When a new year begins, many of my nightlife clients wonder what’s in store for the upcoming 12 months. After all, with technology moving faster than ever, who could have foreseen the takeover (then falter) of daily deal sites a year ago?  Or the ability of Google+ to take some of the social network pie? Here’s hoping that 2012 brings nothing but good things to the world of Internet marketing for the nightlife industry.

Please note: These are my own non-psychic predictions and not the opinions of Nightlife Marketing Resource, The Creative Complex or anyone else!

Prediction 1:  Daily Deals Will Grow your VIP.

In 2011, there were tons of daily deal websites being formed.  And although you saw many deals for spas and restaurants, you didn’t see too many nightclubs taking advantage of the new form of marketing.  New Years Eve 2011 was really the first time we saw multiple nightclubs on www.giltcity.com posting their daily deals for VIP and general admission tickets.

Warning:  Properly managing your daily deals is a MUST!  I can write a whole different article on this, but the biggest thing is collecting the data so you can bring that person back.

Prediction 2: Google + Will Pick Up Some Momentum…But Just a Little.

Ultimately, I haven’t really been able to say what Google+ will do for the nightlife industry.  Right now it’s full of early adopters, probably not your “nightclub” type.  I think we’re all really just trying to figure this thing out.  But we can’t ignore it either, this is Google we’re talking about.  But they are going to have to do a better job at marketing itself if they want to get to Facebook’s 800 million users.

Prediction 3:  Mobile will ALMOST be where we want it to be.

Why is it that in Europe and Asia they are so much more phone savy than we are?  You can pay for ANYTHING on your phone over there.  I predict nightlife marketers will adopt mobile sites for their websites and make it a lot easier to make reservations or get on the guest list over mobile apps.

Mobile RSVP confirmations picked up the pace this year, and it was the first time for me that when I handed my phone to a door man and I didn’t get a blank stare. There’s hope yet. I think we’ll see wider adoption of mobile RSVPs and more effective apps in 2012.

Prediction 4: We’ll Really Latch on to Venue Driver.

With more high profile nightclubs using Venue Driver to power their guest lists, vip reservations, ticketing, staff performance and customers, we predict this will be a break-through year for the company out of Las Vegas.  How venues will integrate this with their current website and marketing will be something more and more marketers will take the plunge to find out.

Prediction 5: We’ll Nail This Twitter Thing.

2012 saw an EXPLOSION of venues and promoters jumping on to Twitter to promote their events.  But now the space is very crowded, and venues will have to invest some time in applications like Social Bro, HootSuite, TweetDeck and other Twitter management programs.  Ultimately, you’ll need to convert one of your promoters to work in-house for you to handle your social media.  This is a job for ONE PERSON (who is well managed)

What are your predictions for this year?