Social Media & Content Marketing Predictions 2012

PREDICTIONSSOCIAL MEDIA &

CONTENT MARKETING PREDICTIONS FOR 2012

#cmi #predictions12 Get content marketing how-to advice, samples, case studies and much more at www.contentmarketinginstitute.com.

For the past four years we’ve had more than 250 marketing experts from around the world make content marketing and social media predictions. Some, like Twitter becoming an essential social platform, came true. Others, like the rise of Second Life...well...not so much.

This year’s predictions cover the gamut, from the tools to the processes to what real brands will do with content creation in 2012. Regardless, this is a fun, and I believe, helpful piece of reading.

Thanks to the 75+ contributors for this year’s prediction piece. If you like it, please spread it around.

Here’s to a fantastic 2012!


One of the really interesting trends to watch next year will be how Google+ affects content marketing. It’s still early days, especially for the recently-launched brand pages, but I can see a lot of potential. I really like the way Google+ combines aspects of blogging (extended, rich posts) and tweeting (link sharing, following). If usage and engagement levels keep heading in the right direction, there will be some great opportunities to produce unique, relevant content for this exciting new platform.

www.castleford.com.au


I think we’re going to see some sort of convergence movement, where the various platforms link in some important way. People will quickly grow tired of having so many different platforms to use to communicate, i.e, Google +, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and will look to have sort of feed system that consolidates all so they can pick from what they like the most.

I think we’ll also see people move away from quantity and move toward perceived quality in social sharing . As the background noise continues to increase, people may rebel by creating their own “unplugged” movement by being more choosy about the types of content they consume and how often they check their networks for updates.

www.ahamediagroup.com


There will be more brand, content, relationship, e-commerce and platform synchronicity. As brand marketers, we will do more to infuse brand positioning into everything that we do so we can connect brand with consumers’ passions more effectively. Everything we do must dramatize what the brands stand for or we’re losing. We will also work to understand how content and social media can initiate a customer relationship, enhance the e-commerce experience / process and then seamlessly continue that relationship into ongoing engagement on various platforms that connect to each other to lead to repeat purchase or brand advocacy.

www.hansondodge.com


I believe that Google+ will become a new blogging platform and that in addition to sharing content, users will start creating their own content right on the G+ site. These new blog posts will be a large part of the content we curate in 2012. I also predict a big year for G+ Brand Pages - with new features that allow for real competition for Facebook. While I don’t think G+ aims to replace Facebook, I do believe that as the necessity for social search grows, more and more businesses will turn to G+ and the average person will follow, making it a force to be reckoned with in 2012.

www.dialing8.com


In 2012 brand marketers will continue looking for creative ways to create and distribute their content.

More companies in general will be practicing content marketing and have dedicated teams or internal resources to manage the process. More B2B companies will bake content marketing into their overall strategy and processes and the adoption of blogging and social media will soar.

Creation efforts will shift towards outside of the organization, focusing on leveraging relationships with key influencers in order to create killer content. Companies that have not already dabbled with outsourcing content creation to freelancers or consultants will start taking advantage of external valuable resources.

More marketers will utilize a network of influencers to share and promote their content. In addition, marketers will become more creative around distributing their content utilizing print, social media, PPC, paid social, and email.

http://blog.openviewpartners.com/author/amaksymiw/


Mobile content marketing is ready for prime time. Mobile will be the name of the game in 2012... with the explosive growth of smart phones and tablets. Mobile ROI will increase as the effectiveness and reach of other marketing channels lose their appeal. Marketers will create and distribute content that will be mobile friendly.

www.clickdocuments.com


I have a strong feeling that anyone who understands how Google works will flock to Google+ and start building a strong presence. Much of it might come down to quantity (how many you know vs who you know).

After all, the more people you are connected with, the more influence you have on what shows up in their search engine ranking results for any terms related to your niche.

High search engine rankings just MIGHT be as easy as that for many websites.

However, that quantity definitely needs to be backed up by quality of content, both in your social media presence, but more importantly on your blog. After all, what’s the point of ranking high on Google and driving traffic to your site if you have nothing to make that traffic stick?

www.trafficgenerationcafe.com


I think 2012 will be the year of integration. All throughout 2011, marketers were struggling to learn which social media sites worked best for different content pieces. Now that we’ve learned the hard lessons, it’s time to bring all our best efforts together. I imagine online communities will become much more popular as a way to combine content marketing elements, discussions, social “fans” pages, “friends”, “likes” and more. This would be a one-stop-shop for marketers to reach their target audience without spending large chunks of their day posting on multiple social sites. It will also be one place for fans to “follow” their brands rather than multiple profiles as well, opening up the lines of communication to a much broader fan base as well. I think 2012 will open up new platforms to enable marketers to do this, and am excited to see what kind of technology will arise to help us streamline our content marketing efforts.

http://blog.tmcnet.com/community-maven/


Considering approximately 5% of mobile users applied location-based services for map navigation or venue check-ins, and 6% of mobile users scanned QR codes, these year-end statistics should act as a backdrop to the rise of mobile usage in 2012.

http://ariherzog.com


At the risk of being laughed right off this page, I am going out on a limb and predicting that brand marketers are going to use video to create and distribute their own content in 2012.

