2011 is gone, and 2012 has rolled in without missing a beat. The social media industry is growing in leaps and bounds. I often hear business people say social networking is like the Wild Wild West! So answer this question for me. Would it be valuable if you knew the future social media trends for 2012? How wonderful would it not be to learn what trends come in store for the year ahead? Could you adequately plan this rapidly changing industry? In this posting, I provide my 2012 predictions for the evolving trends in the social-networking industry. It certainly is gratifying when my predictions come true. My predictions are not predicated on any sort of special powers. They are based on my industry research, what I read and what I see happening every day in my work. My accuracy rate in the social media marketing industry has been about 97 percent. However, even when I’m wrong it’s only because my timeline finished up being longer than I thought it had been going to be. I’ve a knack for spotting social media marketing trends. And this article lists four powerful trends unfolding right now. You can profit from what I say or ignore me, the choice is yours. Either way these trends will unfold as the year progresses. So continue reading and heed my advice. Ready your social media marketing campaigns to take advantage these trends for 2012 and beyond.

Prediction #1) SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING Networks and Marketing will continue to grow at an alarming rate.

This past year Facebook grew from around 600 million to 800 million users depending on whose numbers you believe. Twitter and LinkedIn also both showed growth and added many new features, (in addition they both acquired several new partners and internet assets). Increase this, Google started Google+, and Microsoft is reported to be in the works of creating their own social network. The adoption rate of small company will lead just how, but expenditures by large corporations will exceed that of both small and medium-size businesses. My first advice to you is; create and implement “a worker social media use policy” to control business hour usage. Second, create a social media marketing intend to reach and engage this enormous market. Combining both engagement and ppc campaigns work best.

Luxury Travel Experiences #2) One of many largest players in the social media marketing arena can make a “miss step” in 2012.

I believe that one of the top four Social Media Network companies will make a costly mistake causing them to reduce significant market share. Right now several of the larger social media marketing giants like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all share one crucial flaw. They try to make it extremely difficult to communicate with them. Take Facebook, for instance. They don’t list any contact information apart from a Facebook page. Sure they will have plenty of help pages. Yes, Facebook has a blog, lots of YouTube videos, but provides no phone number where you could call and talk to a human being? They do have a Facebook page it is possible to enter suggestions about, but that’s it. What happens when you get yourself a strange message from Facebook, or you’re having trouble with your account? You post a note and never get yourself a reply! Twitter and LinkedIn are not much better. They don’t list a contact phone number or address either. However, I’ve found that they do reply to your email and posted messages, although it sometimes takes so long as seven days to have a reply.

In my opinion, of the most notable three social media marketing companies, LinkedIn provides the best service. Google is new in this game. It isn’t as an easy task to lump them in with all of those other social media giants yet. However, I could tell you that Google has a notoriously poor customer support reputation. It has been my experience with Google that the grade of service you receive depends on the person you obtain on the phone. Fortunately that you can find someone on the phone! Google does list contact numbers. My advice to any business is easy, be ready to create changes to your social media campaign if need be. Furthermore, if you’re using the top four social media services, make a backup of one’s data. This is if you happen to decide to make “the switch” and ditch one of these players.

Prediction #3) Google+ will become among the top 3, in the social networking arena by the finish of 2012.

I know I’m going from a limb here, but I really believe this is inevitable. Google’s share size and current customer base allows Google+ to grow at a considerably faster pace than other social media sites. The exact amount of Gmail users is not public, but we can say for certain that it is huge! I have read estimates ranging from about 190 million to 250 million accounts. Furthermore, Google owns so many internet properties, they can easily integrate the utilization of these properties into their social network. This adds value with their social network. Increase this, the truth that Google owns Google Search, Google AdWords, YouTube, Blogger and Picasa. Are you currently starting to obtain the picture? Google is gigantic. Google controls the lion’s share of internet traffic and advertising dollars.

Google has also been able to produce a social-networking product that is easy to use, search engine friendly and innovative. These qualities’ have made them the internet leader they are today. I’m not sure that they can keep this frantic pace forever, but for 2012, it is a done deal. My advice to you is to review where you are spending your advertising money and see if it makes sense using any of the Google properties. If you’re an individual, and also have been waiting on the sideline with Google+, stop what you’re doing and take the 10 minutes to create a Gmail and Google+ account. If you curently have a Gmail account, this can only take you about five minutes. The bonus here is you may also setup a Google+ Brand page without a lot of fuss.