Throughout the year we’ve shared some of the weekly trends and happenings in the PR and social media industries in our Friday Five series. In reviewing 2012, and looking toward 2013, we wanted to offer a resource you could use when pulling together your public relations and social media strategy plans for 2013 and beyond.

Welcome to our 13 part series: What will be in 2013. What do you need to prepare for in 2013? We’re here to help you out.

We encourage you to join the discussion in the comments!

2012 Was The Year of Pictures

Throughout the year we’ve joked that 2012 has been the year of pictures (with words on them). All joking aside, this year images have become an integral way that we tell our personal and brand stories online.

Consider the evidence:

• Facebook bought Instagram and went public.
• Shortly after, Facebook revamped its mobile application, putting the focus of the feed on images.
• Adoption of the image-centric social network Pinterest exploded, up 1,047% from 2011.
• Journalists started to turn to the occasional GIF file to tell an important news story.
• Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook all revealed profile and brand pages that placed a greater focus on images as the centerpiece of storytelling.
• Twitter launched Aviary, its version of Instagram.

While not all images in 2012 have had words on them, it’s safe to say that it’s been a great year for the digital image.

Heading into 2013: Just the Facts

Throughout the last five years, new tools and channels have been brought to the marketplace. Mobile phones are ubiquitous, social media is an understood platform for communication and where we consume data is rapidly shifting. Here’s where we stand today:

Devices Used

• More than 50% of the U.S. population now uses a smartphone.
• 22% of adults in the U.S. own a tablet device.
• 77% of Americans own a desktop computer. 52% of those people also have a smartphone.

Social Networking Has Been Widely Adopted

• 171.8 million people in the U.S. participate in social networking. That’s 55%!

Where People Get the News

According to a recent U.S. Pew Research study:

• 55% of people living in the U.S. said they’d watched news on television the day before.
• 39% read the news online.
• 23% read a print newspaper.
• 18% read a magazine.
• 33% of Millennials, specifically those under 30, get their news from social networks.
• 13% of those under 30 read the newspaper, or the news online.

The Rise Of The Millennials

The Baby Boomers are no longer the largest portion of the population, their kids are.

• Baby boomers make up about 26% of the population.
• Millennials make up about 30%. (2010 census.)

2013 will bring change in the way people communicate and expect to be communicated with. This will be a year for creativity and innovation. Now that we have the tools- how will we use them?

Check back over the coming weeks for the rest of our series. Next up: New SEO rules will make online content more genuine.

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc