2012: The Year the Murdochs Joined Twitter

It may be less than two weeks into the new year, but while some people are struggling to stick to their resolutions, and others have given up completely, social media has ignored the excesses of the festive season and continued doing what is does best, with a few surprises thrown in for good measure, of course.

One such surprise was the news that controversial media mogul and unlikely social media guru, Rupert Murdoch had joined the ranks of the Twitterati, - or as he put it “...the brave new world of Twitter.” But while Murdoch may have thought his appearance on one of the world's most popular social sites would have brought him some publicity, the reaction to the creation of the @rupertmurdoch Twitter account on the 31st of December last year, was more of a collective gasp of confusion and more than a few stifled giggles. But before we knew it, the account has been verified by Twitter, and Murdoch had been given a Klout score to boot - 75 he is currently regarded as a Thought Leader and is influential about such topics as the media, hacking, and of course, AMC's simply awesome TV series The Walking Dead.

While Murdoch's initial tweets were some what of a let down for being not only grammatically incorrect, complete with staccato references to his family life an praise of his own company, such as the now infamous: “Have just. Read The Rational Optimist. Great Book.” and “I LOVE the film "we bought a zoo", a great family movie. Very proud of fox team who made this great film. ” Murdoch's finest hour on Twitter was when he uploaded a somewhat ill-advised tweet criticising, above all things, the number of holidays that British people take, saying : “Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country.” While this Tweet was quickly removed, thanks in part to the apparent efforts of his 'wife', @Wendi_Deng, who quickly responded with: “RUPERT!!! delete tweet!”, followed up with: “EVERY1 @rupertmurdoch was only having a joke pROMSIE!!!”

But Deng's 'promsie' proved to be pretty hollow, as it soon emerged that the @Wendi_Deng account, while verified by Twitter, was a fake, and after a swift explanation and apology from the perpetrator, the account was closed.

As Murdoch continues to Tweet, and Tweet to his heart's content to his enviable 122,779 followers, and yes, I am one of those followers, about everything from the US Presidential election to the state of the US education system, to his 46 Tweets have tried but failed to cause the Twitterstorm that they could have.

But tweets from one of the world's richest and most controversial media moguls, what else does 2012 have to offer social media? At the time of writing, a number of changes have come about such as Search+, Google's new drive to integrate their social network with their SERPS, and their latest attempt to outdo Facebook, and the news that social media is now and has been more popular online than, er, shall we say, internet smut?

So, what else does social media have for us this year? Only time will tell, but if you have any ideas of tips, please contact us and let us know.