It seems I have been hearing “this is the year of video” every year for the past 7 or 8 years. But I honestly believe video coming from brands (large and small) is going to take a big leap forward in 2012. All the reasons not to in the past are just disappearing.

The investment to get into video equipment is finally so low it is no longer an excuse. The tools to create quality video are all in place and very inexpensive. There are virtually no hosting costs associated with distributing your video. And thanks to Facebook, Twitter, G+ and LinkedIn, we now have hundreds of millions of potential viewers so promoting your video has never been easier.

With all these elements coming together, there is just no excuse not to be producing video content in 2012 - therefore I think it will finally happen in a big way with more businesses than ever before.

http://www.verticalmeasures.com/services/content-development


Personal branding is recognized as a necessary and mainstream strategy for professionals across all industries. Content is the most strategic ingredient to developing your personal brand. Moreover, organizations that strategically develop the potential of an employee’s personal brand will reap corporate branding value. 2012 is the year more organizations embrace the convergence of employee personal branding and corporate branding through content marketing strategies.

http://www.findandconvert.com/blog/


The role of content in building, strengthening and promoting a brand and business will only become more critical in 2012. That means that brand marketers must champion robust content creation throughout their organizations with particular and genuine attention to providing value to prospects and customers as they progress through the buying cycle.

The more content creation gets embraced throughout an organization, the greater the opportunity for that content to connect with and engage specific audiences. The days of insincere marketing gobbledygook are numbered as customers become savvier, thanks to search and social, and unwilling to compromise if they can’t trust the content they read.

Brand marketers will need to pay special attention to understanding which distribution channels have the most meaning for customers and prospects. New networks and radical changes within existing ones [combined with continued economic and time pressures] mean that audiences will increasingly fine tune where they spend time and what content they willingly consume.

http://simplemarketingnow.com/content-talks-business-blog/


I predict that Content Marketing will indeed be enhanced further and utilized by more and more businesses in 2012. Content Marketing jobs, likewise, will be at their peak due to the constant need and hunger for lead nurturing mechanisms. Writers will turn to content marketing for natural lead generation measures. Marketers will also take their shot at studying more of lead nurturing. Article spinning won’t be that in demand due to the decline of article directories (except for a few strong ones). People will turn to one unique article per high PR article directory. 2012 will be the year of getting more into the basics of marketing — combining traditional and digital marketing (enhancing the human touch in marketing per se).

http://www.writersutrust.blogspot.com/


Delivering content any which way that the audience wants it will be critical.

Http://uweci.org


We use content in lead generation and lead nurturing programs. There is a torrent of content and too much of it is high-level stuff that you can read in many places. Such content is not differentiating nor valuable to the reader or viewer. Buyers need more useful content or they will stop consuming it.

Because excellent content is difficult to create, we will focus on producing eBooks with quality, in-depth solutions to real-world issues. We will then repurpose this longer content into shorter-length single-topic documents and use it to create blog posts, webinars, podcasts and to build awareness across relevant social media.

We are now curating content and posting this to our blogs, along with our own comments added to the original author’s work. We see content curation as something more and more marketers will utilize – again, because high quality, original content is a challenge to do frequently.

www.perfectcustomerexperience.com


As large networks continue to integrate social profiles into everything they do, many content marketers will be working to build communities in a variety of places, but with a common brand and purpose. Google is putting social at the center of everything, with their latest YouTube updates integrating Google+, and we will see Google search results become more social in 2012 as well. Facebook, Twitter and others will be doing the same.

What this means is that brand marketers will need to become experts on building and optimizing their presence and relationships on different networks, each of which will requires it’s own expertise and optimizations. Again and again, we see greater ROI when you are able to engage with users without leaving the network they found you on (eg: keeping Facebook interactions on Facebook), and these networks will be catering more and more to brands looking to broaden their footprint within the walled-garden.

http://WeGrowMedia.com


Brand marketers will continue to hire their own brand journalists and build out their own editorial departments. So if you’re a publisher...watch out! Your own advertisers and sponsors will be competing more and more with you.

