By now, we all know (or should know) the importance of responding to fan comments on our Facebook pages. When a customer posts a question or comment to a business Facebook page, they typically expect a response within 24 hours. Can you blame them? After all, you wouldn’t ignore your obligation to return a customer’s phone call or reply to their email. Whether a customer asks you a question via your favorite communication channel or your least favorite, you must not ignore them. Responding directly to Facebook fans helps brands to build rapport, resolve customer service issues, strengthen relationships, improve company processes/services, and make positive impressions on the general public.

The Problem:

When a lot of people comment on the same post, it can become difficult to follow one specific thread (AKA conversation) because all of the comments appear in chronological order. This means that there can be dozens or even hundreds of comments separating a question from its response. Here is an example:

Pizzas R US makes a post on their Facebook page about their new American Bacon and Pineapple Pizza (take that, Canada!). One customer (we’ll call him Jack) poses a great question about this post in the form of a comment: “Will you use hickory smoked bacon or applewood smoked bacon on this pizza?”

By the time Pizzas R US’s community manager (we’ll call him…. Tommy) sees Jack’s question, fifty other people have also commented on the post to express their hunger, patriotism or love of bacon. Tommy can use an @mention to tag Jack in his comment to ensure that Jack is notified that Pizzas R US has responded (it’s applewood, by the way). However, there is a gap that sits between the question and the answer causing this important conversation to be lost on anyone else who may care to read or comment. Not only is it difficult for other fans to find Tommy’s response to Jack’s question, but it may appear as though Pizzas R US never bothered to respond to Jack’s question at all. This could leave people thinking: “What kind of inconsiderate pizza company doesn’t even answer important questions about their ingredients? I’m taking my business elsewhere.”

The Solution:

Facebook recently introduced a “Reply” function that makes it easy for brands to respond directly to fan comments. Replies are displayed directly below the related comments making it abundantly clear who is responding to which comment.

Given Facebook’s tendency to make drastic changes to its platform, “replies” may seem like a minor update. However, comments and responses are integral to the News Feed that makes Facebook what it is, so I suspect that this update will have a huge impact on the way marketers use Facebook going forward.

How to Turn On Replies:

Most pages are being prompted to turn on replies in the admin area about the cover image; however, if you missed it or closed it out, here’s how you can turn on the replies feature:

Will you start using replies on your Facebook page? Tell us in the comments.

Happy 3rd birthday to Sociality Squared! Another milestone down and many more to come!

-Helen

What is Vine?

Some people have called Vine “the Instagram of video” while others have called it “Twitter’s video-sharing tool”.

In short, Vine is an app that makes it easy to create and distribute video clips that are a maximum of 6 seconds long. Similar to the animated GIF, these short videos (or “scenes” as Vine calls them) play automatically, loop continuously, and are muted by default.

Vine’s recording tool is what really sets this app apart. Rather than pressing the record button and recording six straight seconds of video, users can stop and start recording at will. This function allows users to easily create stop-motion style videos with their smartphones.

Users cannot edit their Vine videos after recording, nor can they import videos from elsewhere. While these limitations (not to mention the 6 second time limit) may cause frustration for some users, most will understand the necessity once they begin using the app.

How does Vine work with Twitter?

Vine’s interface is straightforward and easy to use. Simply:

1) Sign up for an account

2) Create a “scene” (AKA short video)

3) Distribute by sharing on Twitter or Facebook

Here is a video that shows How to Use Vine.

Twitter acquired Vine in 2012, but luckily for non-tweeters it is possible to sign up for an account without using Twitter at all (users have the option to sign up with an email account). However, most users will elect to integrate the two services entirely since Twitter is the best way to share “scenes” with friends after they are created.

What are the marketing applications for Vine?

