Soon people will be able to pay to promote or highlight their posts, as Facebook trials “pay to promote” to social media users in New Zealand.

Pinterest is an insanely popular social network of sorts, built around the concept of “pinning” images you like, creating collections of such images and sharing them with your friends. It’s been the buzz of Silicon Valley for quite some time, and according to ZDNet Pinterest has hit the UK mainstream.

But, a bunch of people have started noticing that there were some significant copyright questions involved. Since then, not a day has gone by without someone pointing us to yet another hysterical article by someone about how Pinterest is some copyright horror show. Lately there has been a bunch of silly stories about the specifics of Pinterest’s terms of service. However, in all of this debate, one rather important point seems to have been left out of most of the discussions: Pinterest drives a ton of traffic back to original sources.

In other words, as we’ve seen time and time again, it appears that, for those who are willing to embrace the new technology and service (rather than freak out) there are tons of opportunities. It’s a really fascinating innovation that is having massive (unprecedented) success in terms of users. Clearly, it’s tapped into a market by providing something that a very large number of people absolutely love. When that happens, there are always opportunities, and smart people should be focused on finding and embracing those opportunities.

With 6 million users already using Pinterest, Pinterest looks like being this year’s most talked about social start-up. The networking site allows users to curate pictures and content that interest or inspires them and pin it to their virtual pinboard. Pinterest has delivered some really impressive results since its popularity exploded towards the end of 2011; estimated unique users to the site increased by 429 per cent from September to December 2011, and retailers claim that in some cases it has driven an increase in same-store referral traffic of up to 389 per cent. So what is the best way of using Pinterest?

Have a Purpose

Pinterest works best when you have a particular ‘angle’ or purpose for your boards. People can use it as a hub for inspiration; retailers for showing some of the story behind their collection and tradesmen for sharing tips and work that they’ve done in a particular arena.

Boards can have multiple contributors, so they can be really useful as a way to share inspiration with colleagues.

Pin it button

Uploading the Pin It button makes pinning really simple. When you come across an image you like, just click the button and select whatever it is you’re looking to pin. Pick the right board; add a comment and you’re done! You can also Repin posts from other people.

Be Sociable

Pinterest is built on interaction; comment and like other people’s pins and join the conversation! Repin to one of your own boards. If you find a board that’s especially interesting, follow its updates, or alternatively view the pinner’s profile and subscribe to all their boards. No permission is required, and it’s non-invasive, much like Twitter.

Be Creative

Use this opportunity to make connections within your industry by linking and connecting to people who share the same sort of content. Perhaps share the story behind your latest products visually. You can use Pinterest for self-promotion; just do so with a bit of imagination.

Pinterest is most useful for companies who have creative output to share, whether you are a fashion or a retailer, or a creative agency; Pinterest can be a great way to show potential customers how you tick. The Pinterest community is a really engaged and active community, so sign up and get involved. You never know what doors your pins may open.

The beginning of last year I wrote about how QR codes are the new big thing. Well it looks like I may have jumped the gun a little bit. Just as we are all getting used to using QR codes guess what? They have been well and truly superseded.

Welcome to Blippar

Blippar is an App for smartphones that pitches itself as a ‘Magic Lens to the World’. Using augmented reality, the Blippar App turns mundane, 2D advertising and information into  an interactive 3 dimensional experience. For it to work, simply open the app and hold it in-front of anything ‘Blippable’ for it to suddenly spring to life. Unlike QR codes, the entire ad is a trigger for it to work rather than having to scan a barcode.

Not convinced yet. Blippar has been backed my some of the worlds biggest brands, who have already incorporated Blippar interactivity into their advertising such as Omega, Cadbury’s, Marmite, Trebor, Tesco and Southampton Football Club. Or, download Blippar from the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace and try it for yourself. It’s really quite impressive.

I can’t help but feel that the social media and digital approach to marketing will ultimately win over traditional methods. For me though, the timing of Blippar is perfect. It will re-invigorate print advertising and perfectly blends the traditional and digital worlds together.

I for one can’t wait to see just how big Blippar becomes. It won’t be long in my opinion before we’re asking if things are ‘Blippable’.

