some of the smaller Pinterest-like communities. People like you make it look so easy but we know it takes signicant resources to build a successful community. I cant help wonder what will happen with the G+ community feature.

Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is most underrated? Without a doubt the number of fans/followers is the most overrated and also the least exciting. With the sophistication of bots can you identify how many people are for real? Or how many people follow for a contest and then forget about you until they unfollow and refollow for the next contest? Those metrics can be intoxicating until you dig into the behind-the-scene meaning and nd it was an illusion. Not exactly a metric but it is an underrated insight is the quantitative analysis of your fans comments; thats where the gold nuggets are found and people pay so little attention to them.

Toby Bloomberg
Director Social Media Integration at Cox Media Group Digital & Strategy Team
@TobyDiva Website: www.divamarketingblog.com

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What is the one social media behavior you would like to see more of in 2013? What needs to stop? My wish is for businesses to increase their power by reducing it. To realize the full opportunity of social, get to know your customers: what job(s) theyre trying to do, why they make the choices they make, what role your brand plays in their lives, how they experience your service and products. Play a more active role in the value exchange. From the user research we conduct as part of digital experience strategic roadmaps for brands at Empathy Lab, we nd time and time over that people value service that is respectful, e ective, and personable. Start there, and use your interactions to learn continuously.

What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear? Google+ will continue to grow in 2013, while Facebook will experience a slow-down. Thats because people will gure out they can get more done with Google+ because Google brings together content, search, with sharing, and several productivity tools like Calendar, the frictionless ability to launch/join a Hangout videoconference even from Gmail with the ability to embed a Google Docs le. Location-based application Foursquare needs to nd integration within a larger system. Intelligent integration is the name of the game. We are at an inection point with social technologies, where utility within a larger context will dictate user adoption based

Valeria Maltoni
Author & Senior Director of Strategy, Empathy Lab
@ConversationAge Website: www.conversationagent.com on relevance. This is where real time in peoples lives meets over time in business terms.

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2013 Social Media Predictions

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Best Practice Seminars Listening and Insights Services Advisory Services Listening Command Center Build-outs Visit www.dell.com/socialmediaservices for more information or email SMservices@dell.com. Continue being inspired. Grow your social presence and grow your business when you engage with business professionals like yourself at the Dell Social Business Connection Join the conversation on Twitter & Facebook.