To follow up my post from December of 2006, here are the results:
“Social media” will evolve. Much the same way we have thousands of pro bloggers worldwide, we will have lots of people earning their living from social media. New ways of earning income will abound, look for the first paid plugs in a videocast, or more importantly, the first paid PRODUCT placement. Think Lonelygirl15 starts drinking lots of diet coke for a reason?
This was sort of right. Lots of growth in social media professionals. More bloggers living on the web, and video content. I also think we saw a growth in paid placement, although not overt, and I can’t back that up with figures
Social marketing will explode. The number of videos online will triple, but the number of ads attached to those videos will rise by 10x. Who this is good for: interactive agencies, media planners, video production companies, CDNs, video sites, YOU.
Well this has been a good year for companies like videoegg, youtube, revver, blip, etc. but my social marketing term should have been redefined. Social ads….
Podcasting will change. Gone will be the 30 minute long weekly shows in favor of 5-10 minute segments which can be better monetized, and better distributed. People have ADD as a collective whole, and don’t want to listen to poorly edited talk radio.
I think shorter content has grown, but really, podcasting has lost a lot of its hype, and is much the reason for us never releasing castvertising.com despite it being finished for 6 months.
Online advertising will grow more than experts think. Google will post huge gains, but the efficiencies brought to light by Yahoo’s Panama search marketing platform, and MSN adcenter, and I’m guessing AOL will have something neat too, will all change the ways that people buy ads. I’m betting ebay will partner with yahoo or aol on a method to track CPA ads better (yahoo/aol sell the ads, track the ads, and then people buy through paypal, and use skype to speak to the merchant).
If you count all the aquisitions, then this was an amazing year onthis front. Behavioral targeting was a huge buying zone in 07, and we’ll see the fruits of this frenzy in 08.
Widgets, widgets, widgets. 2007 is going to see a number of new delivery methods for widgets, more useful widgets will emerge. We’re already seeing the emergence of video chat and regular chat widgets making any site a lounge of sorts. My guess: widgets will further decentralize the web. We’ll also see a growth in widgets on blogs, and social sites. We might want to look for a social widget that ties into a user’s browser, so they can tell people where they are hanging out on the web, or tie together their countless social networking accounts.
Oh man. if you count the facebook platform as a widget platform, then I knocked this one out of the park. this is only going to get bigger in 2008.
Social Networking will change. I think we’re going to see the vertical encompass everything social networks morph to more topic oriented sites. People like to socialize with other like minded individuals. Whomever can capitalize on this, and tie together a few smart hubs will make some decent money. Remember its easier to market to niches than to everyone at once.
Ning hosting over 100,000 networks is proof of this. Emergence of niche network sites that are platform independent of sites like ning have been positive as well.
Smart startups will embrace SEO, PPC, SMO, SMM and the other marketing venues. As people start their search more and more on search engines and information hubs (or portals), people will need you to prepare yourself to be found by them. You can’t just cross your fingers and hope people stumble upon your site.
I think I was super right in this one. case in point two local startups here in Miami doing really smart things on the SEO side: Condo.com and Healthcare.com. They are positioning themselves to own their categories/verticals, and one big key is their smart search positioning.
More events outside of the valley will emerge. Wouldn’t you rather go to Miami in the winter? 🙂
Well the future of web design in new york, web connections north in vancouver, webmaster jam in dallas, blog conferences in orlando, chicago, and other cities all indicate growth is going on in other places outside the valley. Even more events will popup outside the valley in 2008.
Web+ will be the evolution of web2.0
This was basically me scratching my own back…
