15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012

by David Wesson
www.davidwesson.typepad.com
15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch
out for in Australia in 2012

1.The Quantified Self
David Wesson’s Digital Culture Blog
15 Social Media Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012
Summary
One of the fascinating tech trends to come out
this year is the concept of the quantified self
and mobile health. People are increasingly
turning to digital tools and social media to track
manage monitor their lives more effectively.
Need further proof Apple’s App Store currently
offers 9,000 mobile health apps (1,500 cardio
apps, 1,300 diet apps, 1,000 stress and
relaxation apps, and 650 women’s health apps).
By mid-2012, this number is expected to reach
13,000.
Indeed there is whole movement associated
with the trend whom exchange information
through blogging, face to face meet ups, and
online collaboration. Founder of Quantified self
Gary wolf explains all in a fascinating TED Video.
Example-Fitbit
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #1 People increasingly turn to digital tools & social
media to track & monitor their lives
Example-Livifi
A wireless device and an I phone app Fitbit is one of
the early leaders in building connected portable
health devices .A fitness and calorie tracking
service/ device small enough to clip on to the
user’s clothing. Fitbit leverages an internal motion
detector to track the wearer’s movement, sleep, and
calorie burn during both the day and night and
provides users with metrics like: steps taken, miles
travelled, calories burned, etc…..
A mobile app for building whole life health. It pairs
education on 40+ fact-based healthy behaviours
for your body, mind & relationships with an easy
to use tool for setting goals & tracking progress.
Livifi was inspired by Founder & CEO Lowell
Winer’s struggle with lymphoma and the belief
that no-one should have to wait for a health crisis
to find a path to a better life.

2.Looking beyond Facebook & Twitter
15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian in 2012
Summary
When most brands think of social
media they inevitably think of
Facebook ,Twitter and YouTube
however there is a fine line for
brands using social media and
where you decide to focus your
efforts. You want to avoid
opening up a brand account on
every single social platform just
because you can, but then you
also want to focus on the niche
sites where you will gain the
most traction .According to e-
marketer 2011 has seen a sharp
rise in niche sites that I predict in
2012 will be the focus of many
different brands trying to gain
cut through amongst all the
noise
Example-Instagram
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #2 The growth of niche social media sites that offer
alternative ways to engage with your target audience .
Example-Pinterest
Instagram allows users to filter, share, and tag their
photos and comment on other peoples photos. Since
its inception in June 2010 it has experienced stellar
growth and there are currently has 14 million users
worldwide and is on course to become the largest
mobile social network when it launches on Android
later this Brands using the network to great effect
include Burberry, Pepsi Max, Jamie Oliver and
Starbucks
Voted as one of Time Magazine’s top 50 most important
websites of 2011 Pinterest represents curation in the
form of a vision board styled social photo sharing
website and app where users can create and manage
theme-based image collections. The mission statement
of Pinterest is to connect everyone in the world through
shared tastes and the “things” they find interesting.
Check out how the following brands are actively using
the platform: Nordstrom ,Wholefoods, Etsy, The travel
channel

3.Being Human
Summary
Thanks to the growth of social media companies and
brands alike in 2012 have begun to see the real
value of being human brands to their customers and
employees alike. Being a social business has been all
the rage in social media circles for the last few
months and this means companies whom are
adopting social media marketing need also to be
open and transparent on the inside to genuinely
create a connection with their consumers. Zappos
and Best buy with Twelpforce being the obvious
examples however at a local level expect more
brands and companies alike to highlight their
internal culture and actively engaging and
empowering their employees to act as ambassadors
to the brand. This would seem to be backed up by
the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer which saw the
credibility of CEO’s and Government officials
plummet and peers and regular employees
dramatically rise.
Example-Deloitte
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #3 More and more companies & brands realise the value
of being human
Example-Dominos
Social Media Rock stars Deloitte are one of
Australia ‘s pioneers when it comes to
promoting better employee engagement and
empowerment .Not only does it have the
largest global Yammer network worldwide but it
is also using Facebook and YouTube to highlight
their internal culture as part of their graduate
program. Their Green room on Facebook hosts a
regular Live Q&A for graduates in conjunction
with as specialist graduate Twitter stream
@greendot.
By admitting their Pizza was crap and
doing something about it Dominos has
helped the brand reconnect with its
customers. The company has also taken
step to improve its customer service by
introducing a real time tracker & even
went to the length of posting feedback
received on a real time billboard in times
Square in New York.

