Online Marketing Prediction for 2011 by Giuseppe Riva

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1 ÂŠ2010 eWayDirect | Creative Commons License, Attribution | 888.655.0464 | info@ewaydirect.com | www.ewaydirect.com

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Introduction by Jason Peck 2010 has been a fun year in online marketing. We’ve seen a lot of unique initiatives around mobile, location-based platforms and group-buying sites. More companies agree that social media is a valuable (if not a crucial) part of their business and marketing efforts, and more companies have experimented with things - sometimes without a clear strategy or goals. It’s not enough to just have a social media presence; it’s what you do with it that matters. In 2011 I think we’ll see more companies integrating social media with their other marketing initiatives and programs. Social media, search and email marketing are stronger when leveraged together rather than separately. The surface has barely been scratched in terms of integrating email and social media for creative campaigns. Adding links to share email content on Twitter and Facebook is nice, but creating unique promotions that rewards your enthusiasts for sharing content through email and social media platforms is a much stronger approach. I also think we’ll see more focus on the metrics in 2011—and not just social media metrics, but how a brand’s overall online recognition (calculated by looking at search, social and email factors) and content initiatives are driving results, such as sales, leads, and signups. Last year I asked a few smart folks and friends to share their predictions for 2010. Since last year’s edition has received almost 5,000 reads so far, I thought it’d be fun to do it again this year. I hope you enjoy the following predictions for online marketing in 2011 and that we can continue to learn from each other next year.

Bio: Jason Peck is a social media manager at eWayDirect, where he works with developers on the company's platform for online communities, helps clients implement successful community and social initiatives and manages eWayDirect's own content and engagement efforts. You can find him online at http://www.jasonfpeck.com or http://www.twitter.com/jasonpeck.

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Kipp Bodnar If we look back at 2010 in a few years, it will likely serve as the waterline for the time in which social media and inbound marketing became widely accepted marketing methods. During 2010 a few trends began to emerge and become leading indicators of what we can expect from marketing in 2011. Old is still new. In 2010 we saw a startup named Groupon surge in growth on the back of a solid business model and email marketing. With new and emerging social media tools many marketers have been quick to dismiss email marketing. Whether you are looking to drive B2B leads or convert more commerce customers, email marketing is growing and not declining in importance as a marketing channel. The reason for this is that many social networks are still in the early growth stages and don’t have the user base that email has and users still think of email marketing as a more expected practice than marketing on social networks. Mobile is new. Well mobile isn’t actually new but the rise in popularity of tablet computing with devices like the iPad and the increased sales of smartphones in 2010 are important leading indicators that information consumption and online communication has moved beyond the desktop. This cultural shift in internet usage will create two key challenges for marketers in 2011. Marketers now have more screens to account for and need to optimize their online marketing platforms including their website and landing pages for viewing on mobile devices. To app or not to app, that is the question. The second major challenge that the mobile web is creating for marketers is that of building mobile applications. Smartphones and tablets have spawned a new ecosystem of business and consumer applications from companies testing new marketing strategies. In 2011 Marketers will have to decide if a mobile application is the right investment for their business. While these are only two of the major marketing changes in 2011, it is likely the year overall will go down as the time when mobile became firmly entrenched in marketing.

Tweetable Quote: “2011 will go down as the year mobile marketing became a first-class marketing channel for both B2B and B2C companies.” - @Kbodnar32

Bio: Kipp Bodnar is Inbound Marketing Manager at HubSpot, a leader in marketing software for small and medium-sized businesses. He leads HubSpot's content marketing team -- the group of marketers that uses social media, content and search engine optimization to get HubSpot found by prospective customers. Previously Kipp was Social Media Marketing Manager at Howard Merrell & Partners, a full-service marketing and advertising firm in Raleigh, NC. During his career Kipp has successfully developed and implemented social media campaigns and plans for clients in business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries. Find Kipp blogging on the HubSpot blog, Blog.HubSpot.com and his personal blog http://www.digitalcapitalism.com, or connect with him on Twitter @KBodnar32

