How will your employees be using social media in 2012?

Better yet, what can your business do to capitalize? I’ve got answers to these questions after the jump.

Let’s start with more social networking (duh!)

Avi Savar writes here in Forbes that, next year, your employees will be constantly be broadcasting their whereabouts to their friends and your competition:

Yes, geo-location has been around a while because the technology exists, but marketers have not yet taken advantage of it. To date, geo-location has been all about the “check-in.” Nobody really understands the value of the check-in yet, but if you think about it, the check-in is a social transaction, but soon will become a monetary one.

How will that work? Look for marketers to motivate and change behavior through geo-location tools and social gaming.

And when your employees return to the office, they’ll be on Facebook. That is to say, they’ll be on Facebook more.

Would it surprise anyone to think Facebook will become the overlay of the Internet experience? … Facebook is what Ma Bell once was, a utility with which few people could conduct their daily lives. It’s almost impossible to not use the web these days, and it’s becoming less possible to use it without Facebook.

How can your business benefit from employee infatuation with Facebook?

Consider using Facebook as a way to elicit constructive feedback from employees. Or maybe as a way to recognize your star employees. It would be kinda cool for an employee to be featured as the Employee of the Month on the ABC Company’s Facebook fan page. The employee could then “like” it. Others could like it. Customers could comment. Nice way to get recognized, yes? Nice way to motivate other workers too. For more on how employee recognition on social media can be good for business, check out this article from Curt Finch at Mashable.

And don’t forget, if you haven’t done so already, make it a New Year’s resolution to create a social-media policy.