Photos tend to get more fan engagement on social media than videos do, which is probably why Vine introduced what may be a happy medium. The potential marketing applications for Vine are limitless, and it is going to be exciting to watch marketers find new and creative uses for the app. For now, some companies are using Vine to create:

-Helpful how-to videos
-Product demos
-Mini commercials
-Behind-the-scenes footage of the workplace

There are other potential uses for marketers to consider:

-Location marketing: It is possible to add geo location data to Vine posts, which can be useful for business owners trying to bring in local customers. Imagine that you are trying to choose a place to eat dinner, when all of the sudden you look to Twitter and see a chef sautéing some beautiful shrimp at the restaurant down the street. Yummm, I think I’ll go there!
-User generated content: Post a question to your social media pages and ask your fans to respond with Vine videos. If your fans are any good, the best responses will probably create a buzz on your brand’s pages!
-The carrot, not the stick: Use your brand’s best Vine videos as an incentive for fans to interact with your brand on social media. Share your best content as a tease, and then tell your fans that you will only release the next video in the series once your page reaches certain follower or retweet milestones. This method is particularly effective with Kate Upton commercials.

For right now, it may be too early to tell whether or not Vine is here to stay. What we do know is that Vine’s 6 second time limit has the potential to revolutionize the way we share videos on social media. After all, less than ten years ago a lot of people thought the idea of blogging in 140 character increments was a silly idea…

Have a creative idea for Vine? Tell us about it in the comments!

Post written by Tom Ritter. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!

Dolphin Browser is a free mobile-only internet browser for Android and iOS devices facing tough competition from pre-installed browsers on smartphones and tablets. With over 50 million downloads and a Facebook fan base of 95,666 as of October 31, 2012, Dolphin saw the opportunity to turn users into Facebook fans.

The goal in November 2012 was to increase the Facebook fan base and engagement by creating buzz through a giveaway. The strategy also sought to take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday and subsequent online traffic surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Sociality Squared designed a campaign to maximize engagement in the news feed that was also optimized for the mobile web. Dolphin didn’t just announce a giveaway: the brand teased and empowered fans to become invested in the prize and outcome. Promoted posts highlighted key messages and custom graphics were created to pop in the news feed, increasing visibility. Dolphin built a custom landing page that was optimized for the mobile web and integrated the Like button into the entry form. Beyond Facebook, the campaign was promoted on Dolphin’s browser, blog, Twitter, Google Plus, and newsletter.

To read the full case study, click here where it’s featured on the Facebook Studio Gallery.

While we’re on the subject of private wall posts, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Facebook is coming under fire for what many consider to be the worse case of privacy violation the company has faced yet: employing users personal information to tailer Graph Search for their friends. There’s no need to worry. There are many tools available to manage your privacy settings very efficiently within Facebook. The caveat is that it’s up to the user to proactively manage their privacy settings. Facebook has given users the capability to control exactly what information they would like to be searchable within Graph Search.

It must be noted that Graph Search is still in the process of being rolled out, and is not yet available to all users. You’ll notice you have Graph Search when the little search bar at the top has been replaced and to the top left of the page you’ll see “Search for people, places and things” and an invite to an introductory tour from Facebook. Graph Search will certainly shake up your marketing plans, however, the benefits to businesses will be substantial as they adapt their Pages to the Graph.

The primary ways Graph Search changes the game are 1) local Pages are now just as likely to be found as bigger brand Pages, and 2) as the mobile trend continues, Graph Search is in the perfect position to meet consumer needs as it lifts local Pages to a more useful level than a brand-only Page, since users are engaging through mobile at the local level. No matter how many people “Like” your brand’s Page, unless you can translate it to engage users locally, you will be losing some ground in your Facebook marketing.  Graph Search is still so new, but let me share an example. Graph Search is tailored to personal interests and connections so I’ll use a personal interest of mine – gluten-free cupcakes – and my location – Boston – for the search to illustrate the importance of local relevancy.

I entered “Gluten free” and the category of restaurants comes up first. Next I enter “cupcake” and you can see the results above. Georgetown Cupcake comes up at the top of the results. Great! My friends and I have been there and I know they offer gluten-free cupcakes. Udi’s Gluten Free Foods also comes up, which is a gluten free food brand, as well as Crushcakes Cupcakery, which I have never heard of. It looks like one of my friends has been there though and it’s in the town where I used to live. So it looks like Georgetown Cupcakes is my best bet from this list. I click to their Page for more information, and what do I find?

It’s their brand Page! Okay, this is good to know they have shops in Boston, Los Angeles, NYC, etc., but it doesn’t give me the local information I was looking for. What flavors of gluten free cupcakes are available today in Boston? What are their hours? Is it becoming a little bit clearer how brands will need to adapt to meet users needs?