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Jason Falls If I'm not mistaken, I said 2010 would be the year business figured social media out. For the most part, I believe that happened. Now we hit 2011 and businesses are going to demand that social media marketing move business performance indicators. This will not be the year of "ROI" but the year of understanding what social media marketing does (financial and otherwise), and getting that out of your efforts. What's exciting about that is we'll see a gap begin to widen between the social media "gurus" and the social media practitioners. Those who understand that when you place the word "marketing" after the words "social media" then you're talking a business process that must come with planning, goals, strategy, measurement and results ... those folks will prove useful for businesses. The "guru" types out there still throwing out "blog" "Facebook" and "Twitter" because they know most people are in awe of the shiny new object ... those folks will have a hard time keeping or finding clients. They're not focused on the bottom line and business drivers. Ironically, though, I see smaller, social media and/or niche agencies or firms winning a lot more of the big brands’ business in 2011. Big ad agencies and PR firms still don't get social and digital and their clients are starting to see that the best thinking in the online area is coming from the smart consultants or the niche, boutique shops. Sure, that prediction benefits me, but I'd throw that out there if I worked for Digitas or BBDO, too. The big boys just don't know how to hit the curveballs. That's all they throw down here on the farm. ;-) More specifically, thinking about tools and platforms, though, I think location-based services will continue to grow to a mainstream level of usefulness, but will pan out to be the Sunday paper coupon services of the 21st century. The benefit is not knowing which of your friends are next door, but how much you can save on a latte by checking in. Mobile will again be of high import for marketers in 2011. If your company's website doesn't have a mobile version active and optimized by the end of 2011, you can pretty much write yourself off. People won't be interested in what you have to offer. The uptick of mobile web use is only going to climb. Be ready for it.

Tweetable Quote: “This will not be the year of "ROI" but the year of understanding what social media marketing does (financial and otherwise)” - @jasonfalls

Bio: Jason Falls is a digital marketing consultant, social media practitioner/thinker and professional speaker. He can be found online at SocialMediaExplorer.com and JasonFalls.com.

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Jeremy S. Griffin My prediction for online marketing in 2011? One word: simplicity. When you consider that many online marketing endeavors are big and bold and meant to draw attention to themselves across multiple channels, you also realize that it’s really the minor details that stick with you the most. So much of marketing relies on emotional resonance with the consumer, but a lot of it ends up being a blanket of generalization that ultimately appeals to no one. Subtlety is the name of the game in order to get content shared and appreciated. People like being the ones who find things and being the first to share them. They won’t be as likely to do that if there are a million banner ads and promoted tweets already doing it for them. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing less of that and more empowerment of the individual. For that matter, expect to see more endeavors like Kickstarter or its ilk that highlight an individual over the personification of an audience. There’s a big difference between a real story and a fake story that is meant to look real. People are getting savvier to those tactics, and they’re smarter than most marketers give them credit for. Real world scenarios and the highlighting of single ideas will win over broad assumptions any day. 2011 will also be a time of personalization. Not personalization in the sense that people will have more sparkly unicorns on their social network profiles, but there will be a surge of tools that allow individuals to show off their personalities online in a genuine way. It’s up to marketers to understand how to utilize this with subtlety and grace, though. You don’t want your brand to be the guy at the party who is clearly trying too hard to be cool. Also, MySpace will get the Friendster treatment and Tumblr will rise from its ashes as the new distraction for the antiFacebook set. We’re likely to get plenty more specialty, or “one-off,” niche blogs as a result. (i.e., This is Why You’re Fat, Awkward Family Photos, etc.) That's all fine by me, though, because if there's one thing I'd like to see more of in 2011, it's good, simple fun.

