2012 has begun; last year social media played a significant role in our daily lives. Despite of being just 8 years old, Facebook is one of the web’s most powerful and influential forces now. Social networking sites are slowly replacing personal email usage till an extent of use type. The only reason people are still hanging around with personal emails is to have an account on social networking sites where email ID is a statutory requirement.
Social networks need their users
Social networks are being used as marketing tool  for different purposes. The marketing companies use these sites to gain information and to find out how people feel about their products. In today’s heavily saturated social media platform, a new social media with a ‘unique take’ on things are being launched every weak. Users play a significant role,as services live or die by their numbers and activities.Facebook, being the market leader with the record number of membership, exceeds the population of all but 2 countries in the world. Recently Facebook has rolled out Sponsored story ads within its home page’s “News Feed” which allow brands to reach users, whose friends have interacted with their pages with a like, a comment or any other action.
IPO will increase the need to keep user busy
Facebook redefines the entire web and it proudly boasts  800 million members. By the mid of 2012 Facebook is expected to come out with its IPO which would raise the stakes in large amount. With this comes a dependency on users and an extra incentive as well.The bigger news than the IPO is that Facebook could be looking at an evaluation that exceeds $100 billion as expected. There are more than 800 million users on Facebook and that figure is expected to reach 1 billion this year. With all the new roll outs and IPO , Facebook has your interests at heart to a greater extent.
Privacy issues
The internet has given its users a platform to share data. There are certain limits to how users control the availability of photos they post on their site. So, Privacy plays a prominent role for Facebook users, it in fact defines more of quality today. Before sharing any picture on Facebook make sure who all should be able to view the particular picture. The tagging feature had its significance with the main change being an opt-in preference in your privacy settings that will enable you to approve any posts or media you have been tagged in,before the tagged items appears in your profile. With all this options, Facebook is making easier for users to control their Profile and how it could be seen by audiences. Previously you had to visit the privacy setting page to control the visibility of your profile, now you are able to customize about who gets to see which parts of your profile.
User power
The Users play a significant role in social networks as few services do listen and react to the user complaints. Twitter, for an example, Introduced “dick bar” last year and immediately knocked it off as many people found it annoying.Facebook made an initial attempt for Timeline in 2007 and by itself removed. Instead of complaining about social networks, it is better to make your thoughts very known with the new changes implemented. Though we can’t expect sudden changes, user opinions do play an important role in case of success of social media.
Bring on the Next challenge
The main thought this year will be how to manage multiple networks and services on web. Google+ was a new  entrant  and a solid competition to all  other social networks.  It depends on the users,how they make a bid for time,energy and online interactions.
Ultimately users play an important role  in the success of Social networks.    Mr. Zuckerberg needs all his friends out there on Facebook to be supportive and embrace the upcoming changes in a positive way.
