Amplify’d from www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk
10 Technlogy and Internet predictions for 2011
2010 was the Social Media explosion. Instead of focusing on search engine optimisation (SEO), in 2011 we’ll see social media optimisation becoming a priority as businesses continue to see ’social’ close the gap on referrals to their sites. That’s not to say you can ignore SEO (in fact if you don’t know what you are doing you should enroll on our SEO Training course in Brighton, Sussex) but that you will need Social Media to compete in business.
Complete strangers will start coming together to benefit from massive bulk-buying schemes, and advertisers will find a way to capitalise on this trend. Google has already recognized this trend and a deal to collaborate was turned down by Groupon earlier this year. Only two years old, Groupon is now a one-billion dollar company with hundreds of employees.
Groupon is leading the way but many more brands will emerge in this sphere over the coming year.
Near field communication chips are nothing new but we predict that their time is now. Your mobile phone will become your credit card. The NFC mobile-payment application is currently in trials in the United States, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and a few other countries, with transportation ticketing as a primary use. Google’s Nexus S already includes this technology, and rumours are that Apple’s new iPhone will follow.
Whilst Foursquare and Facebook pages are nothing new, people are becoming more comfortable sharing where they are indiscriminately with complete strangers. It is becoming just too attractive to be able to “check in” to unlock discounts and participate in competitions for the “checked in”.
In the UK there has been an explosion of digital TV services being delivered over a Broadband Internet connection , including BBC iPlayer, BT Vision, Virgin’s On Demand service, Sky Anytime+, Seesaw and YouView.
The drive for digital TV has been driven in the UK by the release of YouView, timetabled for launch by mid 2011 and is expected to be the ‘next generation’ of Freeview. TV schedules can go backwards as well as forwards in time. This will be the hottest technology shift during 2011, with Google TV soon to arrive in the UK.
I know this is in the news all the time, so much so that we are all getting a bit blasé about the threat. Sooner or later a huge social network – probably Facebook, will accidently share everyone’s information with everyone. Already with a simple hack, everything listed in a person’s “Basic Information” section is visible, no matter what their privacy settings are. This information includes networks, sex, birthday, hometown, siblings, parents, relationship status, interested in, looking for, political views and religious views.
With Social Networking exploding advertisers have only just scratched the surface of what is possible. Despite the complex issues of privacy social networks such as Facebook will find ways of capitalising on the fact that users are sharing huge amounts of information. We are not the consumers – all the information these sites have about us is a priceless commodity.
With the introduction of a camera and mic to the IPad or Google android tablet video conferencing will become ever more popular. Prices will come down and tablets will be as commonplace as laptops.
Nintendo Wii started the ball rolling and took the world by storm down to the motion-controlled gaming interface which put players inside games for the first time. Now Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 takes centre stage, your body is the controller. Kinect games and apps use the camera and microphone to work out what you’re doing and what you’re saying, and to interpret your commands in the appropriate fashion.
Again not a new concept but this trend will accelerate throughout 2011. Every device, from your television, phone or fridge can have a web address. Home automation will allow lights, energy heating and more to be controlled remotely. The technology is now widely available and affordable. A bit worrying though – what happens when your internet connection gets disconnected?
Monday, December 27, 2010
2010 is a wrap, moving forward where would you like to see technology go in 2011?
Sunday, December 26, 2010
5 Explosive predictions for Mobile in 2011
Amplify’d from mashable.com
5 Predictions for Mobile in 2011
1. Tablet Mania Hits a Fever Pitch
2. Photo Sharing Will Expand to Video
3. HTML5 App Explosion
4. Flash Still Won’t Matter on Mobile Devices
5. We Will See a Verizon iPhone
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Your 2011 Social Media Strategy, Review 2010, Plan 2011 then go...
Amplify’d from www.squaremartinimedia.com
Reviewing Your Social Media Strategy To Ensure A Successful 2011
Honest Benchmark – It starts with an honest review of where you are at in Social Media. I am assuming if you are reading this post you are one of the many businesses which implemented Social Media this year. If I was meeting with you in person I would ask if you followed through with your Social Media strategy and goals this year. So many businesses jump into Social Media with great plans and a minimal strategy only to decide to abandon Social Media because they realize it takes more than just setting up a few profiles. Even some of our clients at Square Martini Media after creating a detailed Social Media strategy discovered in the process that Social Media is a big of a commitment and had to reconsider moving forward. Social Media takes someone within a company or a firm like ours actual hours, time, and money to make successful.