4.Hypertargeting
Summary
Last year Mckinsey research showed that a
granular approach to user market targeting
accounted for as much as an 80% variation in
income across the fortune 500 companies it
studied. Instead of focusing on purely 2/3 user
segments it recommends as many as 20-30
segments as part of your hypertargeting
marketing strategy. Using social media data is
possible to uncover these segments using tools
such as Social mention, People Browsr’s Kred ,
Klout and Peer Index which allow you to
identify your ideal user in the form of an
influencer and reverse engineer by working
your way backwards and look at your their
friends links follower’s friends ,what groups &
communities they belong to keywords they
belong to uncover and understand these
micro-segments.
Example-Social mention
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #4 Companies will begin to realize the opportunities of
uncovering the various segments as part of their digital strategies
Example-Peer Index
Social Mention is a social media search and
analysis platform that aggregates user
generated content from across the universe
into a single stream of information. To help
uncover more information about particular
segments it also provides associated
keywords & hashtags with search query.
The new Peer index Groups function is a
great way to go more granular around
particular influencers and what groups they
belong to if you wish to uncover segments
around a particular topic and starting with
your ideal influencer/user.

5.Mobile marketing becomes more Social & local
15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australia in 2012
Summary
In 2012 we will see increased Social Local Mobile
(SoLoMO) marketing prevail in existing geo-social
apps like Foursquare, and Yelp.
Retailers will experiment more with geo-fenced
mobile marketing with Social buying companies
like Groupon and Living Social becoming
more app-focused and provide push content and
alerts on real-time local deals. Brands will create
more of their own apps that tap into both geo-
location services and social networking. Brands
will also continue to increase the relevance of
their messaging in traditional mobile ads by using
more location targeting and embedding social
content and shareability. Improvements in
technology and
richer mobile ads will help facilitate these
approaches. We’ll start to see less purely mobile
marketing in exchange for more SoLoMo
strategies.
Example-Yelp
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #5 Mobile marketing becomes entwined with social
and local
Example-Microsoft Office Foursquare Promo
With the Australian launch of Yelp this year in
conjunction with Telstra’s Sensis arm location
based marketing has taken a leap forwards to
take advantage of user generated reviews at a
local level .
Ogilvy’s PR’s 360DI team’s pioneering Foursquare
Mayor campaign for Microsoft office 2010 launch
was a great example of using location based
marketing to generate positive word of mouth
amongst tech influencers.
Example-CBA -Facebook Check-in Deal
Selling out inn just 72 hrs the trial of Facebook
check-in deal to win a free movie pass was a
resounding success for Commonwealth Bank.
Expect similar promotions once the service is
launched Australia wide .

6.Social Commerce
Summary
Whilst Australian brands have been slow to
embrace e-commerce 2012 will see brands adopt
social media tactics as a way to drive sales in the
through sharing .The underlying principle of social
commerce can be described in a really simple way
.it is not about creating a shop on Facebook .it is
about driving sales through sharing by
recommendations and other people online. You
are no longer shopping around on an ecommerce
site .You are shopping around on blogs, twitter, and
Facebook. The strategy therefore is how we
integrate buying a product into our customers
social interaction with a direct conversion to sale
directly from a wall ,from a tweet or from a blog
post. For this reason brands that have built
communities online will begin to connect the dots
and start to convert their fans into paying
customers by providing the natural call to actions in
a non evasive way.
.
Example-Noni B
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #6 Brands adopt social media tactics as a way to drive
Sales in the through sharing & recommendations.
Example- Uniglo
Having only launched its social presence last
year in a short space of time has grown the
sales in their webshop to comparative levels
of their bricks and mortars shops through
running a number of successful Facebook
promotions. The company has recently
issued a 60% uplift in its profit forecast for
2012
Taking the notion of group buying to
another level is the innovative Japanese
brand Uniglo. Their ‘lucky
counter’ website utilises user
contributions in a unique way by
incentivising customers to drive down
the price of goods by tweeting about
them. Read more

