Social Media Predictions for 2013

2013
Social Media
Predictions
eBook

Contents
What’s in store for social media marketing in 2013?
We asked some of the world’s most respected and proven marketers what eBook
changes they believe are in store for social media in the new year.

What did they have to say?
Browse the index below to ﬁnd what each of the following social media
inﬂuencers predict for 2013 and beyond.

1 2013 Predictions 6 Lee Hopkins 11 Ray Wang
@leehopkins @rwang0
Overview
7 Lee Odden 12 Rohit Bhargava
2 Anita Campbell @leeodden @rohitbhargava
@smallbiztrends
8 Michael Brito 13 Shel Israel
3 Ann Handley @Britopian @shelisrael
@marketingprofs
9 Paul Gillin 14 Toby Bloomberg
4 Gaurav Mishra @pgillin @TobyDiva
@Gauravonomics
10 Philip Sheldrake 15 Valeria Maltoni
5 Geoff Livingston @Sheldrake @ConversationAge
@geoffliving

2013 Social Media
Predictions Overview eBook

The polled experts predict changes in
some of these areas.
Facebook and Twitter were absent from the experts' list of social networks primed for growth.

Making the list of networks likely to grow, the team consistently identiﬁed LinkedIn, Pinterest,
Slideshare and...Myspace.

The biggest opportunity for businesses in 2013 is to be a social business, not simply a business in
social.

Please note that the opinions of those interviewed do not necessarily represent the views of Dell. 01

What social media channel do you feel is primed to grow its
audience base the most in 2013 and which one may
disappear?

Google+ is primed to grow the most, simply because you can't
afford to ignore it. With Google tying it to other products such
as local search, and using it as a 'signal' (however nebulously
they deﬁne it) in search results, it's not just another social
network. It's shaping up to be much much more.

We won't see any major social channel completely disappear,
but I will predict that MySpace's recent redesign won't broaden
its relevance. It's pretty much been relegated to bands and
artists, and brands distinctly seeking the teen market.

Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with
their audience on a one-on-one level?

Make yourself and/or your team visible, with names attached.
That way the public, customers and prospects know there are
real people behind the social accounts. For example, on Twitter,
if you have a company account, identify who exactly is doing
the tweeting. On a company blog, identify the writers by name
Anita Campbell
(I don't know about your company but I don't have anyone in Founder, Small Business Trends
my company named "admin"!). Use photos of your people too. @smallbiztrends
Our engagement on one site I own increased 20% after we put Website: smallbiztrends.com
up a rotating Featured Moderators box and a Moderators page
listing them all.

Dell - 2013 Social Media Predictions eBook Follow us on Twitter @DellSocialBiz 02

What is the one social media behavior you would like to see
more of in 2013?

Social media is still a corporate blind spot for
business-to-business execs. In a recent article at
MarketingProfs, we cited research that found 43 percent of
B2B executives say they never consider or rarely consider their
social media reputation when making a business decision.
But, in 2013, I’m hoping to see that percentage decrease
signiﬁcantly, with B2B companies embracing social media tools
and platforms.

...And what needs to stop?

Social spam—particularly friend spam. To wit: Why do
robo-DMs exist still? It’s heartbreaking how often I get a
robo DM from a new Twitter follower.

disappear?
Ann Handley
Chief Content Officer,
Poised for growth: LinkedIn, which I’ve long held is the dark
horse of the social sweepstakes. LinkedIn, surpassing Twitter, is MarketingProfs
now the social media channel of choice among B2B marketers @marketingprofs
for content distribution: 83 percent of them now do so,
followed by 80 percent who use Twitter.
Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric is
Poised to disappear: Foursquare, unless they ﬁnd a way to make the most underrated?
it less a standalone application and more integrated with others
that can make use of its geolocation and recommendation Likes on Facebook.
features (rumors of which have been rumored...). Shares on Facebook.


disappear?

I'm reading Nassim Nicholas Taleb's 'Antifragile', and he says
that any technology that's in use today is likely to be in the
middle of its life cycle, which means that the older a technology
is the longer it's likely to last. So, older social networks like
Facebook are likely to grow their audience base the most and
newer models like social video are most likely to morph into
something else.