However, you still have one key element of value that brand marketers lack – third-part credibility. When brand marketers are able to create more and more of their own content, that credibility will be a key element of your value proposition. So guard it like the Secret Service.

http://bit.ly/DanBio


2012 will see a wealth of content creation with mixed media, of which videos will become hugely popular. Also, cross-media content like a combination of videos, online and off-line will take off.

http://www.effectivemarketer.com


As real-time becomes the norm and journalists search Google for thought leaders to quote, more and more marketers will newsjack their way into the media.

http://www.webinknow.com


Harnessing social media will continue to be the holy grail search by marketers. Those who use social media to convey useful and relevant content that is not simply about selling a product or service will find their outreach getting a better reception than others whose social media outreach is nothing more than hard-core sales messages.

Control of the social media function continues to be fought over by marketing, advertising, PR, sales and, in some cases, the lawyers. I think it belongs under PR, but with full cooperation and support of all the other disciplines AND the CMO and/or CEO.

http://reichcomm.typepad.com


We’re seeing lots of our copywriting agency clients - both search agencies and brands - using guest blogging strategies as a primary method of generating back links. I think the tendency is toward better and better content - useful, readable, entertaining, shareable. Another major trend is utilizing product description pages more effectively, incorporating keywords and more benefit driven copy so that every page in the user journey maximizes conversions and potential “up-sells.”

http://www.bigstarcopywriting.com


The content marketing bandwagon is rolling (and for great reasons).

The good news: more companies will be marketing the right way.The bad news: more companies will be marketing the right way.

So a content program that made your brand leap out of the pack last year may not even get noticed in 2012.

That’s why 2012 will be the year of hard work – and the year we all focus on building our content brands: getting famous for great content not just for great widgets.

It will also be the year of content analytics – really good, simple ways of tracking the impacts of our content libraries and every piece on the shelves. It’s time to close the loop to actual revenue.

http://www.velocitypartners.co.uk/


New button is added to social sites… The “Shut Up” button to quiet trolls and people that don’t add any value to the conversation. Okay, maybe it’s not a prediction, just a wish.

http://about.me/douglaskarr


In 2012, content marketing/publishing will evolve into an even more collaborative effort between organizations and their customers. The lines of authorship and ownership will blur as it becomes easier and more common for many different stakeholders to contribute to the content pool.

http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com


In every way possible... brand marketers are now facing segmented and niche audiences... there is not one way to connect with their customers... they will reach out in all the channels, media, and platforms to educate the market and reach their customers where they want to be found.

http://eqconsultantsgroup.com


Quality will become even more obviously valuable than quantity, so the best brand marketers will focus on creating mutually beneficial relationships with collaborations of influential bloggers in the niche industries and geographic locations where their potential buyers congregate.

While there are already solutions such as Web Traffic Control, MyBlogGuest, and various Blog Directories (and PostRank if and when Google decides to resurrect it), the key will be to work with the influential blogger at the center of each successful collaboration.

The short cut to finding the collaboration(s) that will most benefit each brand will be to know the leaders putting them together.

http://GrowMap.com


2012 is the year that our personal and professional lives seriously collide. The content that we create, curate and circulate in one part of our life will leach into all the other compartments with far reaching consequences. There will be no place to hide - and the connections between our promises and actions will not only be transparent, they will be held up to scrutiny - and our reputations will feel the glare of the too-long-forgotten customer.

We will have no choice but to set out on a journey on what I call “the social way”.

www.servantofchaos.com


Brands and agencies will realize that content marketing is like advertising, ONLY BETTER.Brands and agencies will start to think about Content Marketing as stand-alone “category” alongside social, search and display.

We’ll see more and more brands decide to own the media channel and engage with their target community rather than renting media on other channels. Examples are already numerous: P&G’s ManOfTheHouse, BeingGirl and LifeGoesStrong, GE’s ecomagination, General Mills’ Tablespoon, Unilever’s TheAdrenalist.com and RedbullUSA.com – all filled with rich content that provides true value add to their audience.

Media agencies will either create new content marketing specialized groups or expand the roles of “search strategists” to “content strategists” and include effective and efficient content distribution to their responsibilities.

Content marketing budgets will not cut into existing digital media budgets, but rather move dollars from traditional media (print, TV, radio) as brands realize it provides true branding value add, maybe for the first time in the online space.

http://outbrain.com


Mobile (Smartphone and Tablets) will become mainstream and the primary way many of your customers will interact with your brand. Companies must have a specific mobile strategy with content optimized for the format and integrated with your broader marketing initiatives. Mobile can no longer be treated as an isolated channel or a “nice to have”; it will become a primary way to speak to customers and prospects.

Email marketing will lessen in effectiveness over time as spam and list overuse begins to wear on consumers who have inbox fatigue. Because it can be cheap to deploy, email is often a marketer’s main tool to get out their sales messages. However, many of the messages contain little relevant value for customers.