Tweetable Quote: “In 2011, the individual will become the hero. Marketers shld concentrate on ways 2 create unique experiences 4 their audiences” - @jsgriffin

Bio: Jeremy S. Griffin is an interactive copywriter and senior creative with Ignite Social Media in Cary, North Carolina. He has helped to develop social media campaigns and initiatives for brands such as Nature Made, Intel, and Microsoft among others. Get to know him at jsgriffin.com.

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Dan London A social media bloodbath is coming. Over the past two years companies have hired social media staff due to the perceived need for a department to manage the medium. Once in place, many of these staff begin to use expensive analytics packages meant just for tracking social media. The overall cost to the company in terms of resources and salary can be quite large and often somewhat ambiguous in terms of return on investment (ROI). Speaking from experience, some executive level personnel have jumped on the social media bandwagon without full knowledge of what social media entails. The statement, “we can just send it out via Twitter and it will go viral” was one specific moment that has stood out since I heard it over a year ago. It is that level of knowledge that will lead to a reduction of social media staff in 2011. As companies bulked up their social media staff with employees who may not have the ability to show the value of social media beyond the number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans in 2009 and 2010, the same executives will begin to scrutinize the actual ROI of social media. Many social media personnel lack the ability to tie in social media tactics indirectly to revenue. The question of social media ROI has been raised repeatedly and those who lack the ability to show actual revenue data generated are in danger of having their departments cut and the tasks being rolled into other positions. As more and more money is dumped into social media, those prepared to show their employers a path to revenue will avoid the layoffs that will come later this year as budgets are evaluated.

Tweetable Quote: “The year biz looks closely at social media staffing and spending and make sweeping cuts if a path to ROI can't be shown”. - @DanLondon

Bio: Dan London is the Director of Online Marketing at virtual data room and secure file transfer provider ShareFile. Dan’s personal website is Dan-London.com and can be followed on Twitter at @DanLondon.

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Brian McDonald In 2011 I see a trend for more companies to really look at their social media efforts in a more traditional way. As adoption of social media grew rapidly in 2010 so did understanding by marketing, communication and business users. Where we heard many people state our goal is to “get on social media,” during the past year, this year’s goal is going to be more “how do we integrate this into our marketing/communication/advertising plan?” A major part of this is for reflection on what social media channels have been deployed and reviewing the amount of effort expended and results generated. Where some organizations may have seen great benefit and traffic increase from one network and decide to increase time, effort and spend in those specific channels. More time can be devoted to targeted and planned campaigns versus general awareness and beginning phases of understanding and experience within the channel. Additionally increased understanding and adoption of analytics will assist in this area. Another trend that will coincide with this activity will be consolidation of tool and niche network service providers. We saw an explosion of Location Based Services (LBS) in 2010 as well as Facebook jumping into the space. I expect to see some consolidation as well as attrition of these apps and their companies. There is no doubt that some of the larger players in the game like Foursquare, Yelp and Gowalla will either purchase smaller LBS companies or themselves be bought by Facebook or possibly Google. The other prediction I have for 2011 is a continued increase in mobile usage of social media, as more smart phone users will convert from older phone models. The successful launch of Android devices as well as iPhone coming to Verizon, and possible other networks, should push more wireless users getting rid of their older phones an moving to a smart phone with increased usage of mobile social media apps.

Tweetable Quote: “Increased mobile usage, technology consolidation and greater integration of social media into traditional marketing plans.” - @bmcd67

Bio: Brian McDonald is the Owner of Square Jaw Media, a marketing communications consulting firm that offers interactive and social media strategy and program development for B2B and B2C companies.

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Marc Meyer In 2011 look for a continued escalation of the desire to be famous via UGC. More importantly UGC will continue to become faster and mobile, and instead of real time, it becomes any time, and video will continue to drive that participation. In 2011 look for connections to be more ubiquitous than ever before, however what you will see is that it becomes less about whether you are connected and more about what platform you are on-platform wars will take root as all become very protective of the users they are cultivating-call it the facebook blowback effect. Look for Google to continue to find ways to elbow its way into our collective online social experiences either through development or acquisition. Attention spans will continue to decrease as demand for it increases 24/7/365. Gaming apps within social networks will continue to become the “crack" that draws and keeps users.

