What You Need to Know About Social's Future

It's been a big year of growth for social media as an industry, and, as it shows no signs of stopping any time soon, here are five things to keep an eye on.. After all, we are a bunch of geeky social media enthusiasts who just can't keep our traps shut on the topic.
 
Social media is going to gain more attention and spend
No brainer, right? Companies are paying a lot more attention to the value of social media, and it has become increasingly obvious that social media marketing has moved beyond pushing funny tweets and begging unsuspecting networks for friends to please, please, please "like" a company's new Facebook page. This is the year for social media to rise above fun marketing fluff, and into the ranks of hard marketing campaigns. A joint study from Booz Allen and social platform developer Buddy Media, showed that 57 percent of businesses surveyed plan to increase social media spending, while 38 percent of CEOs label social as a high priority. As people start to take social media marketing more seriously, hopefully the industry will become better defined with more standardized practices across the board.
 
Search and social will become synonymous
Of all the predictions, the most common theme I discovered (and have been loudly championing for some months now) from social media gurus across the web is that the lines between search and social are becoming increasingly blurred. Google+ is definitely going to be a game changer in this arena. It will be interesting to see if it really challenges Facebook, as many people initially predicted, or if it will just quietly create the ultimate social search engine and melt our faces off in awe. Google+ will find its balance, integrate with other platforms, and undercut Facebook on advertising. Hopefully, Google will buy a social media management system that will have hooks into Google Analytics, Webmaster tools, and Google +, which other platforms will cower behind....