Web & Business Predictions for 2010
Knowing What Will Work in 2010 Can Be A Game Changer
Wouldn't it be great to know beforehand what will work for your business or not. What technology you use, what marketing approach, what web agency to hire that can bring more business. Half the battle really is being informed, and keeping your ears open. Knowing where to put your ears to is also key. Here are some great Proverbs that I hold dear:"Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others” (Proverbs 12:15)
“Plans go wrong for the lack of advice; many advisers bring success” (Proverbs 15:22)
“Get all the advice and instruction you can, so you will be wise the rest of your life” (Proverbs 19:20)
“Plans succeed through good counsel; don’t go to war without wise advice” (Proverbs 20:18)
With that said, here are some of the predictions I am making...
- Facebook is Gonna Dominate. Most of our lives we surround ourselves with friends and family, and those we care about. Facebook allows us to do that. They will make a breakthrough that will make businesses really want to invest their efforts here. Not for marketing sakes, but for building long term relationships.
- Its About Relationships. We do business with who we know, like and trust. The foundation of a good relationship. Its not only about price, its whether your customers like you enough to pay a little extra.
- Real Value & Price. Along with relationships, there are really needs to be an obvious "no brainer" value to what you are bringing to the table. People are searching for value, not just price, and how you 'relate' to them is going to determine whether you have a loyal raving fan.
- Building Loyal Raving Fans. Obama won the Presidency because he built a loyalty by winning people over, and giving them the tools to do it. 2010 is going to be about empowerment. Power to the Raving Fans.
- Twitter Alone is Dead. Twitter needs to integrate itself even more, just like it did with LinkedIn. More of that will help this company start monetizing on its service. How you say? That depends on the data that its able to collect from its users, and and how they can utilize the data they get from tweets, will make Twitter a viable company worth keeping.
- Video Goes Even Further. Right now, its still pretty challenging for the novice user to do video, even with all the services and technology that we have now. Its not so much that, its really about what the video can really say. So content, creative approach, and purpose driven videos are what's going to stand out. We have so much content out there, it just needs to get better.
- Authenticity Redefined, True Morality is Pursued. Your authentic self may not be a good thing. So maybe its time to change all that, and look at who you really represent. What are your values, your morals, that define you? By being so, you can be authentic, but not authentically masquerading yourself to be someone you are not.
- Niche It Even More. The Internet continues to grow, finding your niche can be hard, so make it your own and define one, and gather those needed around you.
- Locally Focused, Yet Worldly Open. Local business is great, your friends, your neighbors, the guy at your church will be able to keep his or her business open. But lets be smart and choose what we keep local. It needs to be viable, profitable and efficient. When its better to outsource it somewhere else, exhaust your options and think long term, outsourcing is not for everything or for everyone.
- Locally Smart & Effective. To go further from the previous prediction. Knowing what you have locally is key. So brick & mortar stores and business really need to scream and shout and get noticed. Whether more involvement then ever on the web, with social media, and truly building relationships should be a priority.
- Partnership Becomes An Even More of a Necessity For Success. You can do it alone, but it won't be easy, you'll be much stronger if you find other people who can help and back up your vision. Find them, build them, and unleash them.
- Push For Multilingualism. The whole world is out there. China alone is a huge market, its time to get out of our comfort zone and tap into world markets. Lets stop being consumers to other countries, its their turn. To do that, we need to be multilingual. This is gonna be a great year for translators.
- Mobile Is The New Netbook. I love these smaller laptops, but quite honestly, what I can do with it, I'd rather have it on my mobile device. Laptops are suppose to be a mobile office medium, if I can't put hogging applications on it, then what's the use in getting these small netbooks. I like my laptop screens big. I see Mobile phones getting faster, smarter and true office productivity devices. Maybe I am wishful thinking on this last one.
Thanks WebFugitive for the inspiration. You can view his predictions here:
http://webfugitive.posterous.com/predictions-for-2010
