Happy New Year Everyone!! I trust you all had a most enjoyable and restful holiday season!
I have been reviewing many bloggers’ predictions of what they expect will happen in the Internet Marketing realm in 2008 and I wanted to weigh in myself on some of the trends I anticipate will heavily influence how we market on the web over the next year and beyond! This is not an exhaustive list, but a few Internet Marketing trends to watch for over the next while
1. Continued Rapid Growth of Niche Social Media Channels - 2007 was a breakthrough year in Social Media technology with many new stars such as Twitter rising to the forefront to claim their stake in this rapidly evolving Social Media frontier. I had predicted that many niche social networks would emerge in 2007 to target particular audiences and market segments. In reflecting on the Internet Marketing industry, there were social news sites like PlugIm, Marktd and Sphinn that grew in popularity and prominence during 2007 and will see continued growth through out 2008. The growth of niche social networks have marketing professionals salivating over the huge potential for connecting with industry-specific audiences in these social media channels. I had posted this list of niche Social Media Sites compiled by Jack Humphries a couple months back. I anticipate this list will more than double by the end of 2008! I expect web companies will continue to invest more time and budget in their Social Media Marketing efforts.
In this Social Media storm, one of the challenges businesses will continue to face is being able to keep track and effectively syndicate their content through all these Social Media Channels. In early 2007, Jack Humphries launched Web2Submitter, which allows you to mass syndicate articles and blog posts to many of the top Social News Sites. I also came across a new company, LifeStreams that allows you to consolidate your Social Media content from one place. You can create one full adjustable profile for your many Social News accounts right from the LifeStreams dashboard. Personally, I have not used the tool enough to fully comment on it’s quality, but I do anticipate technlogies like this will continue to grow in 2008 in order to better streamline our Social Media Marketing efforts.
2. Facebook Marketing will gain further prominence - It would probably be an understatement to say that Facebook had a BIG year in 2007 as they shifted from a College Student dominated Social Network to a household name! In 2007, early adopters were setting up industry groups and networks within facebook in order to connect with their targeted audience. This will continue to grow as Internet Marketers launch their "How to Market on Facebook" guides. A friend of mine actually is working on a project like this now that should be launched early in the New Year. Facebook enables businesses to set-up customized business profile pages to be used for branding and marketing purposes. These Profile pages will have strong implications for Affiliate Marketing as Affiliates promote their Affiliate products through these business profile pages. I experienced the viral potency of Facebook in 2007 as industry friends of mine dropped the name about our new online marketplace, ESalesGuru.com, in one of the Internet Marketing Facebook groups which led to a nice stream of traffic and sign-ups.
3. Video Marketing will dominate in 2008 - Video Marketing certainly grew in prominence in 2007, but nothing compared to what we will see in 2008! Many Internet Marketers, such as Rich Schefren, published a Free Web 2.0 Marketing ebook (at the end of the year) that heavily endorsed the power and revenue-generating potential of Video Marketing for web businesses. With the rapid growth of YouTube traffic in 2007 in addition to the emergence of Internet Television sites like Joost, streaming video is dominating the web and marketers are quickly scrambling to capitalize on this exciting channel. You ube is obviously the most popular video sharing site on the web, but expect a significant increase in the number of video sharing sites coming on the scene in 2008. Businesses like TubeMogul that provide the ability to syndicate your viral videos to many Video Sharing sites will grow in popularity in 2008 as they seek to simplify video syndications for users and businesses.
In addition, Video Marketing will become more interactive. Adobe has recently launched a Video Flash technology that enables viewers to actually click on links in the Video. This will have huge implications for Affiliate Marketing!
4. Mobile Media Marketing will continue to grow at a meteoric pace - While we certainly saw some significant growth in Mobile Media Marketing and Advertising in 2007, I still think there are a lot of web companies ( including myself) that recognize the huge potential in Mobile Marketing, but stil do not have a clear understanding of how to implement an effective Mobile Marketing platform. I anticipate this will change in 2008 as new technologies emerge that will easily convert standard websites to ones that can be accessed by any mobile device.
As the IPhone (launched in early 2007) increases it’s market share and widens it’s distribution net, surfing the mobile net will become more mainstream. It is anticipated that Mobile Advertising in 2008 will reach $5Billion (up from $3B in 2007).
If you are still wondering how to make your website more mobile-friendly, take a read of this informative post from Robin Good!
5. Business Blogging and MicroBlogging (Twitter and Jaiku) will continue to see some serious growth - Business Blogging will continue to become more lucrative as more and more people look to new media (Blog / Social News Sites) for industry-specific insights and content. I think of my own evolution with blogging. Two years ago, I thought it was a waste of time. Now, I have a Feed Reeder full of key blogs that I follow closely in my industry. I look to these bloggers as experts in the field and the best place to find current industry perspectives. Also, there will be an increase job opportunities for freelance bloggers as more businesses seek to establish blogs or improve upon their existing ones.
Web Businesses will also focus more time in 2008 on better understanding how to connect with their audiences through microblog solutions like Twitter and Jaiku. I am still a Twitter newbie, but can see the serious potential for connecting with my own target audience. Expect Twitter to be purchased in 2008 or at least have a couple big players present juicy offers!
There are a few other possible Internet Marketing trends that are bouncing around in my head. I am going to let them simmer a bit more so I can post them in somewhat of an intelligent manner!
Here’s to a great year for your Web Business in 2008 - All the best!
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