My best advice for a brand is to create social products and
platforms that do one of two things, and perhaps both: solve a
problem or connect around a shared purpose. Again, Nike Plus
and Nike FuelBand are so powerful because they do both: solve
the problem of keeping oneself motivated to become and stay
active and connect people around the shared purpose of health
Gaurav Mishra
and wellness. Asia VP of Insights, Innovation & Social,
MSLGROUP/ Publicis Groupe
@Gauravonomics
Website: gauravonomics.com
Blog: futurecrafting.com


more of in 2013? What needs to stop?

The one I'd like to see more of is organic linking and sourcing of
materials. We're living in a time when information is called
into question more and more frequently.

Sourcing information becomes more and more critical,
especially when people take a position on certain issues. We
want to be credible information brokers, and this is necessary.
When something is an opinion, we should state that.

The behavior that I think needs to stop is the blatant slamming
of other people and brands. If we can't make a point without
taking someone's head off, then our social skills are lacking.
Hiding behind a keyboard to say something to someone that
we wouldn't say to their face is just wrong.

Civility, mindful speech and decency in discourse are worthy
goals and shouldn't be dismissed, in my opinion. I know I
struggle to achieve them sometimes, but they are worth the
effort. Geoff Livingston
Author & Marketing Specialist
Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with @geoffliving
their audience on a one-on-one level? Website: geofflivingston.com

I really believe in events. Online becomes much more
substantial when someone meets you face to face. Try to create
ways to meet your stakeholders in person so you can cultivate a
deeper substantial relationship.



I would love to see more businesses take social media seriously.
Far too many businesses treat social engagement as something
for the receptionist or an admin clerk to ‘do’. I would love to
see them stop this and realise that those who run your social
media channels for you are company spokespeople with the
power to ruin your hard-won reputation in just one tweet.


Connecting with your audience is not something that happens
overnight, or can be achieved in a short series of funny status
updates. It is achieved through the consistent communication
of values, insights, discoveries and experiences of organisations
over time. One funny, timely photo with witty text may garner
you some quick likes, but those likes pretty quickly become
dislikes if you fail to live up to the expectation you have
set – of being funny, witty, and so on. It would be better time
Lee Hopkins
spent to research your audience more – what are their likes, HopkinsFounder & Social Media
their dislikes, what makes their world rock or sad. Armed with Strategist, Better Communication
that information you can better prepare thoughtful
Results
communications that create real, lasting and meaningful
@leehopkins
connections.
Website: LeeHopkins.com
Blog: LeeHopkins.net



Just one? OK. Let's talk about the hashtag shall we? Here's
three hashtag behaviors that need to stop as soon as you ﬁnish
reading them.

1. #followfriday - #ff has jumped the shark. It's over with
people. Done. Buh bye.

2. Speaking of #hashtags, #let's #just #stop #with #the
#hashtagging #of #every #word #in #a #tweet #OK? #You
#keyword #spammer #you.

3. This one I am guilty of myself, so I'll come clean for all to see:
Using the #hashtag in places it wasn't intended. Like on
Facebook. And Birthday cards. Or the specials chalkboard at
coffee shops.

disappear?
Lee Odden
CEO & Author,
There are a few ways to look at growth in a meaningful way. TopRankOnline Marketing
There's quantity, as in which network adds more people. But are @leeodden
they the right people for your business? There's also quality, as Website: www.toprankmarketing.com
in who adds the most people that actually use the service. Blog: www.toprankblog.com
Going to a party where no one talks to each other is #boring.
Oops, there goes the hashtag.

Then there are things like rate of growth or geographic growth
like in the U.S. versus internationally. I think Pinterest and
Google+ will continue to grow rapidly as will YouTube.



More: Creative and real time content creation that is relevant,
meaningful and tells a story. (think Oreo) Less: Branded content
that looks like a gloriﬁed press release and/or corporate
website. Branded content is good but it must add value to the
conversation.

disappear?

