HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

20 Marketing trends for 2011

In the last days of 2010 I’m looking at what are the important developments in social networking landscape. What are the key technologies and where are we headed in 2011. Here are 20 points that you should keep your eyes on next year:

1)      Audience will have control. This means that brands will be visible on social media if they like it or not. If a brand doesn’t have a presence on social media consumers will still talk about them.

2)      Social media monitoring gets even more important. On a tactical level it’s important to facilitate sales and provide customer service. Strategically brands need to monitor overall sentiment and find the influencers.

3)      Engaging customers will be a challenge. As more and more brands go social there will be a lot of noise. To stand out brands need to be relevant, engaging and have a dialog with their customers.

4)      Community management is important to engage people. Thriving community will keep the brand relevant and interesting allowing people to express themselves. Planning and creating content, telling stories, organizing events and tying it all together with other communication activities.

5)      Mobile Devices. 2011 will be the year when most social media and personal communications will be in Smartphones and Tablets. It will be everywhere, always connected customers will share loads of information about what they are doing and consuming. Marketing will hit mobiles big time and this trend will go on for years.

6)      One social network will rule them all. It is a pointless to have dozens of profiles on different social networks. People will flock to the network with most users. Right now it’s Facebook.

7)      Integrating websites wit social technology will make them more appealing to users. People will have options to share information about the sites they visit and interact with friends. Logging in to websites will be done through your social network identity. Social integration to old websites making them ´hip´ again, breathing new life to old portals and sites, making them information centrals for all information and profiles over the web and especially Social Media.

8)      Social commerce. Friend’s recommendations are the most powerful sales triggers. Businesses will use that by integrating shopping to social networks and using social connection in their e-commerce sites. The toolbox for the online retailer will get more mobile and connected with mobile coupons and discounts, online group discounts and dynamic pricing based on real-time supply and demand.

9)      Location! Location! Location! Foursquare, Facebook Places, Goupon, and others will find ways to make their location based services useful for businesses. Local information, reviews, coupons, loyalty programs and more. All tied in with your social graph. How to help you to get together with your friends and use the brands at the same time.

10)   Measuring results! While it’s still time for trying out new media and technology, serious money will be spent. There´s been a lot of talk about Social Media ROI, and the general need for metrics and analyzis is now critical for many. The guys upstairs want to know how much of that investment are they going to get back. Models of measuring social media marketing effectiveness will emerge  and analyzs tools are becoming popular.

11)   Social media will be integrated to overall marketing activities. This approach is important to get the most value out of your activities. The multichannel buyers will spend a lot more money on your brand than other segments.

12)   Brand is customer experience, service, product, people, stories, community. Marketing will be managing conversations about these elements of your brand. Brands will create content that helps consumers to feel better about the brand and give them reasons to share their experiences.

13)   Marketing will hit mobiles big time. 2011 will continue the mobile explosion and this trend will go on for years. Mobile and location based marketing will grow very fast.

14)   Personal messaging will move to social networks. The importance of standalone email, IM and other services will decline.

15)   Campaigns will get more dynamic, spanning from offline to actionable social channels.
We still see only baby steps, true integration and interactivity will take some time. Location based services, group buying, mobile and social commerce will move this trend ahead in 2011.

16)   The home page for internet users will be a social network. People are there to talk to others. Brands need to find way to make themselves meaningful in these conversations.

17)   Facebook will get close to 800 million users?. County after country Facebook will become the dominant social network. Currently only a few big strongholds remain. China, Brazil, Russia, Japan, South-Korea.

18)   Social recruiting going big – it´s been talked about for ages now, but finally in 2011 even the small companies enter Social Media to find new and better applicants, and to attract the passive resource pool. Many companies have used LinkedIn for years, Twitter has been used now by many in 2010, and the early adopters have entered Facebook, but will the masses follow in 2011? I believe so!

19)   Transforming social networks into customer service, self-service, support and sales tools. Dell has done it, when do other companies follow? In 2011? Yes!

20)   The Microjob concept is soon coming available for all. Work and projects are broken into smaller pieces of work, divided between larger amount of people who are more specialized, and the outcome of the small parts is again reconstructed to the big picture for the client at the end. A new wave of Crowdsourcing is coming up. The importance of showcasing your skills and specialism and growing a personal brand in Social Media (and personal branding in general) will be big in 2011. In many fields the competition is already global.

WELCOME TO COSTA DEL SOL INNOVA!!!

Hello there, 

There are only 3 days to finalize this year and I guess it's time to make the list of "did it-didn’t" and formulate new proposals for 2011.

After a long conversation with friends and customers, here I am starting with the new year, this Blog, which aims to bring together ideas, projects, information, thoughts, product offerings, business, anything that helps people and companies in the Costa del Sol to have a wonderful year and a bright future

Many of us decided one day, to move to this location to begin a new life with fresh air and away from the routine of the big cities. Perhaps searching for a better place for our children, or live near the sea, or away from the bad weather and cold or some other reason, or perhaps all of them…

We all know that 2010 was tough and yet here we are, ready to face the new year and those 365 fresh , clean and unpredictable days . Everything depends on us ...

So, shake the dust off those old days, the stress and worries. Empty your mind and soul of bad memories and get ready to fight and enjoy the process. Always reserve some time for fun…

As Confucius said: “can not fill a pitcher with fresh water, without pulling the old”

Welcome to the Costa del Sol, Welcome to Innovation.

WELCOME TO COSTA DEL SOL INNOVA