Max Gladwell sheds some light, “The challenge for national brands in the restaurant, retail, and hospitality industries — any company with multiple locations — is that they’ve invested nearly all of their Facebook resources into building and supporting brand pages for the purpose of publishing content and managing customer relationships at the corporate level. But these brands don’t do business at the corporate level. They do business at the local level through large, brick-and-mortar networks. When it comes to Graph Search, these physical locations and their corresponding local Facebook pages are what really matter.”

What tasks should you add to your agenda to bring your brand Pages up to speed with Graph Search? The following will help kick start your brand’s presence on Graph Search:

• Do you have three different store locations? You will want them all to have a presence. Claim your brand’s local Pages on Facebook.
• Update your Pages with accurate contact details, categorization and geocode (latitude and longitude).
• Identify and consolidate duplicate pages for your locations.
• Inspire customers to like, check in, recommend, rate and tag photos on your local pages.
• Share authentic and relevant content with your local Pages.
• Measure local Page performance against your competitors’ local Page.

Graph Search can only get better as local businesses and big brands alike adapt to help create even more tailored search results for users. Besides the privacy concerns that some users have (when hasn’t privacy been a hot topic?), Graph Search looks to be a game changer for Facebook, users and businesses alike.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!

Last week we shared some of our first impressions about the new.myspace. Even though the new.myspace is still in the uphill climb of attracting and converting users, we want to share a few examples of some new.myspace profiles that caught our attention this week and are rocking and rolling on the revamped social media site.

1. Justin Timberlake

Surprise, surprise (well, not really), who has one of the most active, connected-to sites on the new.myspace? None other than Justin Timberlake himself. Considering Timberlake saw the potential in a redesigned Myspace and invested the resources to make it happen, it’s not that big of a shock that Mr. Timberlake is using the site exactly as he envisioned: as an amped up promotional vehicle. He put that vehicle to good use, taking pleasure in teasing fans who were anxiously awaiting the release of his new song, Suit & Tie. The new.myspace amps up the song release experience; it’s not quite as interactive, or “social”, as Facebook, but it knocks us out with it’s stunning graphics. Check out JT’s Page on Facebook and then compare it to his new.myspace Profile. New.myspace is a smoother  place to experience images and music.

2. Seviant™ Imagery & Design

In keeping in line with the beautiful visual appeal of the new.myspace, Seviant Imagery & Design, a Visual Arts and Photography Studio based in Los Angeles, is a company that’s doing a great job of leveraging the new.myspace’s strengths to showcase their work. They’ve done a nice job not only with eye-catching images on their main profile, but also with adding albums to showcase various styles of work they’ve done and linking it back to their website to drive business. You could say instead of a music playlist, they’re using visual “playlists”, or albums, on the new.myspace to promote their work to an audience they feel will connect with their style.

3. Artist HQ

As we’ve mentioned previously, the new.myspace was created for artists: photographers, musicians, filmmakers and fashion brands. They’ll all feel at home here. The thing is, it takes a little time to work through the kinks of a new site and most people don’t have a lot of extra time to learn. That’s where Artist HQ comes in. Touted as “A source of info for Artists on Myspace”, it’s basically the new.myspace’s help page for all the artists trying to get their images and music up and running on the site. It’s really handy. This is the page where you’ll find answers, as it’s only page we’ve come across so far that’s designed for interaction in a customer service/FAQ style. It’s a great page to know about as you get started on the new.myspace.

4. Beyonce

Beyonce has one of the most connected-to profiles going, and it’s not too hard to see why. She and other beautiful celebrities are definitely using the power of pictures to their advantage on the new.myspace. What Beyonce has also used to her advantage is the video feature. The Singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, dancer, choreographer, model, fashion designer and businesswoman has got a page stock full of gorgeous videos. Unlike YouTube or Facebook, there’s no need to mess with the view once you start. Each time you press play, the videos pop out for your visual pleasure.

5. Josh and Dugg

You may not have heard about Josh and Dugg. Neither had we, but the Discovery feature is a beautiful thing, and if you interact enough you get noticed. This songwriting duo has been doing a great job of attracting interaction on their page. Most music pages get a lot of comments on their photos, etc., however, these two have inspired a lot of people to reach out to them and have a profile full of messages, one of the few we’ve seen that isn’t strictly image focused (not to say they don’t feature some fancy photos as well). They seem to truly use the space as a place to network and connect with fans as well as other artists. Shall we just say, the Discovery feature is a wonderful way for brands and artists to get noticed, especially when they are the early adopters such as this duo. Put up some eye catching artwork, interact and bam! You’ve got new fans.