Tweetable Quote: “Everyone will be attached to some type of social network in 2011.” - @marc_meyer

Bio: Marc Meyer is currently a digital and social media strategist at Ernst and Young. His social media blog is in the Adage Power 150, it’s also in the top 5 of all social media marketing blogs ranked by Post Rank Analytics; and it is ranked #13 on the Junta 42 Content Marketing blogs list. He is the co-founder of HashTag Social Media which is a weekly Twitter based chat featuring the preeminent thought leaders of Social Media, Digital Marketing and Public Relations, discussing the business of Social Media.

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Neil Rosen The big buzzzzz is going to be about chatter marketing. This is going to involve companies paying incredible attention to their customers and subscribers, showing them the convenience they can provide to them through behavioral tracking, and enabling them to help the company grow through loyalty and viral acquisition. Social CRM will continue to grab the market. Companies are going to work hard to own their social, giving customers, subscribers, donors, etc., the opportunity to communicate with the company easily and transparently, and build a dialog that is meaningful and important to the overall direction companies take. Social will be the new customer support and service as well as a way to build brands.

Tweetable Quote: “In 2011 companies are going to work to own their social and social CRM will continue to grab the market.” - Neil Rosen, eWayDirect CEO

Bio: Neil Rosen is the founder, president, and CEO of eWayDirect, Inc. He is responsible for setting the company's strategic direction and for the development of new products. This is the third venture he has founded and guided to success.

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Ted Rubin I think 2011 is going to be a very interesting year in the social media world. Generally speaking I believe the marketing world is going to start understanding better the value of, and how better to assign value to, deep consumer relationships. Right now everyone is trying to assign a dollar value to a Facebook fan or Twitter follower instead of addressing the fact that the engagement and interaction that takes place in these mediums are incredibly important to a brand. Building a relationship with existing and future customers is the true value and strength of social media/marketing and what will and has allowed brands to survive and flourish for the long-term. ROI (return on investment) is incredibly important whenever investing, but companies will start looking to ROR: return on relationship, when planning, strategizing and most importantly evaluating social marketing … especially smaller competitors who can more easily drive and control relationship marketing. As far as specific predictions go I have a couple... Google will acquire Twitter, and pay whatever it takes to grab a valuable piece of the social marketing landscape, and FourSquare, et. al. will disappear as geotargeting will become more of a proactive medium controlled by those who really know where you are and what you are doing... the credit card companies and others who you tell where you are and what you are doing simple by being there and not having to make a notification.

Tweetable Quote: “In 2011 Google will do whatever it takes to acquire Twitter... at least they better.” - @TedRubin

Bio: Ted Rubin has a deep online background beginning in 1997 working with Seth Godin at Yoyodyne, which was acquired in Q4 1998 by Yahoo! More recently Ted was the CMO of e.l.f. Cosmetics, EyesLipsFace.com. In December 2009 Ted became a member of the OpenSky Board of Advisors, and as chief social marketing officer, since March, has taken an active day-to-day role building their social media presence, engaging and interacting with the blogging community, and working with other worthwhile potential partners in the media and publishing communities. Ted is on the Advisory Board of SheSpeaks.com, and is a social marketing advisor to Big Fuel Communications, a marketing and communications company that takes brands from content to commerce.