Review Analytics – Use Google Analytics or something similar to review your site traffic for the year. If you are using Social Media as a marketing tool to bring traffic to your hub (website or blog) you should clearly see what areas within Social Media are working and which one are not. This is a great way to discover opportunities while having some reality checks at the same time. What worked and what can be improved on? Are there areas within Social Media that you are spending a lot of time yet not getting the desired results? Make the decision to change or abandoned what is not working and focus your resources on new strategies or expanding what is working.
Blogging and Facebook Business Pages – Are you creating new content? Did you commit to a certain amount of posts this year and did you follow through? Have you adjusted your posting calendar for both your blog and Facebook business page this year and have your reviewed the results? Are there certain topics, themes, or discussions that seem to be more successful than others? For many businesses their blog can be the majority of the traffic for their site. Take some time and discover the posts that are still driving traffic to your website and how you might expand on them for 2011.
Social Media Profiles – When is the last time you updated your Linkedin Profile? And speaking of profiles have you seen your Facebook profile lately? Many business owners set up a profile and never look back. Business goals and messages change, make sure your message is congruent with both your personal and business brands. Block out time to review and make needed adjustments to your main Social Media profiles.
Show me the money! – Let’s talk about sales! If you are using Social Media to create sales make sure to review your sales and see where they are coming from. Is the time, effort, and money you are spending on Social Media bringing new sales to your business? I have to make it clear that I am assuming you are tracking your sales. Not kind of tracking or broadly tracking, but really making sure that you and every employee is making every possible effort to identify where each and every sale is coming from. I have talked to many business owners this year who swear they are tracking their sales. Typically when I dig deeper and ask more questions about their sales they realize they are not tracking as well as they thought. This is one of the biggest mistakes made in business today. You must have great sales tracking to know if Social Media or any marketing strategy is working. If you cannot clearly identify sales from Social Media it is time to adjust your tracking methods.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Klout or Empire Avenue to determine your Social Media Influence? Maybe Both? You determine...
Amplify’d from www.socialtimes.com
Empire Avenue ties users’ virtual share price to activity on the site, reach and engagement on external social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and blogs. The more active and influential a user is on the site and around the web, the higher his or her virtual share price.
The social network basics are covered — users can connect with others who share the same interests, follow those they consider thought-leaders and check out businesses. Then it gets interesting, as activity on Empire Avenue and other social networks determine users’ share price and their level of influence. (Within minutes of joining the site, some of my shares were snapped up by, I assume, a speculator. I had yet to connect any Facebook friends, Twitter followers or blog activity.)
Pearltrees : Organizing your web experience. LOVE it! See my LIVE PearlTree below!
Amplify’d from mashable.com
Quick Pitch: Pearltrees is a new visual way to organize content on the Web and connecting people’s interests.
Genius Idea: How do you organize the web on the browser? Since the time of Netscape, we’ve been using bookmarks and a wide series of folders to manage our favorite websites and web pages. Perhaps in some instances you use something like Google Reader to organize your articles and favorite things on YouTube, but the result is the same: it’s a messy affair.
Pearltrees is nothing less than a reinvention of how we organize the web. The service provides a completely unique and visual experience to saving your favorite websites, organizing what you find interesting, and even seeing what others are saying about specific web destinations.
Pearltrees takes a time investment to make it useful. Once you’ve spent some time with it though, it’s easy to get addicted. It’s more intuitive than bookmarks and provides a social context comparable to Delicious. It’s still in Alpha too, meaning that you can expect it to evolve significantly as its team better understands what users want and need.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Top 10 Social Media songs! I LOVE this!
Make sure you watch The New Dork, it's great!
Amplify’d from mashable.com
Tracking Santa!
Amplify’d from www.youtube.com
Norad Santa Tracker 2010