I predict that 2012 will be the year that brands go truly social. Whether as a result of the desire to turn negative comment into positive word-of-mouth recommendation, or as recent campaign activity proves the difference social can make to the bottom line, brands will embrace marketing’s newest discipline.
In this blog post I will look to explore what has the potential to be huge in 2012 in terms of social media. So here are my social predictions for 2012:

1) Search & Social
We are seeing increased integration of social in real time search and an increase in consumers looking to social networks as opposed to search engines. The gap between search & social is blurring fast, whether its tweets or Google Plus posts in Google search results or Bing offering Facebook liked results. I believe that search will not be able to scale without taking social factors into consideration and 2012 will likely be the defining year for this. For companies looking to preserve or improve their rankings, social marketing activities will no longer be optional; they will be a necessary element of traffic driving success.

2) Google Plus
Although 2011 looked like Google was going to make its first successful social network this hasn’t necessarily been the case. However in 2012 I expect that it will become useful not just as a social network but have influencing factor on rankings.

3) Twitter – customer service platform
Twitter will become even more prominent in 2012. It will move from being just a social network, which means that a growing no. of journalists will seek information and news sources on Twitter. By making yourself relevant you are likely to get some media attention. You just need to ensure that you are relevant and content rich. We all know content is king on social media, the more relevant the more it gets shared etc.

4) GEO Targeting
2010/2011 was the year for Foursquare which made check ins for locations a reality. The mobile web is something that will have a major impact over the next 5 years as the world’s more than 5 billion phones become ‘smarter’. We have seen Starbucks offer pieces of cake for check ins and I believe this is something that will be used more during 2012.

5) Go Mobile
Over half of UK consumers now own a smartphone device, and they are using mobile everywhere. M-commerce has become big bucks, as savvy shoppers are using their phones to research products or services, check the status of an order, locate a nearby store or look up additional information whilst out and about. This presents a huge opportunity for brands to communicate with consumers whilst they’re out-and-about, and to remove potential barriers to purchase. M-commerce should aim to capitalise on existing opportunities to further engage the customer and should, above all else, place the consumer at the centre; next year is not just the year of m-commerce, it is the year of cross platform, integrated, consumer-lead marketing.

That’s my predication for 2012 – let me know if you any other ideas.

So, you’ve finally decided to join the social media stream and now you’re looking for more creative ways to market your business. So far, you’ve built your Facebook page, a LinkedIn group, and your newly launched corporate blog is receiving a lot of positive feedback from readers.

There is one more thing that can boost productivity: social media applications. These apps can boost your marketing efforts and make the process even more efficient. Here is a breakdown of the five most popular social media apps that you can use to accelerate your marketing success:

Networked Blogs: Networked Blogs brings your blog to Facebook and allows you to promote it to your followers and the Facebook community.  I’m a big fan of this app, as I find it a great community to support other bloggers.

Promotions for Fan Pages: Promotions for Fan Pages is a Facebook verified application for companies and agencies to run branded interactive promotions on Facebook Fan Pages. Promotion formats include: sweepstakes, contests, coupon giveaways, special deals and more.

Clobby Group Chat: Chat rooms for people with similar interests to chat with each other. Add a chat room to your Facebook Business Page or Profile and host chat parties and events.

Vpype Live Broadcaster: allows anyone to broadcast live interactive shows to the millions of users on Facebook. The application can be added to your Profile or Business Page so you can share your shows with friends and fans.

Eventbrite: By publishing your event to your Facebook Business Page, you’ll give your Facebook followers and their friends the opportunity to see, but more importantly, buy tickets to your event! It’s a quick, easy and very effective way to bring more attendees to your event.

Pagemodo’s Pagebuilder: offers free professional design for Facebook pages. This app allows you to easily develop Facebook pages without any technical background. (Learn more about integrating e-Commerce into your Facebook page.)

You can also:

Add photos

Embed video

Change the fonts

Market your products

With social media expanding at such a fast pace, these apps will come in handy. So, pick one that matches your marketing needs and start implementing it today!

When used correctly, Google+ is a unique and powerful opportunity to widen your reach, professionally or personally. From making your profile pop to mastering your stream, I’ll share 25 of the most useful Google+ Tips and Tricks to get you going.

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets have been on the cards for quite some time now, but last month Sky became the first brand to use the advertising platform in the UK. Previously, only users in the U.S. were able to see Promoted Tweets, Promoted Trends and Promoted Accounts. Now Brands will be able to use Twitter to target consumers based on geographical location and obtain more qualified traffic. But will Promoted Tweets help build brand awareness or prove too invasive?