So, what can we learn from these early new.mypace profiles? You’d have to be blind not to see it’s an image game. Images – especially those cover and profile photos – are of the utmost importance when staking your claim on the new.mypace. Intriguing, sharp images will be what pull users to connect. We’re not sure exactly how the backend is run yet (i.e. will there be a Facebook-style algorithm?), but it can never hurt to encourage interaction with your content, whether it’s a playlist for that film you’re promoting, album for the latest show at your gallery, or, to follow Justin Timberlake’s lead, teasers about your new album release. Have fun exploring and connect with us here.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!

The New Myspace opened to the public on January 15. Prior to that, there were a few folks exploring the new site who had requested early invitations. We were first introduced to the aesthetics of the site in this video released late last year.

The new Myspace from Myspace on Vimeo.

As a professional working in social media and a major music enthusiast (one area of focus for the site), I think JT heard my “heartbeat” speed up with excitement and granted my request for early access (or so I like to think). When I first began exploring, I had the strange sense that comes with getting to a party uncomfortably early: Where was everyone, and were they even coming? I imagined all the coolest fashion designers, filmmakers, photographers and musicians would be solidly represented. Instead, I realized it could be kind of quiet for awhile. The following are some first impressions of the new.myspace.

Horizontal Navigation
Most social media sites are set up to be navigated by scrolling vertically to view content (think Timeline on Facebook). Not so with the new.myspace. It may be an echo of the site’s focus on music, video and visual marketing, or most likely a layout that’s easy to navigate from mobile devices, of which usage is heavily increasing. The visually beautiful site, music, videos and stunning images make the site perfect entertainment for when you’re on the go. The content is navigated by sliding the pages horizontally, and while it’s something to get used to, the feature is just part of what makes new.myspace stand out from other sites. It’s kind of like looking at a pretty picture book, except even better, because every song or video you pass over will play for you. Clicking on photographs results in the photos blowing up to display really large, stunning images. It’s an awesome way to visually discover and interact with new music, videos and brands and for the creative community to connect with fans in a fresh way.

Music Organization
There’s no need to remember what song you just played because you can instantly interact with it in a variety of ways, either by “connecting” to it (similar to the “Like” on Facebook), adding it to your queue, sharing it, adding it to a mix (playlist), making it your profile song, sending it in a message or just coping the link. Connecting to a song, artist, photo, video or brand is similar to starring a song or artist on Spotify, although in addition to simply “bookmarking” a song with a star, you are amplifying your action with one of the above actions. You will be able to see the song in your stream, or in whatever form you chose to interact with it. If you listened it will be on your player (music player always playing at the bottom of the page), you can see it in your playlist or in your connections.  Brands, musicians and even people you connect with on the new.myspace are not your “friends” in the same sense they would be on Facebook or Twitter. You are even shown your “affinity” with other users when you make the decision to connect with them, based on how both of your connections match up. Forbes cleverly describes the new.myspace as “Pinterest for your ears.” Though you can certainly comment on a photo or song, the social element is more or less left out. This is a place to discover, experience, organize and share artist’s work. There are also many opportunities to buy the songs you’re listening to, adding a monetary layer for brands and musicians using the site. It will be important for brands and artists to build connections, as it seems likely down the road there will be an analytical element for brands and musicians to see their fans demographics to help in their marketing on the site and elsewhere.

