In this digital age, very few business industries and sectors are remaining unchanged. Internet marketing is one area that is so constantly evolving, that trends are formed over the space of mere months, rather than years. As I have expressed previously, simply staying on top of these trends and new technologies and tools is more of an occupation than a hobby.
I will use this blog as a vehicle to express my views on current trends in internet marketing. My viewpoints on trends come from observing international blogs and commentary in this area, as well as future directions of Google and my client base. Here are a few distinct trends that I have noticed emerging since late 2010.
Social Media Communities
Online communities, including social media, are now literally everywhere there is access and common objectives. Even social networks, such as facebook, blogs, You Tube and Twitter, are interconnected themselves, pushing and pulling content across various channels. Social Media is now being worked into advertising campaigns as a standard means of advertising.
However, it’s important to note that we are now seeing a trend toward building attentive communities, rather than just frequency. So, while Google Adwords and advertising will always remain an important part of a marketing campaign, companies and individuals now prefer to achieve listings higher on organic search results, driven through relevant content. And then, once the audience is captured, there is a strong emphasis on keeping an attentive community beyond the initial click. This is where blogging and video blogging comes into play.
Internet TV
It is a fact that more searches are currently conducted via You Tube than Google, indicating an enormous increase in popularity and demand for Internet TV. Internet TV provides a fantastic means of interacting with an audience, so that your clients feel a personal connection to you, rather than simply a business identity. As the world grows more digitised, people are seeking to do business with people, rather than big businesses.
Company CEOs, entrepreneurs, and individuals of interest will create their own You Tube channels for regular broadcasting of notices, tips, information, and other content of interest to their communities.
Furthermore, this demand for internet TV will promote wide scale adoption of internet TV services across a multitude of devices including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smart phones. Users will be able to watch streaming video content on your TV while controlling it with a phone/tablet, contributing live to shows with layered contextual Tweeting, voting and interacting with TV Commercials.
Social Metrics
Along with the increase in social media will be an increasing need for measurement of what communication is working. This includes Click-through-rate on Google AdWords, open rates on enewsletters and response on blog posts.
However, it will also become important to learn the social habits and sphere of influence of your audience, and this is easily achieved nowadays thanks to social media. The goal is to discover your audience’s ‘from’ and ‘to’ path to your web properties.
The key points to measure are:
- What your audience wants?
- How much time or clicks does it take from your audience to go from your initial source (eg your blog) to the intended web properties (eg website, online shop, etc)?
- Where does your audience come from and how much does it cost (eg from Google AdWords)?
In upcoming blogs, I will continue to explore and report on internet marketing trends. Please feel free to post your opinions and thoughts on those I have discussed in this post, or certainly others you have discovered.