We all wish we had a crystal ball we can peek into and tell the future. Short of counting on miracles to lead our way, the team at Awareness connected with some of the best and the brightest in marketing to ask them the difficult questions around what 2012 has in its social marketing store for us. Thirty-four marketing strategists - globally recognized leaders such as David Meerman Scott (@dmscott), Brian Solis (@briansolis), Erik Qualman (@equalman) and Paul Gillin (@pgillin), brand marketers such as Ekaterina Walter at Intel (@Ekaterina) and Michael Pace at Constant Contact (@mpace101), and marketing advisors and consultants from top agencies such as Edelman, Mindjumpers, Holland-Mark, and Raidious gave us their time and shared their insights and prognosis for our eBook on 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions. We can't thank them enough for their thoughts and support of our community.
The 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions is organized in six parts:
- Part One: Predictions for the biggest (social) marketing developments in 2012.
- Part Two: The role of "big data" in (social) marketing next year
- Part Three: Expectations around key new technology that will likely have the most impact on (social) marketing in North America as well as globally;
- Part Four: The role of mobile in (social)
- Part Five: The top challenge for marketers engaged in social next year
- Part Six: The top marketing news resources these experts consult to stay abreast of news and developments in social marketing
Expert Spotlight: Here's what globally recognized marketing strategist David Meerman Scott shared with us:
- The Biggest Social Media Development in 2012: "Social media gives us the ability to communicate instantly, yet most marketers have not developed the communication skills to address real time," observes globally recognized marketing strategist David Meerman Scott. "Marketers have been trained with a campaign mentality, spending weeks planning, designing and executing in a sequential manner. Social marketing is changing that. We now need the ability to react instantly to breaking news, changes on our websites and negative customer feedback. Marketers need a new mentality, infrastructure and workflows to meaningfully participate in real time."
- The Role of "Big Data": "Data has been with us for a long time," observes David Meerman Scott, "but it is only recently that marketers are realizing they need sophisticated tools to harness that data and make sense and use of it. As a result, marketing departments will add a new job function that will play a role similar to that of bond traders in financial institutions in that they will rely on instant, real-time data to make informed decisions. The marketing 'bond traders' will be analytics experts who will look at three types of real-time data: news feeds from sources such as Dow Jones, Reuters and Bloomberg; social data from platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Google +, YouTube, blogs and LinkedIn; and data from websites to answer key questions such as number of people visiting your web properties, content they are interacting with, the impact of reorganizing content and presentation, and speed of response to close rates."
- Key New Technology to Impact Marketing in 2012: Marketing analytics. "A modern marketer going into 2012 - 2014 will need an analytics team that understands, lives and breathes data," says David.
- Role of Mobile on Marketing in 2012: "Mobile devices are certainly important, and next year is going to be about the ability to add location to the mobile experience," shares David.
How does David stay in touch with the constant changing landscape of marketing? "Conferences," he says"...talking to the people who are implementing innovative ideas, CMOs and CEOs, public relations and marketing agency leaders." To read what other experts had to say about 2012, download our free eBook 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions.
About David Meerman Scott (@dmscott ): David is a marketing strategist, seminar leader, and keynote speaker. His book The New Rules of Marketing & PR opened people's eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in 26 languages. David has live and worked in New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Boston and has presented at hundreds of industry conferences and events in over twenty countries. Read his blog at http://www.webinknow.com.
Let us know your thoughts. What do you think is in store for us marketers in 2012? Where do you see the biggest opportunities? What do you think will keep you up at night?
Let's continue the discussion in the comments below, on Twitter at hashtag #2012Awareness, on Facebook at Social Media Marketing Best Practices, or on LinkedIn at the Social Media Marketing Mavens Group.
To a successful 2012!
Mike Lewis
@bostonmike