Discovery
In my experience so far, I think people who are passionate about music and creative pursuits, who take the time to discover new videos, music and brands in the first place will love this playground of creativity. If someone joins the new.myspace because they think they’re going to just magically know about all the best new bands, designers and films, I think they will be disappointed. What’s driving the discovery process is how much your friends are interacting, or connecting, with content on the site; friends are are a bit limited at this time. Users drive discovery, and that is going to be quite a challenge for the new.myspace: gaining users. Heck, even a lot of my musician friends who have active band pages on the old version haven’t jumped aboard yet, so it can seem a little like a ghost town.  Interestingly, the new.myspace doesn’t seem to be converting existing user profiles into new ones, at least not yet. It looks like they could be creating an all new userbase (the old and new sites still exist separately). New users can now log in through Facebook or Twitter, so at least it’s building on top of these two platforms and integrating with them. The new.myspace also doesn’t offer the option of looking for friends based on other sites you belong to (Facebook, Google, Twitter). It’s also difficult to link all of the accounts if you don’t first set up the user profile with Facebook, and vice versa, if you set up your account before it was available through Facebook (like me), you may have issues signing in through Facebook and Twitter. All wrinkles that need to be smoothed out.

When thinking of the possibilities of the new.myspace (before it was open to the public) I was sure that by the end of this year it would take off.  When I read about some user’s experiences with being confused and sentiments of not getting what JT promised and taking into account my own experience thus far, I have to question the mainstream appeal and adoption, to a point. It may just be a learning curve. As we know, every time Facebook makes a change it causes a wave for a week or two and then users adapt. Needless to say, at this point, I don’t expect to see a lot of my Facebook friends on the new.myspace. It takes time and I think you have to have a true interest to stick to the site while all the early kinks are being worked out. This will be the new.myspace’s biggest challenge: users should understand the site pretty quickly and get invested, or it will be impossible to grow; unless, perhaps, they build a niche audience like the users who are still active on Pinterest. If you haven’t, I encourage you to experience the new.myspace for yourself. Whether as a music lover, photographer, or more importantly, as a social media marketer, there’s a lot we can learn yet from the visual and interactive appeal of the new.myspace. We’ll keep you updated as their story unfolds. Does anyone else have that JJAMZ song stuck in there head?

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!

After the confetti is swept, holiday decorations are down and the promise of longer days sets in, we come to the realization that – holy cow – 2013 is in full swing! We saw a lot of changes last year, including the increasing importance of adding mobile to the marketing mix, Instagram sale, Facebook Global Pages and the rise in popularity of Pinterest. What will 2013 hold? There’s no need to look into a crystal ball when you have access to some of the best social media marketers we know: the Sociality Squared team! Read on for our social media predictions for 2013.

Helen Todd
@helenstravels

•  ”Visual Marketers” is the newest buzzword in social media and you’ll increasingly hear the term more in 2013. What pops the most and generates the highest engagement in the Facebook News Feed? Images. What is so enticing about Pinterest, Tumblr and the (new) Myspace? They’re all pretty – urr, visually and aesthetically appealing!

• Images, images, images. 2013 will see the rise of two predominate things is social media: mobile and images. Not surprising, the two go hand-in-hand. If you’re a community manager or brand marketer, you should be thinking MOBILE and VISUALLY when it comes to social media marketing and communication. Nothing conveys a message faster and more universally than an image, especially as screen real estate gets smaller and smaller. Go high res, big and beautiful or go home (gone are the days when iPhone images are the staple for “grassroots” social media marketing).

• Emerging and established platforms that are image-driven will continue to rise IF they play their hands well: Myspace (get users); Pinterest (innovate more); Flickr (pray Marissa Mayer has a plan); Instagram (be more brand-friendly); Twitter (have option for users to select default feed to image-view in tweets); Facebook (keep your eye on the ball: user engagement not stockholders); G+ (you’ve lasted longer than Wave and Buzz…maybe there’s hope for you yet!).

Lisa O’Brien
@lisa_lobrien

• Increase in mobile advertising. The demand for mobile advertising will grow significantly and major Facebook brands are already implementing. The need for mobile ads promoting Pages appear to perform 3x better than desktop Page ads. Studies from AdParlor and Miso showed Facebook mobile app install ads that drive people to the app stores were performing well for developers, delivering higher click-through rates. Facebook will stay at the forefront by improving the design and staying fresh so consumers don’t tune out.

• Shift to more native advertising. This involves sponsored content that is designed to appear along with a publications’ regular content, adopting the same look and feel as the website or blog it’s placed in. This is meant to offer additional meaning or information beyond the scope of a traditional ad, which consumer have grown to distrust and/or ignore. Twitter’s Promoted Tweets and Facebook’s Sponsored Stories fall under the native advertising umbrella. Advertisers need to take advantage of this as a way to revitalize how people see ads. Better reputation for ads = better ad performance.