7.Google + is the big new opportunity
Summary
Chris Brogan’s latest book Google + for business
discusses how the social network changes
everything and in a short space of time the
platform has amassed 90 million+ users which
makes it the fastest growing social network. In
2012 I think we can expect to see more brands
take the plunge and experiment with the
innovative hangout feature and start to
leverage the speed at which content gets
indexed into Google from the platform.
The circles feature Is also a great way to create
different interest groups to cultivate whilst one
of the major pluses is the seamless integration
with all other Google services. Technology is
changing at a amazing rate and those brands
that change will be the ones to take advantage
of the opportunities it presents .
Example- NAB
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #7 Google + brand pages offer a viable alternative for
companies to grow their social presence online
Example- Telstra
Telstra one of the pioneering corporate companies of
social media in Australia were quick to launch their
brand page and use the page to extend their reach to
tech influencers by providing the latest tech news,
product updates and competitions.
The first bank in Australia to conduct a Google+ hangout
with its customers .NAB use their Google + platform as a
way of engaging with their customers providing support
,news and product information.“NAB’s Chris Smith,
General Manager of Digital said. “It’s another way we
can build stronger relationships, improve overall
customer service – and help them manage their money
better.” I think we can expect more experimentation on
the platform over the next year.

8.Channel integration-the key to success
Summary
One of the biggest problems facing companies
looking to be successful in social media
marketing is channel integration .Too often social
media is an afterthought or an add on and
wholly integrated into a company’s
communications strategy as a whole.
How does online fit with offline? and how does
mobile and social fit with TV, I’m sure has keep
many a CMO up at night. In 2012 having learnt
the lessons expect companies to implement
social to be a lot more fully integrated into across
a company’s overall communications where
customer service, PR and marketing begin to
understand how each of these channel need to
work together a lot better.
Example-Share a coke with
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #8 Successful channel integration is the key to Social
Media Success
Example- NAB break Up
The success of a share a coke campaign with in
Australia is testament to the power of a fully
integrated campaign where users were asked to
download names via mobile and then vote on the
Facebook page for the top 150. This was then
followed up with a TV ad campaign to drive the
campaign home. Would this have really been
possible to the same level a few years ago without
the power of social media ?
The impressive thing about the campaign was how
NAB was able to leverage different mediums. The
campaign started on Twitter, carried over to print and
then involved a number of guerrilla marketing stunts,
with it all backed up by the bank making the head of
its retail banking division, available for interviews
and TV .Whilst This kind of marketing push takes
planning, having all the elements working at once
delivers a bigger bang.

9.Brand Advocates vs. Influencers
Summary
2011 has seen the rise in services like Klout, Peer
index or most recently People Browsrs’s Kred but
how important are these groups compared with
the hardcore group of advocates that use your
products on a day to day basis and tell all their
friends about it.
In 2012 companies will being to realize that
marketing to those top 10 influencers is too
simplistic a framework to base your social
marketing around and we will see a rise of
brands engaging with it’s advocates.
Besides tapping into the emotional equity of
customers will result in long term (and possibly
profitable) relationship with them. Hence we will
see a focus on engagement on an ongoing basis
with social media advocacy programs.
Example-Fiesta Movement
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #9 brand advocates take a more important role than
the influencer alone
Example-Fiskas
Fords innovative fiesta movement was
replicated locally this year in the form of the
Ford Focus ultimate test drive in partnership
with car sales.com.au with 12 blogger selected
to take part to and undertake a series of
challenges with the eventual winner walking
away with a new car voted by an engaged
audience.
Fiskas looked at how people were actually
using their products and it turned out that
a large number of crafters were already
active online so they recruited four part
time paid crafters to lead the charge and
post onwww.fiskateers.com/blog about
their lives -- never "selling" or saying things
they don't believe.. They now have 6000+
members spanning 70 countries.

