5 New Year's Resolutions for the Social   media Professional

Do you work in social media? Then at least one of these New Year's Resolutions should be on your list; commit to making these changes in 2012! To be in the social media industry means staying on your toes, set small goals that will lead to big changes.

I Will Stop Automating

Tell yourself that you will make it personal this year and stop automating. This means getting rid of that Twitter DM(direct message) that everyone openly finds annoying and hates. A DM to new followers basically starts your relationship off on the wrong foot. You are saying, "You are just another Twitter follower in a sea of other Twitter followers so enjoy this meaningless message from me!"

There is nothing wrong with connecting your social network accounts so that one post goes to all; I mean we are only human! We can only do so much! But how you share shouldn't be limited to one update, each social media account has a different type of community. Invest time in managing your social media presence.

I Will Use More Video

As social media professionals, we understand the power of YouTube, now is the time to finally start leveraging this tool. Reach the world with video, YouTube offers this type of traffic:

• Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day.
• YouTube's demographic isn't limited with the average age of viewers ranging from 18 to 54 years old.
• YouTube reach over 700 billion playbacks in 2010 which means users are watching videos over again.

Start a podcast or a YouTube channel with your own professional content.

I Will Push Mobile

The hottest holiday gifts for 2011 were smartphones, tablets and e-readers. You should recommend going mobile to all of your clients. Whether it is developing social media campaigns through mobile applications or adding social media integrations to mobile sites.

Your mobile site should look and function as closely as your website to ensure that you are making those mobile connections.

I Will Monitor my Social Footprint

If you haven't developed this yet, start out with baby steps. Build your Google Alerts with Google Analytics, it is a very user friendly tool that helps build your ROI through social media. 

A few other great tips for getting started: I love using bit.ly to shorten my links because it also shows clickability rates for each link you create. This allows you to monitor if your updates or posts are bringing enough of a call to action for users to actually make that click.

Use PostRank, a free social engagement aggregator that brings you data in real time. The tool was recently acquired by Google; a move that I am hoping will only strengthen PostRank as an analytics resource for the Social Web.

I will be a Person!

Sometimes we spend so much time in the digital arena that we lose touch of our personal selves. This year, promise that you will commit time to getting out in the real world. Utilize your social communities as the middle man for facilitating new relationships outside of the Internet. Literally be social.

The irony in social media is how alienating it can sometimes be. Remember to experience every moment even if that means putting down your smartphone. I know that sounds agonizing, but I promise we can all do with some social media separation every now and again.

Have other ideas, share them with me! And cheers to a new social you in 2012!