Gerri Baum
@gerrib18

• Marketers are finally beginning to recognize that consumers and their individual networks drive the conversation on social media.  Brands have been approaching social media as they’ve done in advertising, PR and other marketing functions – from the top down, pushing out their own content.  This is not working for them, and instead there is a realization of a new paradigm that puts the consumer at the top of the ‘engagement pyramid’ leading the conversation rather than being on the receiving end.

• Memes are gaining popularity in the social media world.  Marketers are finding effective ways to insert their brands into popular online conversations and gain some press at the same time. (e.g. PBS purchased the keyword “Big Bird” on Twitter after Mitt Romney said that he wanted to end government funding to PBS in the first presidential debate; Obama campaign responded to the Clint Eastwood “Invisible Obama” routine from the Republican National Convention by tweeting pictures of a chair (showing the back of Obama’s head) marked “the President” with the caption, “This seat’s taken.”

• It’s much easier to view a video on a mobile device then to have to use your finger to scroll across lines of text.  It has also been found that people click on and view videos in e-newsletters and on websites more so than images or copy.  So, brands (for profit and non-profit) are using videos more and more to get their messages across to their audiences.  They’re using video to thank people in elaborate ways, educate viewers about products and services and engage their own staff of professionals, volunteers and donors.

• Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” is becoming a popular promotional tool for social media marketers.  Not only does it allow people to interact in live online conversations, but the virility of the conversations are reinforced by participants voting on the platform.  Many celebs are using AMA’s to interact with their audiences, driving people to websites, Facebook pages, Twitter profiles, YouTube channels and even influencing the purchase of tickets to concerts and attractions.

Tia Marie Kemp
@TiaMarieKemp

• The new.myspace will come of age. As predicted by a couple others, I see the New Myspace really blooming this year, as long as people migrate to the site. It will still be musician friendly, but be discovered as a great tool for a variety of artists and causes tied to them. Connecting through other sites like Facebook will really push the remodeled site into the view of mainstream social media users, unlike sites such as Reverbnation. There will be a learning curve for social marketers, however, I think by the end of the year the New Facebook will be going strong and not only a part of nostalgia or independent music.

• With the increased use of Facebook Causes and several national tragedies last year, I see 2013 as the year people will start to harness more of the “do good” power that social media has to offer. Whether that means connecting and organizing people to help clean up after a horrible hurricane or start a movement for change, we will see increased activity of this sort along with increased attention. People only have so much time and money to donate, so social media marketers will really need to step it up to compete for resources to do social good.

Molly McCue
@bluebrdfebruary

• Social media is fragmenting into vastly different formats, forming unique communities and ways of interacting, regardless of subject matter. This trend will continue in 2013. People do not have time to digest everything, so they are relying more heavily on curators for the kinds of content they care about. Increasingly, they are also choosing which social media communities serve up that content just the way they like it — pinboards, tumblrs, tweets — and they are engaging there more exclusively. This means different audiences in different social communities, with less overlap than we see today. Brands need to know how to use different social media tools, but they also need to understand where their customers are likely to be.

• In 2013 we’ll see the public grow more savvy about privacy in social media: how much information they share, who’s collecting it, and what control they really have over it. The proliferation of Facebook’s Open Graph shows that companies are eager to use customer data to foster immediate kinds of engagement. However, several high-profile foibles at the end of 2012, including a communications misstep by Instagram, show there is still a lack of understanding about how customer information can be used for profit. Brands will need to be smarter about what data they collect and why collect it, and may need to justify it publicly. There are also increasingly urgent implications for copyright law and data security.

Kristy Beagle
@dancinkristy52

• Emphasis on everything being mobile friendly! People will continue to look at FB, Twitter, etc. more and more from their mobile devices and these platforms will need to continue to become more mobile friendly. Marketers will also need to make sure promos, links, etc. work on mobile devices. (saw a little bit of this in ’12 and think it will continue)

• Social media platforms as a tool for social justice/spreading news stories. Right now there is a horrible rape case that is affecting my hometown and EVERYTHING has blown up because of social media. A hashtag has been formed #oprollredroll. Through Twitter, Roseanne Barr has gotten involved, CNN has come to Steubenville and it made HuffPo because of reaching out to these people/organizations through SM. There’s even a dedicated Facebook group that has been organized for protests, news, etc. I think social media will bring light and attention to more news stories like this that most people would never hear of otherwise. News stories will go viral more than ever.

