By: Rosalyn Eishen | @rosalynchoo The end of the year is the time to be reflective, a time to clean out your old ways and prepare for the new. With 2012 only a few weeks away, we all should take a moment and decide how next year will be different for your business or organization. We’ve gathered a list of a social media few trends that others have predicted will be taking off (we hope) this year.

• New social networks - There are so many social networking sites out there that have flopped (remember Friendster?), many people are in doubt that anything new can really shine. But there are some cool things that have surfaced, such as Klout and Pinterest. In fact, Samuel Gordon Jewelers is having their first Pinterest contest: “Pin To Win.” It’s still way too early to see any results, but rest assured we’re watching what they’re (and others) are doing with this and other new social networks. So keep an eye out for new things, and cheer for them to be successful.
• Social media becomes default- While businesses have grappled with how to get involved with social media over the last few years, most are starting to get it. 2012 will become the year where social media is accepted as something that is here to stay and will become a default business function. If you are building a new product, you simply won’t be able to ignore social media and the distribution channels and opportunities that it opens for you. Companies will look to build their own social media teams in-house and the majority of executives will start to see it as its own discipline that simply can’t be ignored. It won’t just be in traditional areas like marketing or customer service that social media will dominate either, you can expect it to move across businesses to departments like sales and recruitment
• Social commerce will take off – It’s taken a while for businesses and brands to test the waters of social commerce, but 2012 will be their year.  Apple now allows you to scan the barcode of items in the store using the Apple app instead of waiting in line to pay in the store.  Starbucks also allows you to use your phone at their register scanner. You’ll see more and more of this next year, because it’s the cooler, more efficient way to buy.
• Social TV convergence - Something interesting is happening in television. With emerging apps, you can now “check in” to a TV program and then have conversations with people around the world who are watching the same thing. It allows you to review the shows, talk about what’s happening, and listen to what others are saying, make your own comments. Plus, if the rumors are true and Steve Jobs’ last project was iTV, this will become HUGE next year. Social media has the potential to really change the way we watch TV. In short, the internet and traditional television will collide with great force in 2012 and it will shape the way we all consume media. Most of us now all have two screens when consuming media (TV + laptop, tablet + phone etc) and the lines between those devices will become even more blurred in 2012.
• Huge social search improvements- For all the progress in social media, one area that has really lagged behind is social search. Twitter search is broken, Facebook search is horrendous and Google wasn’t really at the races until recently. With the huge amounts of information being shared socially, it is imperative that the big guys crack social search next year. Google is putting a social layer across all its search results with the +1 button and Google+. Also, Twitter acquired a search start-up and after dealing with a year of scaling, they simply have to improve the way in which their users can access the real-time data. Facebook is the big unknown as despite its domination and hundreds of millions of users, their search experience has been lacking for some time. Expect a big improvement in 2012.

Social Media Delivered is fully prepared to help you utilize these upcoming trends in your business strategy plan for 2012. Visit our site at socialmediadelivered.com.s209167.gridserver.com to find out how.

Sources:

http://www.simplyzesty.com/social-media/the-7-social-media-trends-that-will-emerge-in-2012/ http://spinsucks.com/social-media/eight-social-media-trends-for-2012/