Consumers’ attention span for content is getting shorter and shorter. This has broad implications for anyone producing online video, webcasts, blog posts and white papers. Content needs to be of high quality and quickly get to the point where it delivers value to the viewer or reader.

www.kingfishmedia.com


I predict that 2012 will witness a substantial growth for content marketing, in terms of the numbers of businesses adopting it at as well as the time and budget allocated to it. I also predict that more and more intelligent content curation solutions will be developed in response to the ever-growing information overload. Successful content marketers in 2012 will have to incorporate these solutions into their overall content marketing strategy and create a perfect balance between content curation and content creation.

http://garious.com


Content marketing will become an increasingly important element in marketers’ 2012 plans since it effectively delivers results for a wide variety of organizations including B2B, B2C, not-for-profits and solopreneurs regardless of size. Here are the five ways businesses will use content marketing in 2012.1. Content marketing tells stories that are memorable and sharable.2. Content marketing persuades and engages consumers without being promotional.

As a result, it’s more trustworthy and transparent than advertising.3. Content marketing supports and leverages social media platforms and search

optimization efforts. 4. Content marketing leverages resources across the organization.5. Content marketing is measurable and helps each phase of the purchase process,

especially when a contextually relevant call-to-action is used.

To this end, it’s critical to set content marketing goals aligned with your business objectives, know your target audience and have related metrics to track your results.

http://HeidiCohen.com


While stock is still a key part of internet content, brands need to create more content, more frequently. That’s where flow comes in: Quick hits of curated content are easy and inexpensive, but still communicate quality and allow the brand to leave their stamp in the form of context.

Brands know that in order to be relevant they must pay attention to the world they want to be relevant in. The only way to be a good content creator is to be constantly consuming. For decades agencies have served this function for brands: Consuming culture and audience research to match up with the brand and create beautiful content. That process breaks down a bit, however, when you move to real-time social communication, where it’s not unreasonable to need to create 10-20 pieces of short-form content per day. To be effective at this sort of scale you need a way to be constantly consuming.

Finally, expect more to come from the other large social platforms as they look to help brands broker all the great content they are creating.

http://percolate.com


I think more companies are going to see the value in good, old fashioned external content marketing and create value around topics, not their products. ManOfTheHouse.com and HomeMadeSimple.com (both Proctor and Gamble properties) and WorkShifting.com (Citrix) are prime examples of what are essentially today’s soap operas ... platforms with rich, engaging content that draws the appropriate audience in and serve as a messaging platform for the brand. Creating content around the needs of the customer, not the needs of the brand has been proven time and again to work. More companies are going to see the value and ease of providing that in 2012.

http://socialmediaexplorer.com


As smartphones and tablets continue to make their way into the hands of the mainstream public, marketers will be forced to work harder and faster to ensure that their content is optimized for mobile devices.

Marketers will have to review everything – images, videos, and text – to ensure that they delivering a simple but compelling message to the growing mobile audience.

http://interlinkONE.com


To win the attention of consumers, brand marketers in 2012 will carefully design and package their content for attention, simplicity, and usefulness. We’ll see fewer and better infographics that help people more easily draw valuable conclusions.

http://jeffkorhan.com


My prediction: more and more B2B sales and marketing teams will turn to media companies, not their internal teams, to create, distribute and measure the effectiveness of (lead gen) content marketing programs.

http://www.wattnet.com


I believe 2012 will be the year when brand managers finally realize that the highest ROI marketing activities are the ones where content truly guides design, rather than the other way around. Planning for great content means that the first design is often the final design, keeping efforts under budget, on schedule and focused on conversion.

Specifically, I predict any web developer who doesn’t fully embrace the role of content in the design process will become persona non grata for savvy brands.

http://www.betterwaytosayit.com


2012 will be the year of the blogger turned self-published author. Bloggers will realize that a big piece of the content they have been creating should be turned into 20-30k word digital books they can use to build their brand and make money with.

http://www.digitalbooklaunch.com


The “Big Three” social networks (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) will expand to the “Big Four,” but the new entrant won’t be Google+, at least, not yet. Instead it will be SlideShare. In many ways, SlideShare is the bridge between marketers and media outlets. While credible writers are seldom willing to display a vendor’s site-hosted content in their articles, they are generally open to embedding content hosted on the marketer’s SlideShare channel. Since SlideShare provides marketers with analytics that rival on-site tracking, doubling down on SlideShare is an easy decision for content marketers. Now if Google *really* wants to break into social media, the company will buy SlideShare and integrate it into Google+.

http://blog.eloqua.com


1. Buy, Not Build. There will be a slew of top brands that start to buy established niche media properties instead of starting from scratch.