One of Twitter’s first customers for Promoted activity is Sky. Sky is using the full suite of Promoted Products to increase awareness as the popular teen TV sensation ‘Glee’ returns to our screens for a new series. The @gleeonsky account and #gleeonsky hashtag were being promoted, whilst several Promoted Tweets were run simultaneously with brand new clips from the series.

Promoted Tweets are not entirely new, Twitter started putting them into your timeline earlier this summer but you would only see a Promoted Tweet if you followed that brand already. As a follower you’d see those Tweets anyway, it just meant that brands could create ‘sticky’ tweets that would stay at the top of your timeline until you had read them. The key difference now is that everyone will start to see promoted tweets in their timeline, whether they access the platform through a mobile device, their PC or smartphone.

This is the first example of a viable marketing product from Twitter. For a long time the platform sat gathering new users, building its profile and being quoted in the media and yet offered no outlet for brands to harness the power of the network for promotional activity. The Promoted activity is Twitter’s first advertising model, and marks a move into territory that Facebook and Google have been exploiting for quite some time. The problem is that users have got used to Twitter without invasive advertising techniques and so the Social Media giant will have to tread carefully to avoid upsetting fans.

It seems the initial bout of advertising activity has done little to discourage people from using the platform. Twitter has posted some impressive engagement statistics earlier this month. Compared to the beginning of 2011, 110% more tweets are being sent every day now; the number of active users the service expects to add by the end of the year – that is, in the next four months – outranks the total number of users it added between 2006 and 2009.

So far, the companies Twitter has partnered with for the initial launch of its U.K. advertising platform include Eurostar, BT and Paramount. Brand or activity awareness is really the KPI to track with Promoted activity, which means that it is not right for every campaign, and Twitter will struggle to compete with the increased functionality of a platform such as Facebook or YouTube. It really remains to be seen whether Promoted activity will be successful, or whether the changes to Promoted Tweets will annoy users. One thing is for sure, it will be the first of many products that Twitter roll out to better serve its business objectives. They will learn from Promoted activity, and one or two brands will be cited as success stories for the platform, but the real crux of the issue is still the same – Brands have to produce interesting, engaging content on social media to EARN traffic. Paid-for activity can only achieve so much, and brands will face the same challenges with Twitter that they do with Facebook and YouTube. You have to post videos that people want to watch, and content that people want to share. Different platform, same challenge – and that is not about to change.

Historically, Facebook changes however minor have been unpopular with users, so who will be the winners and losers this time around, and what exactly else does the social networking giant have in store?

In September Facebook made three key changes to the site functionality; it revamped Friend lists and introduced the News Ticker and Subscribe button. These changes are designed to increase the dwell time spent on the page by creating more connections between you and your friends. For example, the news ticker is designed to allow you to track what your friends are commenting on right now, which encourages comment to become discussion. This was really just the beginning though, the landmark changes came in when Facebook overhauled user profiles with the Timeline feature, and launch a plethora of apps letting you listen to music, watch movies and monitor news through your profile. The hope is that users will create profiles that are a visual history of their lives, right through from birth.

With all the changes made, what of the usual questions about privacy? Well, once again, Facebook stands accused of gathering and sharing more of your information than ever before. The latest accusations, from a self-confessed hacker Nik Cubrilovic, have highlighted that Facebook can track your browser activity long after you leave the site. In fact, unless you delete all your Facebook cookies, they can pretty much follow your every move.

Facebook has always maintained that that any tracking they do is purely to improve user experience, and more notably, security.

So all that said, where do users of the social network stand? Well users will be sharing more of their lives than ever before, and will be spending more time on the site as they view news sources, listen to music and watch films through Facebook. Brands will have more freedom to create content for the site, and Facebook is more receptive than ever to partnerships, but ultimately companies are still heavily restricted in the data that they can collect. Unless users give specific permission for brands to use data outside of the platform, the information stays on Facebook, to be added to the reams of information that the company already holds on each of their 800 million registered users. Brands are sacrificing the rights to this information, by requesting that consumers engage with them through the networking site and not through their websites.

Facebook dwell times will soar, helping to build convincing advertising models, and Facebook will be able to continue to track users’ activity and hold their information, making them more valuable to marketeers than ever before. So, what of the changes that Facebook has made in September? Well, they certainly benefit one party – Facebook.