10.Social TV
Summary
Social tools, technologies and platforms that
enable people to interact with TV programs will
explode in 2012. We will see innovations that
allow people to engage with shows in ways we
haven’t even thought of yet. Facebook Apps
integration will see rise in the use of online
video online
The consumption of video will begin to take on
evolved forms in new contexts. As the adoption
of increasingly consumer-centric, multi-faceted
home entertainment technology catches on,
video that had previously been consumed
online, including YouTube videos, episodes, and
even professionally curated content by
established media companies will begin to
“reverse-migrate” to the living room.
Key resource: the future of TV is social and the
revolution is coming
Example-Twelevision
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #10 Social technologies and platforms that enable
people to interact with TV will explode in 2012 #Social TV
Example-Fans
Launched last year Twelevision aptly named
the lovechild of live TV and Twitter allows
Australians to enjoy the 2nd screen
experience and follow all Australian TV as it
happens online in a neat iPhone app.
The brainchild of Sydney based company
B33hive whom have been in the social TV
space for some time working with the likes of
US companies NBC & The CW this TV fan
based community looks nicely positioned to
take full advantage of the growing demand for
social interaction around TV programming.

11.The rising importance of Content Curation
Summary
Making sense of the fire hose of information the
internet offers remains one of the biggest
challenges in the digital realm. We find ourselves in
what Eli Pariser describes in his great TED video as
living in a filter bubble where we are being served
up information based on what Google thinks it
should serve us. Rohit Bhargava in his 2009
manifesto for the content curator said that “the
future of the social web will be driven by content
curators, who take it upon themselves to collect
and share the best content online for others to
consume.” What we have seen in 2011 and will
continue to see this year is the rise of curation as
an opportunity to being found on the web
alongside original content being produced and any
brand that makes this process easier for its
audience will win more trust and attention from
consumers.
Example-Storify
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #11 Curation offers brands an opportunity to
differentiate themselves online
Example-Flipboard
One of the essential PR tools of 2011 Storify makes
the process of the manual process of manually
curating content around a particular topic quick
and easy. It brings together Tweets, Facebook
Status Updates, videos and more from social
networking sites to create a real-time view into a
story or issue which you can share anywhere.
Expect this platform to rapidly grow in use over
2012
Since it’s launch in July of 2010, the IPad app has
accumulated over 4 million users and with the
launch of the IPhone app it added over 1 million
users in a week. The app allows you to aggregate
news feeds from Facebook ,twitter linked in and
Google reader and turns them into a lush social
magazine interface which has spawned a series
of copycat services recently.

12. Future Tense Social Networking
Summary
“Future tense” social networking asks: Where do
you want to go? Who do you want to meet? What
do you want to buy? By sharing your plans, desires
and aspirations, you enable real-world
interactions. For example, when you push a check-
in to the future, you shift the paradigm from “I’m
here now” to “I’ll be there later.” You increase the
likelihood of connection.
Likewise, “future tense” social networking has the
potential to transform location-based marketing
because users are directly expressing their intent.“
Future tense” social networking catches people at
a unique moment in the buying cycle. The
consumer hasn’t entirely made up her mind about
where to go or what she plans to buy, which means
businesses can take an active role in the decision-
making process.
Example-Plancast
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #12 The past and present of our lives are already
established online — therefore, the next frontier in social networking is the future.
Example-Shaker Facebook app
Shaker attempts to transform the social
network into a virtual bar. While buying
someone a virtual beer is a poor substitute for
the actual experience, Shaker connects you
with new people you might actually become
friends with in real-life by mashing up your
social graph with people interested in the
same things.
Plancast is a platform from which you can
share your plans with your friends, so if
you’re heading to a conference, sporting
event, festival, party, movie premiere, or
whatever, Plancast can help you let others
know your plans ahead of time.

13.Real Time PR
Summary
David Meerman Scott in his book Real Time
Marketing and PR talks about the need for
companies to develop a real time mindset and
being able to communicate quickly is essential in
today’s always on 24/7 environment. Think about
in terms of a bond trading desk where how quickly
you were able to trade can depend on how much
money you can make, with social media it is the
same thing but brands have not woken up to this
yet. It used to be the amount of exposure used to
be size of wallet would help determine how much
attention you would receive by media buying but
now speed and agility are decisive competitive
advantages. In 2012 we will see more companies
and brands become savvier to the opportunities a
real time mindset presents by adopting robust
listening programs, and engaging with your
customers in real time .Who knows we could see
the formation of the first social media control
room in an Australian corporation this year.
Example- Avaya’s $250K Tweet
Taylor guitars took full advantage of the
United Breaks Guitars saga by posting a
video online on ways to avoid getting your
guitar damaged whilst travelling. Half a
million views later the company brand has
garnered significant brand exposure and
sales by acting quickly and decisively.
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #13 More brands adopt real- time communication
programs
Example-Taylor Guitars
Avaya’s real time monitoring team responded to
a tweet within 15 minutes of it being posted
and won a $250k sale off the strength of their
response which shows it pays to listen . On
average, Avaya interacts with a couple of dozen
customers through social media on a weekly
basis and comes across regular sales
opportunities.