• Negative of social media – putting content on that will get you criminally charged. People posting lude and illegal acts on Twitter, FB, etc and authorities getting involved. (see #2). Interesting how this all affects the legal system and what can be used as evidence…

Mari Smith
@marinotsobland

• I definitely see more companies utilizing Pinterest in unique ways (giveaways, board sharing, etc.). I also think that over 2013, they will make Pinterest more user-friendly (we’ve already seen this with the addition of “secret boards” recently). I’m also hoping to see Pinterest expand its user-ship to more men and “alternative” folks (enough with the cutesy home decor, DIY & wedding pins! Even though I do love some of it…).

Tom Ritter
@tomritter2

• Content marketing will be even MORE important in 2013 than it was in 2012. The longer people use Facebook and other SM channels, the better they get at filtering through the “junk content” that doesn’t really matter to them. Businesses will need to make a special effort to publish lots of engaging and valuable content in 2013 to stay present in their fan’s news-feeds going forward.

• Google will shake the industry up this year. Whether that means buying a major social networking site, making big changes to G+, or launching their own version of Twitter, Google will do something to increase their market share in social media on their quest to take over the world in 2013.

• “Gangnam Style 2″ will be the #1 viral video in 2013.

• Instagram and Pinterest will both grow this year. The number of photos uploaded to the internet continues to increase each year, and 2013 will be no different.

The predictions are in. It’s going to be fun to see what comes to fruition this year. Social media marketers should keep a finger on the pulse of these forecasts, since they’re warm now and only likely to heat up throughout the year! Be sure to check back for the latest developments.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp and the Sociality Squared team. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!

Photo-sharing social media giant Instagram was recently reminded how powerful words can be when users read their updated privacy policy and terms of service, which set off a ripple of apprehension among their aesthetic-appreciating fans. The language used in the policy update led users to believe that the company, which was acquired by Facebook last year for $1 billion, would now have the right to sell photos posted on the app without payment or notification. Take a deep breath – that’s not the case.

All of a sudden the widely adored app was under fire with throngs of Instagramers threatening to quit using the site and go elsewhere to express their lives visually. Should YOU quit Instagram? Is this another business trying to leach potential income from your creative digital endeavors? Luckily, Instagram lovers everywhere can just take a deep breath and go back to contemplating which filter to post their New Year’s through.

The two statements that had everyone up in arms were worded in a way that had users believing the following:

1. The first section replaced the phrase “limited license” with the words “transferable” and “sub-licensable,” which had users believing that Instagram would allow Facebook (Instagram’s parent company) to license their photos other organizations without their permission.
2. Another section stated “a business or other entity may pay us to display your… photos… in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”, which users thought would reasonably give Facebook the right to earn money from the photos you post.

Hence the concern among users, as they now believed that Instagram would have the right to license any of their photos for commercial use, with Instagram receiving the financial gain.  Instagram states below what they intended: the desire for better functioning through Facebook. The language in the policy has since been updated, and will go into effect on January 19.

As the company felt the heat, they revised the wording of their updated policies to reflect their understanding of the concerns of their users. They’ve updated the privacy policy to include a “snapshot”, so, while it is essential to read the policy thoroughly to fully understand it, users can get the meat of it in concise languages that outlines the policies in a condensed, easy to understand format.

Everyone can relax because nothing has changed as they states:

We’re updating our Privacy Policy to highlight this new collaboration [with Facebook], but we want to make sure you understand that you still have control over who sees your photos. You still get to choose who can see your Instagram photos, and you still get to choose whether you post your photos on Facebook. So while we’re looking forward to working closely with Facebook to build better experiences, we aren’t changing the core features of the app that you’ve come to know and love.

In sum, don’t be scared to post that adorable picture of your niece taking her first steps. Crop it. Enhance it with your favorite filter. And then stay tuned to future policy changes from Instagram, for they will surely come as they grow, not just as a service for creative expression, but as a business.

Post written by Tia Marie Kemp aka @TiaMarieKemp. To learn more from Sociality Squared, become a fan!