2. Google will undergo FTC scrutiny for trying to corner the market on the purchase funnel…they buy one too many media companies (i.e. Zagat in 2011) that finally sets off some opposition from social influencers.

3. Facebook indeed surpasses $100 billion in market cap after going public (probably not a stretch, but worth saying... since Facebook is the only company that scares Google).

www.contentmarketinginstitute.com


Now that Google+ brand pages are with us, I think the first half of 2012 is going to see a lot of experimentation with content optimized for this space, the use of circles for effective targeting and segmentation and the +1 button as the sharing engine. Marketers will try to determine whether the usual sharing behaviors are enhanced by SEO benefits for a double whammy of effectiveness. The second half will be characterized by either Google+ whithering on the vine or exploding as a content distribution tool. And scammers. Yup, I’m sure the black hat Google+ page isn’t far away.

http://www.jonathancrossfield.com


We’ll see continued growth in content developed for specific distribution platforms (e.g. mobile apps, iPads, web, games, etc.). More brands will require specialty content providers and developers as a result. That means more opportunity for cross-agency and cross-contributor collaboration. Demand for project managers and content strategists will continue to grow to manage these disparate initiatives and guide them into a cohesive message.

http://www.katiemccaskey.com


2012 will see more savvy marketers recognizing that dynamic channels such as mobile and social are not just ‘broadcast’ avenues for offering ‘% offs’ and other promotional offers, but for establishing more meaningful customer relationships via content.

More specifically, Social CRM will become more prevalent with Content playing the leading role in migrating customers closer to brand advocates through educational, informational, entertaining and inspirational offerings.

www.nutlug.com


The Direct Selling Industry, maybe the best example of social media origination, will produce super mega brands over the next few years. Companies such as Amway, Avon and Swarovski’s Touchstone Crystal are leading this transformation. With millions of people out of work, world wide followers are paving the way for explosive growth. With a very low barrier to entry this industry will capture the entrepreneurial spirt of the human race and attract new product innovations to its very simple and highly lucrative model. As social media management tools are introduced in 2012 it will catapult this industry into the forefront of people’s minds as engagement becomes easier and more widespread.

www.mytouchstonecrystal.com/kellyfleming


I predict that companies will continue to mature in their content strategy and truly begin to integrate content marketing into their larger business strategies. Companies will begin to value (and pay for) content as the way to achieve retention, lead generation and loyalty.

www.wrightgoode.com


Influence, and how to measure it, will take center stage. While Klout is deservedly taking its lumps for relying on an algorithm that’s unproven and opaque, other people are hard at work developing metrics that will do a better job of scoring influence.


There’ll be less borders between creative departments and marketing insights ones: creatives will be inspired by online conversations, data analytics whereas marketing analysts will deeply “test” Art Directors’ intuitions through social media marketing tools (mapping, monitoring etc.).The marketing funnel will progressively collapse, as brands now need to create personalized “hyphens” with consumers as new reputation’ shareholders.

http://about.me/laurentfrancois


In 2012 marketers will focus more on building communities. Social media sites like LinkedIn for B2B and Facebook for B2C will continue to be popular for certain types of conversations. But companies will concentrate on creating content for specific market niches and targeted communities of stakeholders via their own websites and portals.

There will also be a better balance between pushing content out to the audience and pulling customers in with consistently updated and relevant educational content.

www.alley424.com


More and more brand marketers are realizing the need to become online publishers, to better engage with, inform, and support their customers as well as maintain brand awareness and integrity. While social networks can be a powerful marketing outlet, they are only as good as the content that they share. I fully expect that we will continue to see marketers experiment with the use of web video marketing in 2012. Additionally, I believe that many more marketers who “tested” video in 2011 will embrace an ongoing, in-house video content creation and distribution strategy to fully leverage video as powerful marketing medium across all facets of the customer life cycle.

http://www.reelseo.com/


Simultaneous Skype of strategy meetings with powerpoint and chat via iphones.

www.neverwet.com


As Google and Facebook battle it out, consumers will benefit from a rich new set of new capabilities that may include:

• Location-based social features such as connecting with people who have been to specific places in the past

• Google will roll out custom search, allowing people to see results based on activity within their social network

• Enhanced video products that will make it easy for people to create and share high quality videos with friends and family

• Customized online photo albums as Facebook’s Timeline achieves mass adoption

For businesses, social media will become significantly more powerful (and more confusing):• Businesses will have more control of search using Google+ and +1 functionality• Facebook pages will get a major overhaul• LinkedIn will continue to draw in businesses to it’s business pages• Twitter will add functions that make it easier for businesses to connect with prospects

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com


Mobile Presence and Premium Content

Mobile Apps and Sites will get greater attention, especially with Google’s push towards Pages, Places, and Maps. But that may only be part of the trend.

