No we're not taking about video games. Rather, game-like qualities are emerging within a number of social apps in your browser or mobile device. From levels, to leaderboards, to badges or points, rewards for participation abound. It's likely that the trend will have to evolve given how competition for our time and attention this gaming creates. Primarily, gamification has been used in consumer settings, but look for it in other areas from HR, to government, healthcare and even business management. Perhaps negotiating your next raise will be tied to your position on the company's digital leaderboard.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20.html

More and more TV shows are including social media as part of the show’s make-up. The X-Factor now allows voting through Twitter. And Sky Sports’ Goals On Sunday has each presenter’s Twitter handle under their name encouraging interaction and questions throughout the show to ensure that the topics discussed have been suggested by the viewers. Keep an eye out for companies using Facebook or Twitter to gain leads for their business. If you are a brand, you might want to start promoting your Twitter and Facebook pages wherever you can and work social media leads into your game plan for 2012.
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-5-social-media-trends-for-2012-0107644

Bloggers will find success writing posts longer than a tweet but shorter than a traditional column/post. Every day it is easier to publish content for mobile devices (look at the potential of Onswipe) and the next leap will be authors who optimize writing for mobile audiences. There may be value to that English major yet.
http://www.quora.com/What-will-be-the-top-5-trends-in-social-media-for-2012

A great example of branded content, which is a mash-up of advertising and entertainment, is Red Bull’s Art of Flight movie. It is essentially a snowboarding movie, backed by Red Bull and heavily endorsed with their brand logo. Nowhere in the film do they try to sell you any of their products but the association is so strong that if you love the film you’ll almost feel an instant connection to the brand. Branded content comes in many forms but video, audio, graphics and blogs will be the crème de la crème as brands offer the consumer something more meaningful than competitions and promotions. Your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube fans will love this and they can be tied into a lead generation funnel simply by subscribing to your platform.
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-5-social-media-trends-for-2012-0107644

In much the same way that Google has defined a system that rewards those who produce findable content, there is a race on to develop a system that will reward those who wield the most social influence. One particular player has emerged, Klout, determined to establish their platform as the authority of digital influence. Klout's attempt to convert digital influence into business value underscores a much bigger movement which we'll continue to see play out in the next year. To some degree everyone now has some digital influence (not just celebrities, academics, policy makers or those who sway public opinion). But for the next year, the cult of influence becomes less about consumer plays like Klout and more about the tools and techniques professionals use to "score" digital influence and actually harness, scale and measure the results of it.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20.html

Lastly as we roll into 2012, watch for a more social approach to solving business problems through a sort of micro-economy. Kickstarter gives anyone with a project, the opportunity to get that initiative funded by those who choose to (and patrons receive something in return). A crowdsourcing platform for would be inventors called Quirky lets the best product ideas rise to the top and then helps them get produced and sold while the "inventor" takes a cut. Air BnB turns homes into hotels and travelers into guests, providing both parties with an opportunity to make and save money. These examples may point to a new future reality where economic value is directly negotiated and exchanged between individuals over institutions.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20.html

Facebook’s now introduced frictionless sharing, whereby actions on the social network are automatically shared without you having to hit a button (for reference, check out the Guardian’s Facebook app where it tells your friends what you’ve read), 2012 will see more and more APIs based on social gestures. The ease of this function is there in the name – frictionless. You don’t have to do anything at all for this to move to your networks. Love it or hate it, frictionless sharing is here to stay.
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-5-social-media-trends-for-2012-0107644

Tony Bingham, president and CEO of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), is leading the discussion about defining social learning. “Social learning is learning with and from others, often — but not always — with social media tools,” Bingham explains. “Social learning is a powerful approach to sharing and discovering a whole array of options, leading to more informed decision-making and a more intimate, expansive and dynamic understanding of the culture and context in which we work.”
http://mashable.com/2012/01/21/social-learning-trends-2012/

As social media goes beyond mere blogging and photo/video/music posts—it’s swiftly moving to become a platform to integrate an “experience” into the marketing schema. Transmedia is essentially a means of telling a story by using surrounding context to determine the meaning for a participant.
http://socialmediatoday.com/johnserpa/414660/social-media-and-2012

The Trader Joe's business model -- fewer options increases purchases -- will be more prominent. Instead of receiving 5 daily social deals and 5 retail auctions, users will increasingly turn to digital wallets to keep track of their social deals.
http://www.quora.com/What-will-be-the-top-5-trends-in-social-media-for-2012

People are going to want to selectively edit their social history. Tools empowering users to delete photos, clean up their wall and other actions to help protect someone from an employeer are a goldmine.
http://www.quora.com/What-will-be-the-top-5-trends-in-social-media-for-2012

It was pushed back and forth for a while but now it’s safe to say that social media is here to stay in a business perspective. The figures quoted above are expected to grow significantly in 2012. Don’t be surprised if you see a lot more social commerce (f-commerce) sites as opposed to simply branded pages where you interact with your favourite brands. Fans will soon become consumers and the sooner you make the leap, the better. A tool like Hubspot allows you to create a form to capture social media data, ensuring you turn those ‘likes’ into leads very easily. People are spending more time on social media sites and less time on the actual web as everything they need can be found within sites such as Facebook.
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-5-social-media-trends-for-2012-0107644

Social search does exactly what it says on the tin – it searches social media platforms just like search engines do the internet. What makes social media so good is that it’s full of opinions, ideas, and suggestions. With companies developing sites helping you share purchases with friends, or flag a holiday destination and ask for recommendations, social search is going to be a big player in 2012. Make sure you’re interacting with your leads. If they are social searching, make sure you are too.
http://www.business2community.com/social-media/top-5-social-media-trends-for-2012-0107644

Ideas, opinions, media, status updates are all part of what makes social media a powerful and often disruptive force. The media industry was one of the first to understand this, adding sharing options to content, which led to more page views and better status in search results. What comes next in social sharing is more closely aligned with e-commerce or web transactions. For example, Sears allows a user to share a product or review with their networks directly from the site. Sharing that vacation you just booked, or recommending a product, or service from any site to a social network is where sharing goes next. We probably don't know what we are willing to share until we see the option to do it.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20.html

For a glimpse into how social will further integrate with "real life," we can look at what Coca Cola experimented with all the way back in 2010. Coke created an amusement park where participants could "swipe" their RFID-equipped wristbands at kiosks, which posted to their Facebook account what they were doing and where. Also, as part of a marketing campaign, Domino's Pizza posted feedback — unfiltered feedback — on a large billboard in Times Square, bringing together real opinions from real people pulled from a digital source and displayed in the real world. These types of "trans-media" experiences are likely to define "social" in the year to come.
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/12/six_social_media_trends_for_20.html