Posts Tagged ‘2010’

Twitter Trends 2010: Say What?

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

Much has been said of Twitter Trends 2010. Frank Reed thanks it’s silly to call them “meaningful.” Perhaps. But let me remind you, Twitter trends are nothing more than what is popular over time to people who are using Twitter. Is that meaningful?

I’ll let you decide whether Twitter trends for the past year are meaningful. But I would like to delve a little deeper into these trends than what the average blogger is doing. You can see a fuller list, broken up by category, here.

I think the categorized list is a lot more meaningful. If you are a news agency, for example, I think you’d find it extremely telling that the top 5 news stories on Twitter this year have been:

  1. Gulf Oil Spill
  2. Haiti Earthquake
  3. Pakistan Floods
  4. Koreas Conflict
  5. Chilean Miners Rescue

Looking at that list, it’s probably pretty close to the level of coverage that you’ve seen on TV news over the year. The Gulf Oil Spill was no doubt the most talked about news story everywhere you went.

Likewise, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Julian Assange are likely three of the top 5 people most talked about wherever you went.

Movies? “Inception” and “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” are the top two on the 2010 trending chart. They are both in the top 10 overall trends. Should we be surprised? They were both box office successes.

Interestingly, the World Cup has its own category. The top three trends on that list all made the overall top 10 – FIFA World Cup, vuvuzelas, and Pulpo Paul.

While there is a Technology Trends category, my biggest disappointment with the list is that there is no Business Trends category. Why not? That Twitter has been a sensation among online marketers would seem to me to indicate that a business list would be warranted. But who would be on that list? What business trends would have made the Twitter Trends 2010 list? Any guesses?

I’m not going to give you the full ten, but I’d hazard to guess that Facebook and Wikileaks would be both be in the top three. What do you think? Would they have made the Business Trends list on Twitter?

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments »

Will Search Die (And What Will Replace It?)

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Every year I see tons of predictions about the future of the Internet. Heck, I recently published a set of my own. They mostly had to do with social media, although one of them was about the integration of social media with search and how small businesses will start to “get it”.

Yesterday, John Battelle published his predictions for 2010. I found them to be rather interesting, to say the least.

Particularly interesting was his prediction regarding the deterioration of search results. In his own words:

But we are in the midst of a significant transition in search – as I’ve recently written, we are asking far more complicated questions of search, ones that search is simply not set up to answer.

I think this may be true for many people, but for a lot of small business owners who are just figuring out the power of the Web as a marketing tool, they’re just not that far along yet. So the question for small business owners who are attempting to get found in those search results is, what does that mean for my business?

At this point, I’d say not much. But by the end of the year it may be clear just how far search results have deteriorated. Based on what I’ve read, many veteran searchers are getting disgruntled with search. That may be because, as John Battelle points out, they’re asking more complicated questions. I think the answer lies in my prediction about the integration of search and social media. I think 2010 could very well be the year that search “goes social” in far more meaningful ways than we can now imagine.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in search engines | 3 Comments »

Small Business Goalsetting In 2010

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Now that 2009 has come and gone and we’ve entered a new year, it’s time to set some goals. Have you thought about your small business goals for 2010?

Goalsetting is an important part of any small business, but it’s vitally important for marketing. That holds true for traditional marketing and for Internet marketing. You’ve got to know what you want to get accomplished and have some idea as to how you will go about accomplishing it. The best starting place place is where you’ve been.

The first thing to do in small business goalsetting is to analyze where you are now. What have you accomplished in the past year? Write down your three most noteworthy accomplishments.

Next, analyze your current situation and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Are there any weak areas you’d like to improve?

Write down three goals for 2010 and at the end of the year, be sure to measure your small business success.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Small Business Finance | 2 Comments »

Will E-mail Marketing Go Social?

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Small Business Newz reports that marketers plan to increase their budgets for e-mail marketing in 2010. This doesn’t surprise me. The big question is, Will it go social?

Social marketing has climbed up from the gutter in the last couple of years. E-mail marketing has always been popular, and effective, so there is no surprise that is will see a surge in the coming year. In many ways, small businesses will be able to leverage greater returns on a smaller budget.

We’ve seen the melding of social media and other Internet marketing mainstays, such as SEO. So my bet is there will likely be a social component to e-mail marketing. What that will look like, I’m not sure. But I can see how e-mail marketing can become more social. Would you welcome that in 2010?

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in E-mail Marketing for Small Business | 4 Comments »