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Today Awareness Networks released insigts and prognosis from 34 business and marketing leaders as part of its 2012 Social Marketing and New Media Predictions report. It's written for marketing strategists, brand marketers and consults and those working in agencies. I think you'll find it interesting to say the least and perhaps even prespecriptive.

Here are a few of my thoughts...

On the evolution of social business:

Companies of all sizes will need to transform their business and existing infrastructure, and reverse engineer the impact of business objectives and metrics. Businesses will have to embrace all of the disruptive elements, such as mobile and social technology, in a new, cohesive organization that is focused outward and inward.

On the subject of Big Data:

No organization, no matter how large or small, is ready for big data from a process, collaboration and innovation perspective. Business Intelligence (BI) is still siloed. In marketing, insights usually are still driven by community managers. Companies will need to centralize BI to feed every aspect of the business – marketing, product, innovation and customer service. Only then will BI help companies transform themselves into true social businesses.

On the migration from monitoring to intelligence:

Capturing information and transforming that information into actionable, measurable insight... This type of insight will not be marketing-driven but market- driven.

On the importance of mobile marketing:

Businesses need to understand if and how their customers use mobile devices, then provide a holistic experience that does not change for users as they navigate websites and mobile applications.

On the challenges facing marketers in 2012:

Recognizing that they are part of the problem. Today, much of what we see is still traditional marketing disguised as social media. It's still 1-to-many. And, by default, they have created a marketing silo in their organizations. Marketers need to connect the entire organization and put everyone to work for marketing. We need to move to an era of 1-to-1-to-many.

The report also features predictions and observations by some of the industry's most progressive thinkers and doers:

Errol Apostolopoulos (@errol33)
Jay Baer (@jaybaer)
David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz)
c.c. chapman (@cc_chapman)
Robert Collins (@RobertCollins)
Stacy Debroff (@MomCentral)
Jason Falls (@JasonFalls)
Laura Fitton (@Pistachio)
Paul Gillin (@PGillin)
Neil Glassman (@neilglassman)
Matthew T. Grant (@MattTGrant)
Doug Haslam (@DougH)
Tim Hayden (@TheTimHayden)
Bill Ives (@BillIves)
Taulbee Jackson (@taulbee)
Pamela Johnston (@PamJohnston)
Debi Kleiman (@drkleiman)
Lora Kratchounova (@ScratchMM)
Mark Lazen (@marklazen)
Mike Lewis (@bostonmike)
Marc Meyer (@Marc_Meyer)
Steve Murphy (@SBCMarketing)
Jonas Klit Nielsen (@Klit_Nielsen)
Michael Pace (@mpace101)
Andrew Patterson
Dave Peck (@davepeck)
Erik Qualman (@equalman)
Steve Rubel (@steverubel)
David Meerman Scott (@dmscott)
Samuel J. Scott (@samueljscott)
Jim Storer (@jimstorer)
Michael Troiano (@miketrap)
Ekaterina Walter (@Ekaterina)

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