The New Myspace. Yes, I said it. The look/feel is stunning. The
usability is polished (and in some cases better than Facebook).
The platform is not for all brands though; only the ones that
can successfully align themselves with music. On the decline,
I would say Foursquare. I see more people checking in to
locations with Path and Facebook.
Michael Brito
Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with Senior VP of Social Business
their audience on a one-on-one level? Planning, Edelman
This is really difficult for a large brand with a large community. @Britopian
However, the best way to appear "human" from a brand Blog: www.britopian.com
standpoint is to "be human". This means that brands must
empower, enable and activate their employees to engage in
conversations with the community. Employees are not only the
best "brand advocates" but they are also trusted by the
community and by their peers – per the Edelman Trust
Barometer.


disappear?

This should be a make-or-break year for Myspace. Can it
redeﬁne itself as the prime destination for entertainment for
young people? I dunno. This is also a critical year for AOL and
Yahoo, both of which are in urgent turnaround mode.

In terms of audience base growth, Instagram still has a lot of
potential. Its popularity will parallel the growth of smart
phones. I also expect to see Google+ show nice growth in
2013, if only because Google is concentrating so many of its
services around it.

Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which metric
is the most underrated?

No question that fans and followers are the most over-rated
metrics. There are dozens of services that sell Twitter followers
by the thousands for just a few dollars. What value does a Paul Gillin
follower count have in that context? It's difficult to choose one
Social Media Trainer,
most-underrated metric. I would say engagement metrics
in general deserve more attention. These include shares,
Consultant & Author, Proﬁtecture
@pgillin
comments, downloads, retweets, subscriptions, lead generation
and anything else that prompts human beings to take action Website: gillin.com
based upon the quality of something they've read or seen.



I'd like to see more active listening. Think about how much time
you invest listening and learning at an industry conference for
example, versus talking. Now carry that ratio over to social
media and you will ﬁnd that the respect you pay and the
insights you acquire will pay back in terms of your own content
and contribution. You will secure greater resonance and higher
relevance within your community. What needs to stop? Flawed
metric design that encourages inappropriate behaviours.


Any output metric not correlated to your speciﬁc outcome
metrics is not just overrated, it's irrelevant. If you don't
understand how typical output metrics (friends, followers, likes,
retweets, etc.) relate to your business success, why are you
letting them guide what you do day to day?

Metrics only work when they are designed to work in harmony Philip Sheldrake
to guide and gauge business performance. Your business and its
goals are unique. Its market and place in it are unique. Your
Managing Partner, Euler Partners
@Sheldrake
strategy and tactics are unique. So, therefore, your design and
Website: www.eulerpartners.com
balance of metrics will be unique. This isn't a great surprise as
Blog: www.philipsheldrake.com
that's how it is for every other part of business.



I'd like to see improved context. Relevancy is key to success.
Context should come in terms of location, time, role,
relationship, sentiment and even intent!

audience base the most in 2013 and which one may disappear?

Pinterest-like services that take the visual and make it easy.
Also private social networks like Path will grow as folks become
disillusioned by Facebook's lack of respect for privacy.


One metric that isn't effective is engagement. We will move
from engagement to meaningful interaction. Some actions are
monetizable, others are non-monetary transfers of value Ray Wang
creation. The reﬁnement of interactions will be the key change
in 2013. What will go away? Share of Voice? Why because
Principal Analyst & CEO,
interactions will tell me if your big share is meaningful or not. Constellation Research
@rwang0
Website: www.constellationrg.com
Can you share your best advice for a brand to connect with Blog: www.softwareinsider.org

Stay authentic. Be true to your brand and self. Authenticity is
half the battle and an important one.



For B2B marketing, I am very excited about the new potential
for using SlideShare even more centrally as a part of a thought
leadership and lead generation tool. The reason that the typical
"white paper" marketing strategy has been around forever in the
B2B space is because you know your audience is
information-hungry and sales cycles are typically longer.
Slideshare is a visual medium (when used correctly) and for the
same reason that Pinterest is taking off for consumer brands as
people share photos -the same thing is poised to happen for
Slideshare. And if that weren't enough, their integration with
LinkedIn (the leading networking platform for professionals)
will only make it more important to have a strong strategy
focusing Slideshareas a part of marketing in 2013.