14.Gamification
Summary
There has been a lot of talk of about gamification in
2011 but will all the hype translate into reality ?
The idea of gamification is a simple one: to
motivate and engage people by applying game
design techniques and mechanics to non-game
situations. Points, level progression, badges,
achievements, power-ups, virtual currency, quests,
puzzles, loss aversion – all of these game concepts
are involved in this growing trend that spans areas
from education and work to keeping fit and green
actions to improved brand experience and loyalty
schemes.
in 2012 I believe we will see companies and
brands become more playful as we move from the
crudest forms of gamification such as Foursquare-
style badges and points-based reward to perhaps
the first massive multi-player multi-brandmulti-
channel real-life game systems.
Example-Samsung Nation
Festival-goers were invited to complete a
series of real-time challenges, via a gamified
event guide app specifically designed to both
personalise and (vitally) share their Festival
experience. The App was downloaded 25,000
times . Completing five challenges unlocks
the final in-person ‘Ultimate Challenge’ (a la
The Amazing Race!), with an Ultrabook from
sponsor Intel up for grabs.
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #14 Brands become more playful integrate gaming into
their social programs
Example- Sydney festival Treasure Hunt
A social loyalty program run via the
badgeville platform where you earn
badges, move up the ranks and have fun
discovering everything Samsung.com has
to offer. Unlock badges and level up just
by visiting, reviewing products, watching
videos, participating in user-generated
Q&As,

15.Social CRM
Summary
In 2012, expect to see much better social
monitoring and engagement tools integrated
into CRMs. These bring two essential
functions to the table. Firstly, they make
monitoring for commentary on social
networks easier and, where commentary is
adverse, putting out spot fires much faster.
Secondly, social CRM allows for faster
community-building and management,
across sites like Twitter, Facebook and
LinkedIn — providing businesses to create
and (as far as possible) control the online
conversation space & clear measurement
around their marketing activities.
Example- Radian 6 Social Hub
2012 Social Media Marketing Trend #15 Social CRM becomes more important in the
continued quest for ROI in Social Media
Example- Sugar CRM An open source software solution that as well as
providing traditional CRM has a whole range of
social features .The system enables users to decide
how to leverage their social data whether you
would like to monitor twitter or uncover
relationships from linked in. In addition to offering
a flexible take on social data Sugar CRM has layered
next generation collaboration capabilities into the
product that enable users to collaborate and share
data.
Following the Salesforce acquisition of Radian 6 The
social hub is the natural intersection of traditional
CRM and social data for the complete 360 customer
lifecycle view . Expect other products to follow as
part of the Salesforce ecosystem.

About the Writer
About David
 David has over 10 years in digital & social media marketing industry
experience in both Australia and the United Kingdom.
 He is regularly contribute his thoughts on forums such as Digital
Ministry as one of their foremost digital champions and global thought
leadership foundation the Futures Agency, and has led some of the
most innovative digital campaigns in Australia.
 David’s work has included leading the social media strategy for the
award winning Members Lounge for Virgin Mobile, the digital and
social media execution for Tourism Australia’s Oprah Winfrey visit to
Australia, and the online word of mouth marketing for the Star Trek
movie in 2010.
 He has in-depth execution experience across the key digital and social
media disciplines, including content curation, social community
creation for businesses, taking brands into the digital world and
enabling brands to connect with their target audiences.
 David has worked on numerous digital and social execution projects for
leading digital agencies in Australia, including Ogilvy’s 360 digital
influence team, Publicis Digital, Tribal DDB, and the White Agency..
.
Connect with me on
e-mail: davidwesson@mac.com
Contact
David Wesson’s Digital Culture
http://www.davidwesson.typepad.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wess
Linked In: http://au.linkedin.com/in/davidwesson
Google + http://bit.ly/ADKcUZ
Social media Strategist http://bit.ly/knx3h1

15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012

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15 Social Media Marketing Trends to watch out for in Australian Marketing in 2012