January is the time of year filled with people looking into crystal balls, at tea leaves or to the stars to predict what will happen in the year to come. Although we aren’t fortune tellers, Stanton Street has identified a few web trends that are worth watching in 2010 and beyond.
Social Interaction
The momentum of social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, will continue throughout the year. Organizations will increase their efforts in this area. At first, the efforts are likely to be hasty due to the hype surrounding the media and the relative lack of available experts. Over time, the requirement to show measurable results will push organizations to optimize their social media campaigns with a focus on measurable goals.
Social interaction will take place in the following ways:
Publishing
The number of sites that publish updates through social sites such as Facebook and Twitter will increase significantly. Currently, less than 5% of traffic to websites is coming from links posted on social media sites. During 2010, that number could increase to 15% with a concentrated campaign.
Monitoring
Organizations will be better equipped to monitor various social media sites for posts that mention their keywords. Sophisticated monitoring will enable better interaction. Monitoring will go beyond simple mentions of an organization’s name and will include keywords that can result in more interactions.
Interacting
In addition to direct responses to social media mentions of an organization, interaction will become more sophisticated to include contests and suggestive selling. For example, monitoring systems could be configured to watch the Twitter public feed for people talking about a purchase they are planning to make. The software could respond with a link to a coupon or advice.
Mobile Access
While the iPhone and similar devices have improved the mobile web experience, thousands of owners of BlackBerry devices and other phones still require simplified mobile versions of websites.
Users will increasingly expect to be able to access and interact with key areas on websites through their mobile devices.
Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Online marketing will continue to consume larger portions of comprehensive marketing budgets. Money will continue to shift from traditional advertising to online marketing. This shift will be driven by the unique capability of online marketing to show measurable results.
Web
Web based promotional campaigns will be targeted based on knowledge about the user. As soon as the user reveals something, that information will be used to modify the presentation of content. This information will be stored and used during future website visits.
Keyword Advertising
The value of keyword advertising will continue to be better understood. More organizations will start campaigns, and organizations who are running self-managed campaigns will seek the advice of experts.
E-mail marketing campaigns will continue to play a key role in keeping users engaged. E-mail based campaigns will become more targeted based on information learned about various users. Where appropriate, e-mail campaigns will be supplemented or possibly replaced by social media campaigns.
Social
Social media will be used to generate an online personality that will gain online “followers” or “fans.” These users will represent a valuable list of customers, partners, employees, etc. Targeted marketing messages will be delivered through social media to these users.
Measurable Results
Perhaps the biggest shift will be caused by continued pressure on budgets. This will compel organizations to take a close look at the return on investment for all activities. A well-planned analytics implementation will help decision makers accurately evaluate the return attributed to all online activity.
Robust and near real-time reporting will be used to track all online efforts. Data collected will be increasingly detailed and complex. Data analysis of all online efforts will play a large role in developing and fine tuning web strategies. Goals will be based on strict measurable return on investment targets.
