Here are some trends in social which Storm will be involved in during 2012
TV
Current efforts at convergence, incorporating simple social elements as an afterthought, have already demonstrated real value
This year producers will create shows with social components built in from the start
Commerce
Facebook credits will deliver micropayments and create a significant ‘social commerce’ channel
Combined with recommendation and viral loops this will lead to an explosion of social sales
Combined with mobile phone use ‘social commerce’ will catalyse ‘mobile commerce’
Marketing
Social media marketing will just be called marketing.
Marketing companies will get the tools and experience they need to harness ‘real-time’ social channels
Social data will be stored and mined in CRMs and will be bought and sold for direct marketing
Businesses
Businesses will realise that having a FB page and adding a Like button is not enough – they need to use social as a well-developed channel for sales, customer management and support.
Propped up by marketing companies initially, businesses will now realise they need to transform the way they think about social from product development, communication and even an internal management perspective.
Public Sector
‘Digital by default’ will become ‘Social by default’
Public sector bodies will deal with any internal reluctance and external scrutiny around using social media and begin delivering services with deep social network integration.
Health
In 2011 the social graph (connections with people) became the open graph (connections between people and things). So far this has been primarily exploited to capture user preferences via Likes and Recommendations. In 2012, fuelled by the proliferation of timeline views and health apps, expect the open graph to be fully exploited to capture user activities.
This will open the door to new wellness services which will use a combination of personal data and social motivation to provide a new approach to health management and even social care.
Social Games
Social ‘gamification’ will continue to spread to all areas of our lives. Avoid being a newbie, earn the badges or you’ll be the only one of your friends not to level up this year.