Screen Pilot looked into its very own crystal ball and returned with a few interesting predictions for 2012. It will be a year where mobile will go beyond anything we have experienced previously. As time progresses, we forget what the world was like when we didn’t multi-task all the time, simply interacting face-to-face. Although this may be creating challenges for our human interactions, it is providing new opportunities in marketing. Here are a few trends we expect to see in the marketing world of 2012:

Mobile

Mobile marketing is growing at an alarming rate. As more mobile devices flood the market, people are using them to shop, buy, and search the web. Forty percent of Google mobile search queries are local, according to Screenwerk. You simply must incorporate mobile into your marketing strategy, no excuses.

Also, the time has come to create a mobile website for these devices. Your big flashy site may look great on a PC but when viewed on a mobile device it probably doesn’t render correctly or it may involve lots of scrolling putting off your potential customer. Again, we aren’t joking, this isn’t going away and you must stay relevant.

Let’s use Hotel 718 as an example of a standard site and a mobile site:

Main site:

Mobile Site:

Social Media

As more smart phones flood the market, more people are going to find it easier to participate in social media. Facebook is everywhere with advancements in the Facebook Open Graph. In case you haven’t noticed when you are signed into Facebook and traveling around the web, sites cater information to you and address you personally.

Here is an example of the open graph in action:

You can see what are friends are doing from the TripAdvisor site when you are signed into Facebook. It has personalized the experience for you so that you can do more than just “Like” something or share it. With Facebook integration appearing on many sites, it is essential to integrate social media in your own website.

Hotel 718, a boutique hotel in Brooklyn NY is an excellent example of social media integration with their CONNECT page. The guest is able to connect with Hotel 718 on the various social networks and even sign up for email marketing, providing the hotel a simple way to develop relationships with their guests.

With wondrous new smart phones’ advanced video and photography capabilities, there will be growth in multi-media social networks like Instagram, Viddy, Pinterest and more are sure to come.

Also, keep your eyes out for more QR codes. I expect with more people owning mobile devices and smart phones, we will see those popping up in advertising and marketing materials everywhere. You will first want to have a dynamic mobile website and then you can venture into the world of the funky little QR codes. Use your QR codes to provide interesting content to your customers and be sure to include all pertinent information. There are sites to help you build a QR code or you can always contact an expert, like us at Screenpilot.

2012 is going to be an interesting year with an overall increased mobile emphasis across all marketing and advertising initiatives.

We hope that 2012 is a joyful and prosperous year for you, your family, and your business. Happy 2012 from all of us at Screen Pilot!

If you would like to read more about what to expect in 2012, check out the sources that helped us put together our predictions:

http://socialmediatoday.com/johnserpa/414660/social-media-and-2012

http://socialmediatoday.com/jasonbaer/410876/4-nearly-guaranteed-2012-social-media-predictions

http://mashable.com/2011/12/27/5-tech-trends-to-watch-in-2012/

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2133514/Search-Mobile-Marketing-Trends-SEO-Apocalypse-2012

Mark Zuckerberg and his pals are currently showing the world the upcoming changes to the Facebook platform at the F8 Developers Conference. For those of you that missed his keynote speech online and couldn’t be there yourselves we’ve summarized some of the major talking points for you:

The team here at Screen Pilot had a great time this morning at the Social Media Breakfast Charlotte (Twitter hashtag #smbclt). We heard from great speakers including the head of mobile apps at Bank of America. All in all a thoroughly interesting morning.

While back at the office grindstone we caught sight of a great little article thats particularly relevant to our mornings activities. And co-incidentally ties together 2 of our core agency functions – mobile and analytics. Including online to offline. The article link is below gives tips on:

1) Optimizing your website for mobile

2) Aligning calls to action with search behaviour

3) Tracking both online and offline conversions

Take a look at the article itself here on marketingprofs.com and let us know if it gives you any thoughts or ideas. Are you already doing any of this yourself for instance?

Apple lovers, geeks, obsessives, followers, fanatics and Steve Jobs stalkers the world over are currently hyping themselves up into a frenzy over the projected September release of the iOS5 and iPhone 5. At Screen Pilot we’re not so concerned about what the new operating system will do but how it can help us engage with consumers and what changes we’ll have to make.

Take for example the most obvious place to start – Phone wide Twitter intergration. This will see more photos and other rich media tweeted by iPhone users making twitter a more valuable tool for digital marketers. It could also see a surge in Twitter sign ups as new iPhone users jump on the bandwagon.

However the biggest marketing challenge will be the new Notification Center that is visible on users lock screens. This update has come about because of the number of notifications iPhone users receive has ballooned over the last 12 months. This led to a number of complaints to Apple. The Notification Center has been built to remedy this.

The user can see all notifications in a single place via the Notification Center from the home screen or from any app by swiping down the status bar. When the user gets a new notification it will appear at the top of the screen rather than a popup. The lock screen also displays the notifications so you can respond to them quickly with a swipe of your finger. From a marketing standpoint this change certainly makes the iPhone a less useful tool. We can imagine that deal apps like Groupon and Living Social will suffer as their daily updates go unnoticed more often. Its worth keeping an eye(phone) on when the new OS and iPhone 5 is released.