Without doubt, Pinterest is having a very good 2012. We may only be 6 weeks into the year, but it is the new, exciting thing that everyone is talking about - reaching a new peak in the last 24 hours with the arrival of Mark Zuckerberg on the service. The real question remains though; is Pinterest going to still be relevant in twelve months time?

An article yesterday in TIME, reports than 83% of the site's users are female; reinforcing the site's raison d'etre; appealing to the female 18-34 demographic through images arranged around user 'passion points' such as fashion and design.

[For the record, it is this user generated 'passion point' focus (e.g. I love aubergines. If you love aubergines, you'll love all these pictures I've found/stolen of aubergines) which undoubtably is the primary driving force behind the service (alongside jupming the gun on Facebook Open Graph intergration). It is not popular just because people love pictures.]

Ironically, this stat does not play out in the UK, where the majority of its 200,000 memebers are actually male; indicating a lot of people (possibly with marketing or social media job descriptions) are checking out what all the hype is about. If that's the case, is Pinterest really approaching the so called 'main-stream tipping point' or is it still in the turbulent 'what is this and why do I care?' stage of its online existence?

Answering that question isn't easy but we have one friend to help us make an informed decision; history.

Quora

Quora was the darling of 2011, tipped as the hot new social network ready to take the world by storm by providing insightful and incredibly useful information and help via crowd sourced responses to questions.

As the below traffic graph shows, Quora got big 12 months ago, but by March, everyone stopped caring. It's spent the last year trying to get back to those dizzying heights (which ironically, weren't even that high) and whilst it is showing traffic growth, this is probably mainly from people with too much time on their hands.

What does this tell us about Pinterest?

Well it tells us that social media is pretty good at hyping things that aren't very good. Although we knew that already. Quora at a fundemental level was little more a Yahoo Answers for people who aren't going through puberty. Maybe in the fullness of time, Pinterest will be understood to be little more than Tumblr for people who don't like gifs.

Chat Roulette

Chat Roulette was the darling of 2010, tipped as an incredibly exciting new way to bring video communication to the masses. Or, as it turned out, an incredibly efficient way to look at lots of penises. From it's vertigo-inducing high, Chat Roulette is still exactly the same site, with a lot less traffic. This has been brought about by the rise of multiple copy cat sites such as Omegle, a series of social improvements from Skype followed by its sale to Microsoft, plus the arrival of the Google+ Hangout. Oh, and the penises.

What does this tell us about Pinterest?

Chat Roulette still pulls in 6 million visitors a month, but purely on the basis of its previous fame. It reveals how having something 'new and exciting' doesn't really mean anything if you fall prey to cheap imitators, and then get out-muscled by the established competition. Perhaps a Flickr, Tumblr or even Twitter, couldn't kill Pinterset before it takes off, with some new added functionality?

Myspace

Or should that be [__]space? (or whatever abomination that the once King of social networks has currently morphed into). Myspace, despite being a pioneer of the new social network world, fell victim to one of the oldest business problems there is; being really really awesome, thus becoming very very popular, thus encouraging someone else to make something better that completely destroys you.

Myspace however, grew from nothing, and at a pace that at the time, was unheard of. It was, after MSN Messenger, the first 'you must have one of these' things to hit the internet. And, lets not forget, people thought it was amazing, innovative and fun. And, even more importantly, lets not forget that it was all of those things.

Now days, Myspace looks a bit like a band that had a smash number one album and is currently selling copies of their sixth studio full length from the back of a second-hand van.

What Does this tell us about Pinterest?

It tells us that even if Pinterest does take off, it doesn't mean that it automatically becomes a 'big player' in the social media space. Whilst Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are hardened established players, who are likely to only have problems in the long-term, pretty much every other social network has nightmares about being the next Myspace. Bebo, Friends Reunited and more recently, Gowalla and Orkut have suffered the same fate. It's important Pinterest (and marketeers!) don't fall into the trap of deciding that because it exists and has some popularity, that its going to change anything, or still be as popular further down the line.

Conclusion

Pinterest is not just a flash in the pan. It will establish itself as a vibrant social network; but it isn't going to become a huge deal or a 'must have' anytime soon (just a glance at the impact of Google+ since its launch should tell you that). But, looking at its traffic, the conversations about it, and its spread outside of the online world of 'marketeers and social media experts' to 'normal' people, Pinterest is without doubt, going to be with us for a while.

There is no denying that football and social media have become friends in a big way in the last few years. From the ability to talk to your heroes through Twitter (even if they never do reply...), to supporting your favourite teams by ‘liking’ them on Facebook (and inevitably heading to the wall to complain with your fellow fans when you lose 4-0 at home to Grimsby), football and social media are an almost perfect fit.

