Mashable highlight 5 growing social media trends
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Our commentary: A new breed of Q&A services are changing the way we search. Barcode scanning applications are making products social, and deal-of-the-day sites are giving us ways to save by recruiting our friends to the party. With so many studies highlighting ever-accelerating social media usage rates, the conclusion is obvious "€” social media is everywhere. This Mashable post introduces 5 big trends to consider, if you're not doing so already.
Marketing implications: Think smartphones initially - 'Social scanning' where users are able to scan barcodes for price comparison or use QR codes to enter into social experiences around current location. Building on that there's 'Mobile loyalty', where smartphones are the digital repository for loyalty data but now integrate location based services as well. My favourites are 'web-based Q&A services' for intelligent information discovery like Quora, Aardvark and Facebook Questions - and also 'Checking-In based entertainment' (sharing your experiences of the latest True Blood episode), Philo and GetGlue are propelling the trend to what is an inherently social experience anyway. Last but not least, Groupon is having huge success in the trend of 'Group Based Buying'.
Recommended link: 5 Huge Trends in Social Media Right Now