As we continue (begin?) to think of content as inventory, premium content in small chunks may begin to take shape. Free content remains important, but we’ve often given just a taste with free content. Premium content (at 99cents a piece?) can go more in-depth a chunk at a time. Premium content can also bridge the gap between free, loyal readers and raving fans.

In-app purchases and in-site purchases will be a big part of better content production and more buy-in from decision makers and owners.

http://www.ConverStations.com


In the year 2012, Content Marketers will begin to to place even more focus on video story-telling by expanding the distribution of video content at the retail level through the gaining momentum of QR Codes.

In turn, the sudden rise of small, agile and localized DSLR video production houses will increase the frequency of video content used by brands by driving down production costs and in turn, increasing the frequency of video distribution.

http://nateriggs.com


In 2012, more and more brand marketers will realize that, of the many ways to engage with your fans and consumers, content marketing is an increasingly powerful way to both deepen relationships with consumers while helping organic SEO. In fact, with recent Google Panda updates, I would expect to see brands publishing more “fresh” content and using that same content to engage with their social media fans across all of their channels. 2012 just might finally be the year where content-specific positions within social media departments become ubiquitous - and because of this social media budgets continue to increase partially at the expense of SEO budgets.

As smart phones continue to become the default for most consumers, brand marketers will increasingly look at mobile as a way to distribute their content through mobile websites that are both easy to use as well as provide a unique “mobile experience” and/or mobile applications that are optimized and efficient for smart phone use. Finding clever ways to mix social with mobile will dominate mobile marketing strategy for some time to come.

http://windmillnetworking.com


Tablet computers, including Apple’s iPad, the Kindle Fire, and the Nook Tablet will transform book publishing and B2B marketing. Thought leaders will begin to create rich content that transcends the limitations of print. eBooks will begin to look more like apps with interactivity built in. Marketers will need to acquire a new set of skills–or outsource to experts–as they brave this new world.

http://www.contentmarketingtoday.com


Careful measurement will demonstrate that professionally produced digital content travels farther faster and generates more leads that are of higher quality than those earned by other means. At the same time consumers will be willing to do more in the social space for professionally produced content that adds significant value and improves their shopping or information gathering experience.

http://www.lonelybrand.com


More and more brand marketers will realize an editorial function is needed to define their overall content strategy and planning. Content will be tweaked for different media. Brand marketers will not only distribute their own content, but also start curating third-party content to reinforce their messages. Brand Marketers who can pinpoint their audience’s pain and present the solution in a human, simple and universal way will win.

@pdidner

http://twitter.com/?category=people#!/pdidner


I expect that 2012 will see two changes in who creates the content in B2B content marketing.

First, public-relations departments and agencies will move into this role in a big way – and do a better job than the marcomm-type folks who dominate the space now. The reason is pretty simple: marketers don’t have a culture that is open to journalism. And make no mistake: if you’re in the content-marketing game in B2B, you’re in the journalism game. News happens. Often when you least expect it -- like when your feel-good interview with an executive turns into major news because it contains an off-the-cuff remark about your industry that infuriates people and moves share prices.

Most marketers don’t handle things like that well. They don’t have what journalists call “news judgement,” so they get blindsided when they create content that becomes news.

Second, I think traditional B2B publishers, who moved into the “marketing services” space with great fanfare in the past two years, will retreat. In fact, they already are. This was never a good idea. Legacy publishers don’t get the Web. The only thing they had to sell in the market was the one thing they shouldn’t be selling -- the ability to co-opt their journalists!

http://www.paulconley.com/


If 2011 was the year of content marketing, 2012 will be the year of specialization within content marketing. In the coming year we will see the strategies that brand marketers utilize to create and distribute their own, as well as third-party, content become more concentrated. While content curation – the process of finding, organizing and sharing online content – is one approach. Brand marketers will become more focused as they harness the emerging technologies that are now available in the field. In 2012 we will also continue to see the decline of traditional content channels for distribution. One example that comes to mind is the decline in RSS feed subscribers that now favor Twitter. In their place there will be one new online channel (think the Google + of 2011), one new physical channel (an update on last year’s tablet), and one new medium for content (2012’s answer to the infographic). Another traditional vehicle for brand content that will be getting a makeover is the standard press release. Brand marketers have recognized that this is an old medium, and the press release of 2012 is tailored to look more like journalistic material that tells a story, rather than simply promoting a product.

http://www.getcurata.com


I predict that brand marketers will move a step up the marketing ladder. Those who haven’t found multi-channel publishing will try to figure that out, while those who have will start looking at content-led cross-marketing opportunities. I also predict that a smaller percentage of them will succeed while the majority will try to shortcut their way to success by copying a successful model that isn’t right for them, with less than stellar results.

www.intentionaldesign.ca


I think you’re going to see a lot of activity around Social TV. We’re starting to see critical mass around key live events (Super Bowl, Awards Shows, etc.), the same programming that networks charge big dollars for. Social TV integration will either support those traditional ad spends, or be used by those who can’t afford a :30 spot during the Oscars.

