Aligned Marketing Blog

#1 Googlenation

Google continues to expand its online dominance.

In early December Google announced five new services:

• Near instant voice translation – Language translation via mobile phones. This is all new but Google expects to have the major languages available in 2010.
• Customized suggestions based on location – While you type a search term into you mobile phone Google will pre-populate terms based on your location. That can come in handy if you’re in an unfamiliar location and looking for a restaurant, theater or retail store.
• Product search with local inventory – See who is selling what near you and whether or not they have any in stock right now. Amazing!
• Near Me Now – Android owners will get local results ranked by user ratings.
• Google Goggles – Also for Android owners, Goggles is a visual search. Watch video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhgfz0zPmH4

Google docs, think free Office applications, and Google Wave expand their reach. The applications are free. Doc programs are very good and Wave is an excellent collaboration tool. Once you start using them, it’s hard to stop. They’re that good.

Real Time Search includes social media in search results. If something happens in the world Twitter may be a better source of news than CNN, which was the case following the Iranian election.

#2 Video explodes

YouTube is the second most searched online property behind Google and in front of Yahoo. Whether you want to learn how to use software, film a videoblog, repair a deck or bust through writer’s block, there’s a video that can help you.

Smart marketers will use online video to get their message out. More online video libraries, premium content subscription services, and increased advertising bandwidth will result in more online video ads.

New entrants will join the club currently dominated by YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler, MetaCafe and Hulu.

#3 More Mobile

In a September 2009 survey, eMarketer respondents anticipated an increase in mobile ad spending to $593M in 2010, up 43%! As more companies attempt to engage an always-on-the-go population mobile applications and investments will explode.

Personal Apps, such as the one I’m building for iPhone users, will automatically configure your website, blog, etc. for mobile readers. This will become a high-growth business and eventually incorporate the already popular Apps that allow mobile users to interact with Social Media, our next trend.

#4 Social Media

Twitter’s popularity may have peaked in 2009.  2010 will be the year more companies learn how to make Twitter, and other social media, work for business. If you disagree, that’s fine. Maybe you can explain why Google has invested so heavily in Local Search?
Customer service won’t shift entirely to Social Media but smart companies will understand that a quick post on Twitter to an unhappy customer that solves their problem is a competitive advantage over phone trees, automated messages and being placed on interminable hold. Reliability will have to be addressed but the speed and cost of social media already give them the upper hand.

#5 Convergence

The offline worlds of television and movie playing devices, for example, and the online will converge. You can already buy DVD and Blue Ray players that connect directly to the web and provide access to movie trailers, games, and search. Televisions with access to NetFlix, Blockbusters and other online video providers are coming this year.

#6 Cheap

Google Docs, iPhone App, Twitter and YouTube can all be useful business tools and are free, as are blogs from WordPress, Blogger, Blogspot and many others. Through Skype I have video conferencing capabilities through my Mac and unlimited calling for $30.00 a year. What’s your phone bill? Do you have video conferencing capabilities in your office?

Picture editing software, customer relations management programs, email marketing tools and a myriad of other productivity tools are available online and many of them are free or ridiculously inexpensive.

#7 Mish-mash

Copywriting, search engine optimization, tools that add more leverage to social media will all continue to grow in their importance and utility. Websites that can't be found are just pointless expenses and sites that lack purpose and focus are not much better. More companies will catch up with those facts. And writing that was exceptional for a brochure may not be adequate for a website, which works best with strategically placed keywords throughout.

What did I miss?

Steve