#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?

 

 

A number of people I've talked to recently don't understand all the fuss around social media. What is it? Why is it growing so fast? Do I/we need to be engaged?

Briefly, here's my take:

People use social media for three primary reasons:

1. To acquire knowledge, which is why content is so critical and key to both your personal and your professional brand. This is also the driver behind the proliferation of blogs.
2. To see what other people are doing and buying, which is the basis of sites such as Digg, which is really a recommendation service.
3. To connect with other people, which is a basic human need and the foundation of Facebook’s (and other's) success.

The proliferation and success of social media is driven by three factors:

1. Trust: Many surveys have documented that people trust “someone like me” more than any other source. Moms trust Moms and car nuts trust car nuts, it's how we humans are wired. For the first time our peer’s opinions are more accessible to us than the wisdom of experts and propaganda of sellers.
2. Online access: No matter how unusual or obscure the topic, we know we can find a lot of information - details, perspectives, and context - online. At any given time, there are probably thousands of people online discussing the merits of various screw drivers, for example.
3. Confidence: It’s all about how we enter the decision-making process. We are less willing to make decisions without a great deal of information. Since the information and recommendations are relatively free, it would be nonsensical for us to do otherwise.

You and your company should be a part of social media for many reasons but here are my top three:

1. We all know the power of the network, of networking. It is the best way to gain employment and, as mentioned, the primary way we now learn about products, services and what other people, people just like us, are doing. Social media allows you and your company to expand your network exponentially for little cost.
2. Your customers, peers, neighbors, superiors, and relatives (etc.) are already part of social networks so it's a good idea for you to join the conversation, express yourself and, frankly, monitor what's being said about you, your company, your products and services, as well as those of your competition. Why would you not want to listen to the most important people in your life, which on a personal level is family and on a professional level is your customers.
3. If growing your business, circle of friends and contacts, and expanding your influence are important to you then you need to be part of the social media revolution, because it's where all the people are.

Steve

 

 

Creating an ad like the professionals is not easy but it's not as hard as you might imagine. To learn how watch this video:


For more information or to discuss your video or ad needs, call me at 800-707-9150.
Steve

We've all heard about YouTube and the massive number of visitors it's collecting. The driving forces are easy to comprehend. Watching an entertaining video and learning something at the same time is simply more fun than reading. As the availability of low-cost video production technologies continues to decline, bandwidth expands, desktop editing tools become easier to use, and new sites are built to attract and share videos with the masses, video marketing, in my judgement, will only grow.

If you're still publishing hard-copy epistles to your products, you may want to rethink your approach. Video can help you share  information about your company, your products, your ideas and YOU in a quick and entertaining fashion.  Video is an excellent way to promote your profile online that everyone should be using.  

If this all sounds great to you then you need to check out Tubemogul, a relatively new player but already a powerful force in the video sharing arena.


Tubemogel is one of those great sites that allow you to make one post and have it automatically shared with other social media sites,such as VImeo, Viddler, Break, MetaCafe, iTunes, Dailymotion, Hulu, and, of course, Google and Yahoo Video (There are hundreds). The reason we love these kinds of sites is because they save us time. Right? We make post once on Tubemogul and it posts our video to multiple sites. With one click you can have an enormous online presence and, potentially, dominate the search engines.

What's super-cool about Tubemogul are the analytics. You can quickly see how many times your video was viewed, how long it was watched, when people stopped watching, streaming quality, viewership by geography, new versus returning viewers, time of day your video was viewed, and much more.

If you're interested in video I encourage you to go over to check out Tubemogul. Oh, and of course, they have a free version if you'd like to take them for a test drive.

If you need help producing a video, well, then you can call me. ;)

Steve
800-707-9150

Over the coming weeks I'll be writing about online video and posting more videos. I'll offer tips, product insights and how-to techniques to help you begin using one of the fastest growing tool in social media. YouTube is the second most searched site online and other video platforms, such as TubeMogul, Vimeo and Viddler (and others) offer unique functionality that I'll help you understand and leverage for your business.

My first tip, however, is for Pure Digital Technologies (www.theflip.com), the makers of the Flip family of video cameras. Sorry readers. I have the Flip Ultra HD. It's great little HD camera, I get about 2 hours worth of video of one battery charge and it's easy to use. Shoot the video, plug the camera into my computer via the USB port, and begin editing. Smooth, like butter.


But "easy to use" doesn't mean the camera operates itself or that its user don't need some tips of shooting quality videos. Most Flip purchasers need some education, some coaching. Like everyone else, one of the first things I did after buying my Flip was visit YouTube. I watched videos on operation, editing, lighting and sharing videos online. Some were good but most were poor. That's when I found myself deeply disappointed in Pure Digital and my Flip camera.Why didn't it come with pre-loaded videos on operating the camera and editing videos?

Why were they making me scramble around the web searching for instructional videos? They must have professional quality video's and great "use" tips? Right? I mean they invented this great little camera so everyone can shoot great videos. Alas, there was nothing on their website, little high-quality stuff on YouTube or the other video sites! It's a darn video camera, put some "how to" support (training) on the camera.

There must be some great reason for not including instructional videos with the cameras but, for the life of me, I can't think of any justification. It probably is just a matter of cost and profits but, boy, what a chance they had to really impress their customers, enhance their brand, and show people why they want to shoot more video.

Pure Digital is a good company and they make an excellent product, I just think they stopped short of their potential. Am I being fair? What do you think?

Steve
800-707-9150