Facebook's march towards monetisation, the rise of mobile and image-sharing sites, the struggles of Google+ and the spat between Twitter and Instagram.

2012 was nothing if not an eventful year in social media, dominated by the major platforms establishing and reinforcing their boundaries as they chase consumer and advertising dollars.

So what will 2013 hold for social? More monetisation, more mobile, more images, more personalisation and less playing nicely between the big players.

But before we launch into a new year, let's look back at some highlights from 2012.

Facebook

Facebook had a huge 2012. It launched a less than spectacular IPO in May, but passed the spectacular milestone of 1 billion active users in October.

Ever since then it was been scrambling around testing out different monetisation models across its vast ecosystem including Facebook Gifts and Sponsored Posts.

Some complained that Sponsored Posts were killing the reach of regular (ie unpaid) posts, an accusation which Facebook largely ignored.

However the biggest coup might have been purchasing Instagram for a cool US $1 billion in May, which will now be sharing its user date with Facebook and third parties.

Twitter

2012 was the year Twitter matured. The micro-blogging platform aggressively sought to regain control its content after shutting down API support for third-party apps in July. This meant Twitter was ending the free ride for a lot of businesses that relied on its data.

It worked, with Twitter subsequently passing Facebook in mobile advertising revenue.

Twitter also beefed up its own offering, allowing advertising on its new-look profile pages, promoted tweets and most recently photo-filters, which led to a much publicised fued with Instagram.

In November US President Barack Obama's tweet following his election victory became the most retweeted/liked tweet of all time.

Instagram

The superstar social media platform of the year, Instagram seemingly came out of nowhere to dominate the image-sharing space.

The platform grew by a spectacular 1000 per cent in six months, then was acquired by Facebook in May.

Since then Instagram grown emboldened, ending the year cutting support for Twitter Cards and casually announcing it would now share its user's images with Facebook and third parties, including advertisers.

How this will affect Instagram's user base in 2013 is anyone's guess. We suspect not greatly.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn brought a 'steady as she goes' approach to 2012, growing steadily with a steady stream of updates including new profile pages and endorsements that neither revolutionised the user experience nor rocked the boat.

It appears to be working a charm as LinkedIn remains the platform of choice for professionals.

Mobile

More than half of Australians now own a smartphone, and one in five own a tablet. This means 2012 was the year brands realised (or should have realised) they must have a mobile-friendly site or app to tap into these dollars-on-the-go.

Mobile-review sites like Yelp and Foursquare, as well as the new Facebook Nearby, are making the mobile experience, and advertising, more targeted and personal.

The rest

YouTube had a good year, with a new look and Gangnam Style becoming its most ever viewed video.

Pinterest continues to grow, and the recent launch of business pages indicates the platform will be expanding its offering for brands in 2013.

Google+ continues to grow but struggles with user engagement, while MySpace and Flickr are aiming to make a comeback in 2013.

Whatever 2013 holds for social, SMK will be there to cover it. Happy holidays.

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