Where will social media go in 2012 and beyond?

Just a year or two ago, it was common to see "emerging media" as an alternative buzzword for social media. At the time, it made sense. Facebook was still skyrocketing in popularity, and new social networks were popping up every week.

But now that 2012 is here, it's safe to say that social media is no longer "emerging" and has fully arrived. And while some analysts claim the social media phenomenon is just a bubble waiting to burst, new Facebook statistics from TechCrunch show that the growth may have slowed, but it hasn't stopped.

According to their numbers from comScore, Facebook had 15 million new visitors in 2011 compared to almost 50 million in 2010. This highlights the fact that social media is now in a gradual growth stage, and not the exponentially fast growth stage it had been for years.

An article in ReadWriteWeb dove into this a little deeper, gleaning that the statistical focus will shift from the number of users on various sites to the engagement on those sites. "How much time?" will replace "how many users?" as investors, speculators and pundits look to see who's dominating our online lives.

The main reason for this is that social media across the board, especially Facebook, has more or less reached a saturation point. Echoing many people's complaints when Google+ first hit the scene, most users don't want to add to the long list of channels to keep track of. They are set in their social networking ways, and are now looking for new apps and devices to supplement those social networks.

For marketers, this means we have to move beyond where people are at and start looking at how they are using those social media channels. Regardless, it's good to see that social media continues to become more and more integrated into our daily lives.

Video Post: TechnoDad previews CES

TechnoDad follows up his Tuesday CES preview post by looking at a few products that will be displayed there. A wall outlet that has USB plugins ($30). Second: NuScribe - a convenient 2 in 1 touch screen stylus and pen ($12). Third: NuTouch Gloves - type, tap, swipe, and scroll in the cold ($10).

Innovative Recruitment Tool: The Social Interview

There's a lot you can learn from looking at a person's Facebook profile. What was their last status update? Are there incriminating photos? What brands and causes do they like? And most tellingly, what do their friends say about them?

Now, recruiters at R/GA have a tool to answer that last question. The digital advertising agency has created an app that places the interview right on a candidate's Facebook profile. As part of the interview process, hopeful interns have three questions posted to their profile for their Facebook friends to answer. Take a look at the video below to see it in action:

I'm not quite sure if this would make me more nervous or not. After all, it's the living, breathing embodiment of the peer review, and positive feedback from an outside source is invaluable. However, leaving the fate of your internship in the hands of your friends is quite the trust-fall.

Either way, it's one more way that recruiters are leveraging social media for their employment needs. 

Wordless Wednesday: Which startups will rule 2012?

What to look for out of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show

Pete Cashmore, founder and CEO of Mashable, wrote a good CES trends story last month on CNN.com and you can read it here. TechnoDad's take on this year is that it will indeed be the 'year of the tablet,' as more and more consumers move away from their desktops and even their laptops. Tablets and smart phones are the future of computing, evidenced by Pete's reference to voice control (Siri on the iPhone 4S for example) possibly taking off this year.

Of course the big unknown is what Apple might do within the TV realm beyond their present minor presence with the Apple TV. We'll have to wait a while for that. And of course, I'll be reporting on what we see at CES in a few weeks. Here's to a technology-rich 2012!