Social media trends in 2012: Orchestrate this!

Over the past few days, we've been sharing our predictions for what we think will be the trends to watch in public relations and social media in 2012. Yesterday, we featured our Social Networking Manager, Kwan Morrow. The day before that, we heard from Mike Lizun, Senior Vice President of Public Relations.

Today, I'd like to share the thoughts of our Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President, Rich Levin. Rich has been in the content game since the mid-80s and he's been involved in social media for just as long -- long before the term social media became de rigueur.

Our crazy Editor-in-Chief
mugging for the camera

Here are his thoughts on what will be the important trends in content-driven social strategies in 2012. And although we promised 15 trends to watch, we always go above and beyond for our clients and readers. So in all, we are sharing 17 PR and social trends to be on the lookout for in 2012.

1. Orchestration will be the big challenge in 2012 for companies that got started with social within the past two years. They have built their basic platforms and skill sets, and are now realizing that, in order to scale and be fully engaged, they need to orchestrate their activities in real-time, yet remain authentic and transparent in their engagement with customers. This is a big challenge, and there are no easy answers. Companies will try and fail, but they must get back up and keep trying until they figure out the orchestration model that works best for their organization. PR agencies that have developed best practices in this area are the ones to lean on. Agencies that promise the moon via outsourcing should be avoided. Social media cannot be outsourced. Social media must be integrated with all communications activities. Orchestration will be the issue that breaks many client-agency relationships, because it demands a highly integrated relationship. The outsourced model won't fly.

2012 public relations trends you need to be ready for

In continuing with our predictions for the 2012 public relations trends that need to be on your radar, we turn to Kwan Morrow, our Social Networking Manager. Here are his four predictions for what will be hot on the social networking, content marketing, and content syndication fronts next year. (In my last post, I promised we'd share two predictions from Kwan. But what can I say -- the wheels kept turning after we published that statement, so here are two more.)

Gregory FCA's Kwan Morrow

1. Content kings will forge empires. In 2011, content was king. In 2012, the kings with the best content and syndication methods will consolidate empires -- meaning the companies that truly understand content marketing will become the go-to resources of their industry. They will benefit handsomely from this positioning because they understand that if you're not solving your audiences' problems, answering their questions, or providing just-in-time content that helps them make an educated purchasing decision, your content will remain unread, unclicked, unshared, unliked, and most importantly, unused.

15 PR trends in 2012 that need to be on your public relations radar

Gregory FCA's annual list confirms and uncovers what's in store for the new year

There's no shortage of predictions this time of year about the top public relations trends that PR firms need to be paying attention to. As with any annual outlook, some of these predictions are obvious, others not so much. Then again, "obvious" is in the eye of the beholder.

With that in mind, I asked some of our best and brightest minds within the firm to share with our blog audience what they consider to be the most important public relations trends in 2012. I'll be sharing them with you over my next three posts, starting with Mike Lizun, Senior Vice President of Public Relations, who looks at the world through a media lens.

Gregory FCA's Mike Lizun

1. Mobile, mobile, mobile, and news apps. News curation apps (Flipboard, Zite, Google Currents, Pulse) for mobile and tablets will continue to drive media consumption and become even more important as a means to distribute the news for news organizations. As more of the population adopts mobile and tablet reading as the preferred way to read news, those without a key curation partner or clear mobile strategy will become less relevant.

2. Second screen anyone? Mobile devices will increasingly be used as second screens while watching TV. What are consumers doing with these second screens? News and social media top the list of what people are viewing on mobile devices, which will lead to a shakeout among smaller, less-known social and news providers; and a rise in apps that partner with media, such as IntoNow (Yahoo!), Get Glue (Travel Channel), and others.