It will get really interesting when brands start engaging in Intermedia - pushing a single narrative between two (or more) platforms. When brands start creating content with their audience between platforms in real-time we’ll see some interesting new content being created.

http://www.rickliebling.com


I think the growth of tablet computers in the retail space will have two ramifications - the point of sale will move away from the cash wrap, liberating store sales people to roam and interact with consumers. The handheld computer/sales terminal will start become a channel for content that can either arm the sales associate or be shared with the consumer.

http://spokesandwords.blogspot.com/


So, I don’t know about ya’ll but all my content marketing editorial calendars end on December 12th... Can’t figure out why.... Anyway, assuming we all survive the year - I believe that 2012 will be the year of Quality and Context. As Content Marketers - we will have to get beyond the idea of just curating news for SEO purposes, posting out every bit of content we have for long tail search, and posting blogs around every one of our keywords - just well... because.

In 2012 we’ll need to really focus on rising above the noise - and adding value and meaningful, emotional story to the content we’re producing. It doesn’t matter if we’re a government organization, a B2B manufacturer or a B2C service organization - creating emotional, engaging content, delivered in *context* to our consumers will be a real focus. This means a much greater focus on WHY - instead of HOW.

www.bigbluemoose.net


As we find that we can rely less and less on SEO (for competitive reasons), marketers will have to get more creative about how they weave together new technologies with grassroots marketing, online and off. This effort will boost Google juice and contribute to relevance at the local level. Thanks to Google Panda, quality and original thought will have its day in the sun, which will encourage thought leadership and, hopefully, bring about a more collaborative spirit among marketing professionals.

http://bekhor.ca/


Brand marketers are going to move into interactive content and do it in the biggest way. As consumers became more accustomed to custom content, they’ll also become more demanding driving the need for better ways to engage.

Thought leaders in this space will begin to develop content which will lead the viewer on a path of discovery. People enjoy doing things; content giving lots of options to click, open, and move around will be viewed longer and more thoroughly. Skimmers will drawn into spending more time with a particular product. In addition, interactive content will be shared more often on social networking sites.

Interactive content will mean marketers have no choice but to include design into the budget, planning and development of branded content.

http://www.globalcopywriting.com


Marketers will add to their arsenal new ways of packaging and distributing their content via eBooks, enhanced eBooks, and apps. I also predict there will be many missteps as marketers learn the ropes.

Creating digital publications for use by consumers on the device of their choosing is the actual challenge. “Save as PDF” is not how you create an eBook. Neither is “save as EPUB”.

Providers with experience creating eBooks and apps should know better, but they are still learning and are likely to take missteps. For instance, it’s critical to provide device agnostic content, which, until all device manufacturer’s support the exact same eBook standards and tablet operating systems (they do not currently) then multiple versions of content will need to be created, each optimized for the device type and operating system targeted.

This also holds true for things like images, graphics and branding. For instance, you’ll need to provide black-and-white art for Kindle and other devices that don’t support color. Then there’s the issue of size. Depending on where you plan to distribute the files, you’ll need to be aware of file size limitations. Images and other enhanced functionalities can add value to digital media, but they can also hog up lots of space. Add language to the mix, and you’ll need to make sure your global brand content is supported by the devices you target.

http://www.thecontentwrangler.com


1. More of the “old guard” will lose their grip on the traditional content platforms. This will allow new, current, and savy companies to step into the gap and gain a larger portion of the audience. TV will continue to lose more of it’s audience. Publishers will lose more of their hold on authors and their monopoly on book production. Netflix and/or Hulu will begin making deals with video content providers to create “networks” for their niches that will be offered through their platforms. Amazon will become a more predominant publisher of books and other content.

2. The increased focus on content marketing and content creation will require content creators to “up their game.” In other words, as content marketing becomes more and more common the need to differentiate your content will increase. You will need to inject more of your personality, viewpoint, and brand into the content you produce, so that it will stand out and stand above the rest. You will need to further hone your content creation skills: capturing attention, using the power of story, etc.

http://www.RecessionSolution.com


Brand marketers will increasingly look to establish “outposts” in social media, in which Google+ will become gradually more important for B2B. Many have mistaken Google+ as a FaceBook competitor instead of the re-imagining of Google itself as it stitches together all of its properties on all of its platforms. Add to this the increasing relevance of “social signals” for SEO, and you have a recipe for social business conducted more and more off site in social venues.

http://scottgoogleplus.info


Smart Marketers will stay on the leading edge of emerging social media trends and platforms and invest the time, money and manpower into the efforts required to be where their customers are.