Football is undeniably the UK’s biggest and most popular sport and yesterday was a big news day. The impact of Harry Redknapp’s acquittal in the afternoon, which was then bizarrely followed by the resignation of Fabio Capello the same evening, can give us an insight into exactly how powerful the impact that social media now has on the sport. From his resignation at 7:25pm through to midday today, Capello’s resignation from England attracted a huge 43,000 tweets in the UK alone. Collectively, those tweets had a reach of 113million; enough to reach every single member of the UK adult population twice.

Before long, official reactions from players and pundits were being thrown around newsrooms and studios, not by live links, but through quoting twitter streams. Current internationals Rio Ferdinand, Jack Wilshere, Kyle Walker and many many more, all had their say, and were widely reported. It almost seems strange to think that only two or three years ago, this level of contemporary opinion and reaction was only regularly available in an obituary.

This fundamental change is the power and influence of football within social media speaking. As of January 2012, the twenty UK Premier League football clubs have a total of 49 million likes and 3 million Twitter followers; a staggering amount of influence. Bear in mind that even these huge figures exclude individual players; stars like Wayne Rooney have nearly 3 million followers of their own. Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo has the 12th most popular Facebook page full stop (that’s a higher position than Starbucks).

Football clubs have already started to get to grips with this new online world. From Marseille’s decision to crowd source their kit design from Facebook, to Arsenal’s 360 degree panoramic ‘tag yourself’ ground photo, impressive and very cool campaigns and tactics are beginning to take off (Bayern Munich’s social media disaster last month aside). With Euro 2012 and U23 Olympics football this summer, and only 2 years until the next World Cup, the relationship between football and social media won’t be doing anything but getting bigger and better for a long time yet.

They say that there is ‘a day’ for pretty much everything; and they are probably right. Today however, is a day that is close to my heart, as it is the international Community Manager Appreciation Day (#CMAD).

CMAD takes place on the 4th Monday of January as a way to recognize and celebrate the efforts of community managers around the world using social media to improve customer experiences. The event began in 2010, and encourages people to send sincere ‘Thank You’ notes to their online community managers.

So, in the spirit of #CMAD, I have listed below the four key characteristics that I think make a top community manager, and why. Have a different opinion? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter.

Social

A community manager, despite the title, doesn’t just manage; they also build communities. Whilst a broader team is required to align the community with business objectives and create a detailed strategy, it is the community manager’s job to create a social environment where individuals matter, yet there is still a sense of togetherness. Successful communities may a brand at their centre, but encourage real conversation between individuals, sharing opinions, experiences and knowledge. A talented community manager knows how to incubate small communities and grow them into large and powerful groups, opening up new digital opportunities such as crowd sourcing or brand advocacy and super fan prgorammes, whilst also continually shaping the conversation without being intrusive.

Helpful

It doesn’t matter whether your Facebook page, Twitter feed or blog is officially ‘customer service’ focused or not; users will come forward with their queries, questions and complaints regardless. A community manager has to be helpful and friendly and always ready to respond, as well as knowing when issues need to be flagged or escalated. Customers and users do appreciate when social media listens and quickly resolves their problems, especially when combined with a friendly and helpful demeanour.

Honest

Everyone’s Mum has told them at least once that honesty is the best policy, and when it comes to social media, that certainly remains the case. When a community does not trust a brand’s words, or feels they are hiding information or ignoring problems, things will never end well. Transparency and honesty are therefore key. A community manager shouldn’t hide away from challenging issues and questions, but always respond, even if just to point the user towards an offline contact. Moderation is also important, but negative or critical comments should only be removed if they are personally abusive. Finally, if the brand makes a mistake, be honest and own up and apologise to the community; being exposed for lying will probably destroy any good work you’ve ever done for good.

Instinct

Often forgotten about, but incredibly important aspect of social communities is the ability to measure. Whilst there are plenty of tools and insights to help get a handle on the performance of a social media asset, a good community manager is so plugged in that their own instincts and analysis are just as important. They should know almost immediately if the natural levels of engagement and buzz either rise or fall, without having to look-up the actual figures, and they should instinctively know whether something will excite or bore. A manager who truly understands the brand and the community is a golden and invaluable asset, who can help maximise the success across the entire spectrum of digital strategy.

So by now we've all seen So Solid Crew's hilarious members list, which has done the rounds on the internet today. But, Wikipedia edits tend to only last mere minutes before being forgotten forever. So, in tribute to amusing Wikipedia hacks, here are 7 of the best.

