Frequent Use of the Second Screen, and Other Social Media Trends of 2012

So 2012 is upon us, and as a result there is a lot to look forward to… with regard to social media. 2011 saw the rise in international social networks , monetization and geo-tagging. Anyone else holding their breath about what to look forward to in the world of the ever growing Social Media?

One David Hall professor, communicator, consultant, social media enthusiast and community manager has come up with a few trends to look out for come 2012:

Frequent use of the ‘second screen’

Heard of that before? Well the second screen refers to “the electronic device that a television watcher uses to interact with content they are using.” That is how/why you have people tweeting #TheHostel, a local TV drama series airing here in Kampala Uganda; others tweet to comment about the news at 9pm on NTV, while others are usually innocently just trying to let others know what they are up to! This means that people are in their bedrooms and or living rooms, seated on the couch, with laptops, smartphones and or tablets, ‘googling’ actors, tweeting and interacting with TV personalities and each other.

This has led to creation of theme days depending on the popularity of the shows and or TV programmes. For example in the US; the Toronto Blue Jays use the social media to enhance the baseball game. They created Tweeting Tuesdays: where fans got to interact with other fans and ask questions and answer trivia and also get to win a few prizes. Apparently the plan was to have this done once a month but by the end of the 2011 season; it was being done every week!

And sometimes, there may be direct interaction, but it is not common to find people in their homes watching TV while working on their laptops or using their phones. Even the guys do it: so it is no longer issues of ‘multi-tasking’ where only ladies are in the know!

Growth of Measurement Tools

With no outstanding winner stated at this time, it is expected that the measurement tools will grow! By link tracking, influence management and clustering together a variety of analytics in order to get an idea of how many people are active on these sites and their engagement. So there is close competition for this slot. Klout, Twitalyzer, Crowdbooster and Sysomos among others are looking to be in the lead. Some are for free and others cost thousands of dollars a year, however none of them has been able to paint a clear picture of what is happening! Well, lucky for them, 2012 is going to be no different; However we will may not see a solution to social media measurement problem soon.

IPOs

More IPO’s; We have seen that already, haven’t we? I do not know if Facebook IPO will be the largest in history but there were 19 social media IPO’s in 2011. 80% of them are trading but below their opening prices, even as the year starts. May be LivingSocial and Dropbox will also go public soon.

Social Media continues to be BIG, this year, with lots of growth in the use of social media. That is definitely something to look forward to. David Hall also predicts the continued decline in the quality of social deals. When communities grow and get big, the services offered also decline. 

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