Social media outlets are constantly changing. A trend that is here today can be gone just as quick tomorrow. The next latest and greatest site is probably still being conceived in the basement of a couple of nerds in Small-town, India. There are, however, a handful of trends that should continue over the next year. I will paint them with a rather broad stroke in this forum, but here are five trends to keep an eye on.
1. Location Services
People are feeling more at ease with checking into businesses, and because of this, location-based marketing is becoming a popular tool. Part of the reason is the plethora of attractive brand offerings. The bigger factor is that consumers have recognized the magnification of safety features being offered, including privacy options that will block anyone from seeing your location. A few of the entities to keep an eye on in the coming year are Gowalla, Facebook Places and Foursquare. Knowing these will help you target the interests of prospective customers, and help influence their buying choices by offering promotions just for checking you out.
The people search industry is also adapting to location. Let’s say you want to search for a specific person (from these free people search sites), if you haven’t entered any location then the service will automatically take your IP and assume you’re looking for someone in your city/state. Most people are searching for people from their area. This is just one example of how location is disrupting one market. How is location disrupting YOUR market?
2. Video Marketing
We all know that YouTube is the premiere site on the internet for user-generated videos to be shared. Other platforms are beginning to appear and will continue to grow over the next year, and these will be a bit more focused on business and somewhat simpler to market. They will also be a lot less crowded, which is a big plus. Some of the sites expected to take off are Dailymotion, Vimeo and Viddler. These sites will focus more on live streams or direct from a blog streaming.
3. Marketing Through Text
With the explosion of mobile devices and mobile business, small businesses are investing more and more resources into marketing for mobile phone users. Companies like Enowit and MessageBuzz will even offer a free demo account if you want to test drive their services.
A good place to start is by adding a mobile widget to your website. This would allow you to gather cellular numbers automatically and create initiatives directed at certain regions.
4. 4G Bandwidth
3G is already a thing of the past. If you haven’t already gotten on the 4G bandwagon, then you are being left behind. Using this higher bandwidth will be a necessity in 2018. This higher speed allows marketers to reach potential clients faster, and with faster download times. You may as well incorporate this higher bandwidth into your budget now; you are going to need it.
5. Reviews
Websites such as Groubal.com, which focus primarily on customer reviews, will be very prominent on the social media front. Consumers not only want their concerns to be heard; they also want answers. Sites such as Groubal combine complaints and file petitions to the appropriate companies insisting on answers to the complaints. Heading into 2011, you should have a definitive plan on how to respond positive as well as negative feedback.
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