Five trends to watch out for marketing and social media in 2012

Travel suppliers are constantly looking for new ways to enable meaningful experiences with their target consumers. Ultimately suppliers try to ensure the customer gains more value by engaging with them directly.

Travel companies acknowledge that social, local, and mobile are huge areas of innovation and places to win.

The past year saw many new developments in online marketing. The factors that impact search results have changed drastically. The best search results are not just the ones which have the right content and meta-tags and relevant links pointing back to them. Hoteliers and other travel companies also need to focus on several ranking factors such as the ones that are related to your website, content, relevance of business in online world, social circle and online reviews, search categories saturation etc.

Technology is allowing for faster innovation, but it's also important for marketers to prioritise where they invest. They can’t afford to miss out on opportunities. For instance, according to findings from a global study initiated by TNS, businesses are wasting time and money trying to reach people online without realising many resent big brands invading their social networks. The online world undoubtedly presents massive opportunities for brands, however it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that they will be able to realise this potential. Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise, risks alienating potential customers and impacting business growth.

Predictions

Optify, a provider of online marketing software and services for the real time web, has listed its top five 2012 predictions. Excerpts:

1. Mainstream Organisations Adopt Marketing Automation & Social CRM

2011 witnessed the expansion of Social CRM, enabling another channel to reach and interact with customers and it has become one of the fastest growing segments within the CRM industry. In the next year, Social CRM will evolve from an early adopter strategy into a mainstream solution for organisations wanting to connect marketing operations from the top of the funnel, to online search, down through sales and customer management.

2. Social Media Becomes an Increasing Factor in Search Algorithms

Social media networks are growing. In 2011, Facebook's social signals were integrated into Bing search and Google+ emerged with native integration into Google search.

In 2012, Optify expects social media to become more of a key component of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) algorithms. 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.

3. Customers and employees become an extended part of companies' marketing teams

As social networks are used ever more frequently for aggregating and sharing interests, expect opinions, both positive and negative, about products and services to spread with lightening speed. As a result, businesses customer relationships will become increasingly focused on creating and managing perceptions.

In 2012, companies will need to proactively scale their marketing efforts by creating and sharing information with employees and influential customer evangelists to help define their brands, products and services from the ground up.

4. Mobile + Social Evolve Together to Create New User Scenarios

Customer interactions and purchases, in specific marketplaces such as travel, shopping and dining, will occur with increasing frequency on mobile devices.

5. Facebook platform grows and expands into new markets

With a large infusion of IPO cash and the potential to create social shopping experiences, Facebook will be well positioned to give online retailer Amazon a run for its money. While analysts have begun speculating Amazon will launch a smartphone in 2012, Facebook will likely do the same. These visionary companies see that the mobile phone is quickly becoming the portal to purchase; an opportunity to get in front of customers before they've even arrived online or a physical store.

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