The snow may have melted away but the festive feeling has definitely arrived in the Mine Digital office!

In a year which has seen us recruit three new members of staff and the addition of two new babies to the Mine Digital extended family (namely little babies Agata Solecki and Orlaith O’Donnell), it’s been a pretty good year all round! Add to that the extensive list of work we’ve managed to get through and we can’t quite believe we managed to fit it all in!

This year, Mine Digital has been kept busy with a long list of website designs and redesigns; numerous clients seeing the benefits of our Search Marketing and email marketing campaigns, and social media pages designed and tailored to our clients’ needs. Not to mention the numerous events we have attended throughout Scotland!

And in the world of digital marketing, 2012 saw the good, the bad and the ugly:

In addition to significant improvements in its Analytics and changes in Adwords, perhaps the biggest event in marketing this year was Google’s highly anticipated launch of Google+ which was hailed as the biggest contender to the Facebook throne. Initial reactions were positive with users flocking to add people to their inner circles, but after a delayed Business Pages launch, momentum seems to have dropped somewhat and 2012 will tell if Google+ can live up to the hype.

Perhaps the most well known and well respected marketer in the world, Apple’s Steve Jobs this year passed away leaving behind a legacy of products which have defined a generation. The news shook the global community, Jobs having revolutionized how we live, work and play through technology. His biography has just been announced as Amazon’s most popular selling book of 2011.

Whilst Smartphones from Apple and Android soared in sales throughout the year, Blackberry – having been popular due to its reliability and security – lost major customer loyalty when its systems shut down for a week in numerous countries across the globe. Meanwhile Adobe Flash succumbed to the power of Apple by ceasing all development of mobile versions of Flash.

After introducing promoted tweets, Twitter established itself as a major advertising platform as it increasingly saw its popularity sky-rocket. Twitter’s popularity was never more evident than its part in the various political protests and the coining of “Hurricane Bawbag” during Scotland’s stormy weather in early December.

And after a turbulent year of ever-increasing user base but backlash from users regarding interface changes and rumours of planting negative press on rival Google, Facebook neatly tied up the year with the mostly well-received launch of Facebook Timeline.

2011 was a hectic year (and these were just the highlights) and 2012 looks set to be just as eventful!

But for now our tree is up, the Christmas songs are on, and momentum is building up for our Christmas night out!

A very merry Christmas to one and all the best for 2012!

From all at Mine Digital.