Expert: How social will change in 2013 for brands

First, no more surveys - which may or may not hold relevant information. Surveys have been a long-standing online resource. But brands have struggled to get honest feedback; customer reviews, however, are on the increase and newBrandAnalytics expects review feedback to take the place of surveys this year.

"Many of the more progressive brands have already decided to eliminate surveys and instead focus on social feedback as their primary source for customer experience information," commented Kristin Muhlner, CEO newBrandAnalytics.

P.S. Don't look for star ratings to make a comeback. Online reviews are also expected to take the place of unreliable star reviews for products and services.

Meanwhile social analytics are expected to help brands get a holistic view not only of how campaigns and brand image is faring but of how employees are performing.

Finally, local is the new black. And not just the city or suburb where a business is located. Beginning this year, brands will begin looking at 'local' as everywhere because the Internet makes it easier to communicate and stay in contact with consumers around the globe.

"Tip O'Neill said 'All politics is local.' It's no surprise, all customer experiences are local, too," said Muhlner.

Rather that launched different campaigns for every city in the US or the Western Hemisphere, for example, Muhlner expects brands to localize social reviews and use alerts platforms to deliver more relevant messaging to shoppers.

Tags: newBrandAnalytics, social marketing, social marketing tips, social marketing trends, social networks