Influential Social Media Trends for 2012

The merits and achievements of social media has been a hot topic for discussion in relation to investment returns for organizations. Some say that the relevance of social media will fizzle out eventually, sooner even. But according to some experts, social media will still be hot in 2012 and will be dominated by the following trends:

Companies will use social media sites for contests

Facebook is just one channel that companies use to launch contests for their businesses. As time goes on, these companies are getting more creative with the competitions they use to entice more customers. Competitions allow you to broadcast message about your business and brand and reach out to more customers than ever.

Companies will put more ratings and user reviews on their websites

The importance of online customer reviews is obvious enough, given the fact that more people now are relying on them when deciding whether to patronize a product or brand.

Social media will be utilized as a tool for customer service

Twitter and Facebook allow businesses to interact with their customers faster and more effectively. Because of this, expect businesses to come up with more creative and enticing ways to reach out to its customers with the help of social media.

Search engine results will be prominently affected by social media

Search engine results will generate results from LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, among others. Right now we can see some social media networks putting more relevant content to their pages so it will be included among the top of search results. Google has already challenged Facebook with its +1 button. They also challenged Bing with their use of results from Flickr, Twitter and other social networks to encourage users to decide regarding content, with the recommendations of their friends as basis.