N.B. Make sure you go fullscreen or you won't be able to read some of them.

1. Barry Chuckle
2. Stuart Nethercott (ex Spurs Footballer)
3. Mario Kart Wii
4. Gary Oldman
5. Dennis Wise
6. Snoop Doggy Dog's song 'Gin N Juice'
7. Batman

This is already very long, so I'm skipping the tedious introduction so you can dive straight into the interesting stuff. Do let me know your thoughts & opinions via the comments, or through Twitter.

Television and social media keep getting closer and closer together, but just like some sort of drawn out romantic comedy, everything still remains a bit awkward. Twitter TV, where people tweet-a-long whilst watching isn’t even a new phenomenon – people have been texting-a-long with their friends for the best part of a decade. It is however much more powerful now anyone can see what is being said, and big-hitting shows tend to dominate the top trend list week after week.

However, I haven’t yet seen Twitter make or break a TV show. Both PanAm and Life’s too Short looked like possible candidates towards the latter end of the year, but the first was panned by literally everyone for being awful, whilst the second split everyone down the middle. However, Ricky Gervais’s surprise return to Twitter shortly before the latter debuted is probably not a coincidence...

However, TV remains one of the most intriguing and exciting digital arenas for one key reason –its still so far away from where it will end up. Streaming TV on demand is now mainstream, thanks to things like iPlayer, but the entire industry remains stuck in the old delivery model. If you look at the leading new TV content providers, they are the biggest technology companies in the world (Apple (AppleTV/iTunes) Amazon (LoveFilm/Unbox), Google (GoogleTV/YouTube) plus Netflix, Hulu et all) and these giants are all heading on a collision course with the world of TV in a big way.

For example, Google, could serve up its own adverts next to shows that you watch on demand, much like on YouTube. iTunes could replace your DVD collection with an online library, accessible from anywhere in the world. Set-top boxes could be replaced with home entertainment & gaming devices made by Microsoft or Playstation. By the end of 2012 however, the most likely outcome is that things advance, but remain broadly similar; this is an ongoing journey that will most likely take a number of years to thrash out.

The iPad was generally regarded as ‘meh, it’s a big iPhone’ when it was launched in 2010. Less than two years later, it’s sold an unbelievable number of units, and tablets are the next big thing. There are still unanswered questions though, and brands remain thoroughly perplexed in how to best exploit a unique piece of hardware in a way that isn’t identical to a normal online or mobile campaign.

However, tablets are here to stay, and are a huge boom market. Unfortunately, all of Apple’s competitors can’t seem to get it right. In August, HP began selling their 'iPad killer' TouchPad at a huge loss to shift unsold stock, before pulling out of hardware altogether in one of the biggest strategic business retreats since IBM. In December, both the Dell Streak and the BlackBerry Playbook were quietly announced as failures by their individual companies. However, even more suddenly, Amazon then popped up and announced the Kindle Fire.

2012 will see the Kindle Fire become a success. The reason is that it doesn’t compete with the iPad head-on, but operates as a cheaper, smaller, different sort of tablet. It’s trying to create its own market of consumers rather than muscle in against Apple. And Amazon are masters of creating a new market so why bet against them?

Everyone loves a good social media #fail and 2011 provided us with plenty. One of the most noticed was ‘Kenneth Cole #Cairo’, but in fact, apart from having someone in charge with a lack of experience and understanding of the platform, it wasn’t really that bad.

Much worse was Weinergate, in the ‘what an appropriate surname’ story of the year, Ragu failing to understand how ‘engagement’ and ‘debate’ is not the same as ‘spamming insults to people’
and Qantas, who somehow failed to foresee that running a huge Twitter promotion the day after crippling strike action was totally stupid.

The winner of the 2011 #fail award however is undoubtedly Go Daddy, whose CEO posted videos of himself killing an elephant and a leopard to YouTube, causing a massive PETA and environmental activist campaign against the company, causing huge number of customers to leave. Not content with this, in December, Go Daddy helped write & then actively support controversial US Congress bill SOPA (which opponents claim would lead to ‘censorship’ of the internet). This resulted in another huge campaign which caused 21,000 customers to jettison the service in just 24 hours. With an attitude that looks like they actually want to lose customers, Go Daddy are clear #fail champions of the year.

That's it. I could go on; E-commerce, Video, AR, Blogs, Protests & more were all on my initial list but the holidays are short and there were mince pies to eat as well as write. But I'm sure I'll write about them here soon, Check back soon for a Top 10 Digital Brand Campaigns of 2011 post.