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Michael Schechter Social Media Needs To Take A Step Back In 2010, the attention and the obsession with social media has made it easier for those of us in marketing to get the attention of business owners. That said, this same hyper focus has made it harder for us to help their brands tap into the true potential of the web. Businesses of all sizes are being lured in by success stories, the dream of lower costs, and the potential of near ubiquitous reach. So much so, that some are abandoning traditional tactics rather than adapting and integrating them into newer technologies. Many of us marketers and brands have become so focused on getting people up and running on sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare that we neglect to explain how these efforts can and must be incorporated into a balanced marketing plan. In the coming year I think (or at least I hope) that many of us will take a step back and begin to let social media sit alongside, rather than in front of, other marketing tactics. Email Is A Marketer’s Best Friend While this is already starting, Email Marketing will continue to experience both resurgence and a renaissance. The sheer influx of social media brands has once again forced marketers to get serious about getting messages in front of customers’ eyes. In the past few years, brands that were early to adopt social media were able to stand out, but nowadays, there is so much noise that we end up ignoring the signal that is trying to rise out of it. This has sent many a marketer back into the dependable arms of email. Beyond the fact that email is a proven entity, recent strides by ESP companies such as Mailchimp and Blue Sky Factory have made it not only possible but simple for organizations of any size to incorporate social media tools. This integration enables your current subscribers to evangelize your message and spread its content, thus in turn growing your list through their network channels. This combination of tried and true dependability alongside a willingness to embrace newer marketing techniques will continue to keep email relevant as an essential part of any marketing mix. Content Is King, No Matter Who Creates It Over the past few years, the strength of content has always been its "shareability" and viral capability. Where many have found content lacking is in the quality. There is a wealth of knowledge flooding excess of channels, making it difficult for businesses to keep up. With this in mind, brands will continue to work hard at drastically improving the quality of their posts, ebooks, photos, videos and audio content. We are overwhelmed with information and no longer bother to read, none the less share sub-par content. There is also the fact that the need for content creation is brutal. Knowing the pressure we will all be under to regularly present information, you can expect to see an unprecedented embrace of consumer-generated content in the coming year. 2011 will be the year we expand upon the innate trust consumers have built with one another through online reviews with savvy marketers taking the consumers’ desire to share their thoughts on products and services to the next level. Social technology has made it significantly easier for us to crowdsource stories, testimonials and amusing anecdotes about brands and products. This emphasis on the consumer will help brands to maintain a steady stream of content, while focusing their own creation efforts on quality rather than quantity going forward. What’s Old and What’s New Becomes What’s Working The bottom line, 2011 will be about fundamentals. We’ve been so obsessed with what is new, we have started to lose focus on what is effective. There are tons of topics and new technologies that I haven’t even touched on such as mobile and local deals, but truth be told, the average small-to-medium business hasn't even taken the time to update and adapt their main website. Crafting a core message and integrating it into a well-designed website are the often missed first steps that every brands needs in order to create something worth sharing in this newly social world. So many changes have taken place so quickly since the emergence of Social Media and we need to take a moment to return to our roots to provide customers with substance and a solid foundation. It is a great thing that this explosion has helped many to see the potential of the web, but hopefully in 2011 we will take the time needed to separate the buzzwords from the true opportunities. 11 ©2010 eWayDirect | Creative Commons License, Attribution | 888.655.0464 | info@ewaydirect.com | www.ewaydirect.com

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Tweetable Quote: “You can expect to see an unprecedented embrace of consumer-generated content in the coming year.” - @mschechter

Bio: For over 10 years, Michael Schechter has worked in his family's business, Honora, a Freshwater Pearl jewelry company based in New York City. Recently, Michael has shifted from his role in operations to marketing and currently works as the director of community managing Honora's website, social media presence as well as the overall customer experience. You can find him on his personal site, Twitter, or via email at Michael [at] honora.com.

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Conclusion We hope you enjoyed these thoughts and predictions for online marketing in 2011. Thanks again for everyone who took the time to share their thoughts! If you found these predictions valuable, please feel free to share them with your friends and colleagues. At eWayDirect we’re really excited about what 2011 will bring for online marketing. We’re especially excited about helping companies integrate a variety of pieces (email, search, social, acquisition, etc) into their marketing initiatives and helping companies understand their overall online awareness and sentiment to make smarter marketing decisions. If you'd ever like more information about what we do at eWayDirect, visit our website and request a free demo of our platform. Happy Holidays!

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