2012 saw the highest rise in social media yet. Pinterest alone grew by a whopping 2000 percent. This leaves the question, what’s coming up in 2013? Here are my predictions of what we may (or may not) see this year at the main social platforms:
In the first few days of 2013 we heard rumors that Twitter reached the $11 billion mark. Could this mean IPO for Twitter? Dick Costolo, Twitter’s CEO, says no. However, it is rumored that Apple may be investing in Twitter in the near future. This has stirred up new chatter about the possibility of going public.
My prediction: As it stands right now, I don’t believe Twitter is a strong enough revenue source for an enterprise IPO. However, I don’t think it’s dead in the water. Between the Apple rumors and the rumor of a new Twitter algorithm, it seems Twitter will step up the revenue side of their model.
I also think Twitter may become more personalized in the next year. I believe Costolo’s hints toward a full tweet history, the integration of Aviary’s image filters and the new banner image are only the beginning of a new, personalized Twitter platform.
Google+
Google+ continued to grow in 2012, but in my opinion didn’t hit an astronomical number of active users. Since then, they have evolved their apps to support local level businesses.
My prediction: It’s not going away. Businesses that aren’t currently benefiting from Google+ will get on board. I believe Google+ will see a spike in users and engagement. With the integration of Google Groups, we’re already seeing this.
Facebook’s ad platform evolved immensely in 2012 and will continue doing so in 2013. Most recently we have seen the integration of Chango, the real-time marketing platform, into Facebook’s Retargeting ad platform Facebook Exchange (FBX).
My prediction: We will see an increase in the ability to use other companies’ data to retarget consumers. We will see a lot of integration of other platforms to help ads to reach different target areas in different ways.
Pinterest is the fastest-growing social media platform today. I predict that we continue to see the growth of Pinterest, but in a different type of way. With the recent purchase of Punchfork, Pinterest will be expanding throughout the year.
My prediction: Pinterest recently bought Punchfork, a social recipe sharing platform, helping to expand the recipe area of their site. Punchfork’s CEO came along and joined the engineering team at Pinterest. I believe we may even see API integrations available through Pinterest.
My second prediction would align with creating revenue. I’m not quite sure how an ad platform would work, maybe promoted pins, but that is the next step to get closer to even a thought of an IPO.
Last, I believe Pinterest will start to see a rise in competitive platforms.
I’m eager to know what you think! What are your predictions for 2013? Which of mine do you agree or disagree with?
Photo Credit: Flickr user SteveDale
