Written by Miranda May, Social Media Intern
As we venture into 2012, it’s important to keep our eyes on the ever-changing world of social media we indulge in. With Facebook’s new app integration, a narrower focus on ROI, and predicted analytic platforms, 2012 certainly has our hands full.
- 1. Facebook’s New App Integration
If you enjoy using Spotify or Hulu on Facebook, imagine having the same integration with a multitude of other apps. Now you can share more than just your location, favorite videos or music tastes. Facebook announced on January 18 that 60 new applications would be added to the social network; including, but not limited to, eBay, Rotten Tomatoes, StubHub, Pinterest and UrbanSpoon. To look at the complete list of new apps, click
here.
- 2. Social Media ROI
When social media first arrived, every business wanted to take part simply because, well, everyone else was. No one really thought to measure the effectiveness of social media. As social media progressed, it stopped being an experiment and became an accepted and effective business strategy. According to a recent report by
Useful Social Media, 12% of the companies surveyed claimed that social media was in direct control of the CEO. The remaining parties were corporate social media managers or agencies who are facing a pressing need deliver on investment and demonstrate ROI. So how do these organizations track ROI? What tools can be used? A good start is Facebook. On December 15
, Facebook launched its new Insights platform, which should give brand page owners a better sense for how pages are performing. If your company is interested in determining consumer insights across the web, platforms such as Radian 6 deliver an in depth analysis of your social media efforts through a customized report.
- 3. Will Twitter Finally Release an Analytic Platform?
Last September, Twitter announced the official release of its analytic platform. The only thing is… we still haven’t seen it yet. Although brands can use tools like Hootsuite and Twittercounter to analyze the growth of their profile, the best analytics always come from the source. According to
Techcrunch, the proposed platform will allow users to see a number of metrics including how many Tweets include links to your website, as well as the number of clicks. You’ll also see the weekly, daily and monthly number of clicks from any Tweet sent from the site via the Tweet button. For now, the analytics platform is private and the official word from Twitter is that it will be released to the public “soon.” Maybe 2012 is the year.