I think it still comes down to being human. This year I published
Rohit Bhargava
a comprehensive 100-page-report on 15 trends that will Founder & Author,
affectbusiness in 2013 (www.15trends.com) -and humanity is a Inﬂuential Marketing Group
theme that reoccurs throughout it. Now, just saying that you @rohitbhargava
need to have a more human brand and actually doing it are two
Website: www.rohitbhargava.com
different things. It does require a stronger focus on creating a
real voice for all communications. It also takes a deeper
understanding of customer questions and how you can answer
them. Ultimately, I think it will come down to ﬁnding the
balance between tone and substance. Creativity for
creativity's sake just doesn't cut it anymore.


What is the one social media behavior you would like to
see more of in 2013? What needs to stop?

I would like more people to be more conversational. That is
both the beauty and the power of social media.

Incivility needs to stop. It seems to me that that people on
social networks were adversely inﬂuenced by the style and tone
of the recent presidential campaign. They feel the best way to
be right is to demean people who disagree with them.


Tough question. I think category-wide growth will be steady
industry wide in 2013. But that growth will taper. Social media is
maturing as a channel. It is coming to an end of disruptive
growth and is now being worked into the systems and
processes of most modern organizations. I think this year, we
will come to understand what difference social media makes as
a mature and trusted platform. Shel Israel
Author & Consultant
@shelisrael
Which social media metric is the most overrated? Which
Website: blogs.forbes.com/shelisrael
metric is most underrated?

Likes is by far. Companies think that by begging, “cajoling”,
bribing and otherwise campaigning for you to click on the
stupid button, that will somehow improve sales, relationships,
engagement, inﬂuence or any other legitimate goal. I see scant
evidence that this is so, and the efforts to pursue it waste
energy and money.



I’m going for Pinterest with Tumblr along for the ride. As for
disappearing, probably some of the smaller Pinterest-like
communities. People like you make it look so easy but we know
it takes signiﬁcant resources to build a successful community.
I can’t help wonder what will happen with the G+ community
feature.

is most underrated?

Without a doubt the number of fans/followers is the most
overrated and also the least exciting. With the sophistication of
bots can you identify how many people are for ‘real’? Or how
many people follow for a contest and then forget about you
until they unfollow and refollow for the next contest? Those
metrics can be intoxicating until you dig into the
behind-the-scene meaning and ﬁnd it was an illusion.
Toby Bloomberg
Not exactly a metric but it is an underrated insight is the
Director Social Media Integration at
quantitative analysis of your fans’ comments; that’s where the
gold nuggets are found and people pay so little attention to
Cox Media Group Digital &
them. Strategy Team
@TobyDiva
Website: www.divamarketingblog.com


What is the one social media behavior you would like to
see more of in 2013? What needs to stop?

My wish is for businesses to increase their power by reducing it.
To realize the full opportunity of social, get to know your
customers: what job(s) they’re trying to do, why they make the
choices they make, what role your brand plays in their lives,
how they experience your service and products. Play a more
active role in the value exchange.

From the user research we conduct as part of digital experience
strategic roadmaps for brands at Empathy Lab, we find time and
time over that people value service that is respectful, effective,
and personable. Start there, and use your interactions to learn
continuously.


Google+ will continue to grow in 2013, while Facebook will
experience a slow-down. That’s because people will figure out Valeria Maltoni
they can get more done with Google+ because Google brings
Author & Senior Director of Strategy,
together content, search, with sharing, and several productivity
tools like Calendar, the frictionless ability to launch/join a
Empathy Lab
Hangout videoconference even from Gmail with the ability to @ConversationAge
embed a Google Docs file. Website: www.conversationagent.com

Location-based application Foursquare needs to find
integration within a larger system. Intelligent integration is the on relevance. This is where real time in people’s lives meets over
name of the game. time in business terms.

We are at an inflection point with social technologies, where
utility within a larger context will dictate user adoption based


2013 Social Media Predictions eBook

Visionaries featured in this eBook know that nurturing a social media community
can help:
Evolve your products and services.
Advocate for your brand.
Grow your business.

Are you inspired to grow your own social presence in 2013? If so, Dell Social Media
Services can help. They include:
Best Practice Seminars
Listening and Insights Services
Advisory Services
Listening Command Center Build-outs

Visit www.dell.com/socialmediaservices for more information or email SMservices@dell.com.

Continue being inspired. Grow your social presence and grow your business when you engage with
business professionals like yourself at the Dell Social Business Connection

Join the conversation on Twitter & Facebook.

Social Media Predictions for 2013

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