Social Media will slowly replace old style internet marketing methods such as banner ads, pop-ups and other annoyances that are driving customers away from websites.

Because of the increasing importance on the most current, relevant content by Google, the marketers that are producing and publishing content that meets both the requirements of Google and the interests of their customers will win over those that are ignoring these trends.

However only a small percentage of companies will connect all the dots from outreach via social media, inbound via search to creating a website that effectively answers website visitors questions, pulls them through the entire buying process including the appropriate call to action, followed by order tracking, customer data collection and personalized follow up after the initial visit.

http://www.scotthoward.me/


More brand marketers will be seeking ways to create and partner with useful mobile apps that support their overall content strategy in 2012. Partnerships will be key in content idea-generation and distribution.

http://www.pybop.com


As content marketing and influencer marketing continue gaining mindshare, marketers will increasingly tap crowdsourcing, curation, content hubs, and social sharing to connect with prospects and customers. A deep understanding of buyers and a willingness to “participate in the conversation” will lie at the heart of successful initiatives. And more companies will recruit chief content officers like Ann Handley of MarketingProfs and Joe Chernov of Eloqua to serve as their ambassadors and make their brands personable and accessible in the social sphere.

www.tentonmarketing.com


As technology continues to improve the ability to plan and communicate content strategies, crowdsource and manage professional writers, and auto-publish and distribute content, more and more marketers and agencies will turn to content marketplaces to create and publish their custom content.

www.zerys.com


In 2012, we’ll see an aggressive move of “brands as media” where content marketing becomes a strategic priority. More brands will recognize the opportunity content offers and with that shift will come an increase in crowdsourcing for content – a business model that will undoubtedly become a source of debate in 2012 between “brands as media” content publishers and the often unpaid or underpaid content contributors.

http://www.keysplashcreative.com


As more and more social networks show mass appeal, brand marketers will simply try to diversify as much as possible, getting their content out on every single social network they can possibly reach. Eventually, they’ll find out which sites resonate best with their audience and focus exclusively on those, but they won’t stop experimenting to find opportunities for distribution to reach as many eyes and ears as possible.

http://www.techipedia.com


Smart marketers will enhance their online marketing by advertising and distributing rich media via Mobile marketing/Proximity marketing via Mobiquity. A network approach has been created and will be maximized in 2012. Sports venues will be the next big step for proximity/Mobiquity.

www.terrylyons.blogspot.com


Businesses entered 2011 with optimism that an economic recovery was at hand and anxiously put plans in place for much-needed new projects, a return to growth and innovation. As we know, 2011 is best characterized by the recovery that never came. The Greek crises and European woes, U.S. debt downgrades, and budget conflicts all conspired to put a damper on the year and set a pessimistic stage for 2012. B2B salespeople and marketers seeking better times for 2012 are facing more of the same with buyers forced to “do more with less” for yet another year. They also are facing more fiscal scrutiny from executives — a condition that has been defined as Frugalnomics. Achieving success in 2012 will require implementing new content marketing strategies and tactics to help buyers navigate tough budget waters and achieve goals despite the challenged economy. The following are our predictions of how economic pressures will define 2012, and four tangible ways you can overcome some of the challenges with content marketing (see the full prediction here http://blog.alinean.com/2011/12/economic-focused-buyer-drives-need-for.html).

http://www.alinean.com


Marketers will focus more on content management e.g., digital ‘libraries’ where content is not only stored but shared across the enterprise. Especially helpful when more than one department/business unit is tasked with content creation. Digital content libraries may be overlaid with content calendars.

Content distributed via social media/networks will continue to combine curated and original. Original content will be come increasingly important, not only to position the brand, but to serve as content to be curated by others... thus extending the brand.

Savvy marketers will re-purpose content to fit multiple social networks along with traditional channels. Take the example of a traditional white paper that may be posted on a resource section of a website or blog. It becomes a PPT deck on Slideshare. Using the LinkedIn widget it finds its way to the author’s LinkedIn page. A concept from the paper is tweeted, linked to a Facebook page where further discussion occurs.

www.divamarketingblog.com


Augmented reality which enables you to find and discover hidden content around you.

http://www.thedigestif.blogspot.com

See these and more predictions come true at

Content Marketing World 2012 will take place on September 4 – 6, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center, Columbus, Ohio.

For more information and to register, visit:

www.contentmarketingworld.com