New Internet Trends in 2010 to watch for

Whether it is for your personal use or the company you are working for, here are a few trends on the Internet that you should look out for:


#10: Web Sites
More people are getting connected, and if you still do not have a web presence, get a website now.

Advice: Invest in updating your website to leverage on web 2.0. Put little links to Twitter, Facebook and make your webpage more informative and attractive.

#9: Search engine optimization
With newer search engine updates along with Microsoft Bing and Google Wave, many old ways of search engine optimization become obsolete fast. In fact, the search engine algorithms are already beginning to pay more attention to date of publication, geo-location, mobile device browsers, past behavior and social media content. And with everyone saying that they are SEOs (Search engine optimization gurus), who should you trust?

Advice: Do not abandon your SEO strategy, if you hire one, constantly question them for what updates they have done, keywords they are using and search the various search engines to check rankings. Test keywords and update your SEO strategy constantly as situation changes.

#8: Online Sales site / Affiliate links
With the growing trend of online sales and online businesses, companies which sells consumer products or data should consider the internet as a major source of sales.

Advice: (TEST) If you have a consumer product which you can sell online, setup an online sales site, possibly with affiliate links, your sales revenue and volume will increase greatly with word of mouth sales. Give it a try, and see if you get results.

#7: Mobile Marketing
mobile marketing is all about marketing to people through their mobile phones and smart-phone devices. Small businesses haven't had much of an opportunity to engage consumers on mobile devices, but 2010 has the potential to change that.

Demand is increasing dramatically for mobile applications and mobile web-browsing due to wider adoption of devices like the iPhone and the Google Android phone. As more people adopt these phones and features in 2010, look for small-business marketing services to start providing lower-cost mobile marketing solutions like text messaging, mobile e-mail marketing, mobile websites, mobile application development and location-based marketing.

Advice: (TEST) build a microsite and promote products through mobile marketing. There are also applications you should look for on mobile apps which may help. For example, if you have a restaurant or hotel, a mobile application "Four Square" may be an interesting application to list your business in there.

#6: E-mail Marketing
E-mail marketing will remain highly predictable in 2010 and may even become more powerful as e-mail service providers improve social media integration, search engine access to archived e-mails, auto-responders and new integrated applications. If you don't already use an e-mail service provider, invest in one in 2010. If you already use an e-mail service, invest in your e-mail list and in producing valuable content to nurture leads and attract repeat customers.

Advice: Use email marketing as the cost of email marketing is relatively low now. You can start your own list to get emails of your current customers to market your products to, or use someone with a relevant list. Spend more time and money in 2010 focused on keeping your e-mail list current when those consumers return to work and change e-mail addresses again.

#5: Personal branding
With the evolution of Social Media Superstars, some people become networks and incredible resource as they are "hyper-connected" If your company has bloggers or superstars on Twitters, why not use them to promote your products?

Advice: Get involved in Social Media. When you discover that some of your employees are already using it, get them to blog or tweet about the company, provide value and become a though leader in your industry. If you are working for a company, growing your influence and blogging for your company is a very good way to get the company noticed, and it also helps to get you influence and opportunities. In today's socially connected world, even though no jobs are permanent, your experience and your achievements can be made know through blogs and other deeds which you can leave online. Get a few personal branding books to learn what you could do to stand out from the crowd.

#4: Podcasting
Podcasting is getting popular, and getting more common. With more free podcast hosting sites, it is easy to start your own podcast.

Advice: (Test) Start a podcast for your company to talk about your products, or the industry in general. Give honest opinions and reviews, provide great value and make it worth it for people to follow you on your podcast.

#3: Online Video
YouTube is responsible of a big portion of Internet traffic. 300 millions videos viewed on YouTube daily? This is a number your cannot ignore.

Advice: (Test) Start a video for your company. If you have an opinion on how things are done, give it your two cents. Video speak louder than words, and if you have an interesting and informative video that has a call to action, who knows... it may be the next viral video. A restaurant giving off recipes on YouTube is worth a lot more than just a blog to say how it is done. Showing is definitely more compelling and will attract more attention. YouTube videos can also be embedded on Blogs and Facebook Pages.

#2: Blogging
As you may have already known, blogging is the backbone of Social Media, and it can be linked to your Facebook updates and Twitter.

Advice: Start a blog and invest time to blog. Blogging shows thought leadership, and the willingness to share information. There are many things to write about. Information on the industry, link blogs, top 10 reasons to do x or to choose Y. Regular blog updates will also attract loyal followers. As long as you provide value in your blogs, blogging is one of the key trends you should look out for and start in 2010 if you have not done so.

#1: Twitter
Twitter is growing to be a very powerful business tool. It helps business share, connect and research information on their customers and the current trend.

Advice: Start a Twitter account The following are some reasons. -> Link <- Twitter allows you to get updated news and information even if you do not tweet much. Twitter may soon be an important for of communication, and for some industry, it may be considered essential to have a twitter account.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


Participate on Social Media. It does not matter if you are not on Twitter or blogging, people are going to still talk about your company and products. Though it is important to know about the good things people like about your company, it is more essential to find out about the bad. Finding out and resolving things become it become a crisis is one of the lessons in 2009.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Happy New Year

-- Robin Low