Recently, a few people asked me over lunch: what's next after blogging and podcasting? Jeremy Zawodny is also posing the same question. This has all got me thinking about what technology-driven trends will revolutionize how companies communicate. Here's my list of 10 trends to keep an eye on for the next 10 years. They are in no particular order...
1. The Long Tail - small players can collectively make up a market that rivals the giants. As Seth says, small is the new big. This applies equally for journalism as well as for marketers.
2. The Read Write Web/Web 2.0 – technologies like Ajax will make the web more dynamic, turning it into a full-fledged platform. Wither the desktop.
3. Timeshifting – consumers will increasingly want to devour media on their own time, on the mobile device of their choice and without commercials
4. Collaborative Categorization – consumers, using technology, will create their own taxonomies that make it easier to find information. This is sometimes called tagging, social search or folksonomies. However, this is just the beginning.
5. Citizen Marketing – consumers will organize – either on their own or with the help of companies – to evangelize products they love and vilify those they don’t
6. The Daily Me – it’s finally here; RSS, AI and personal search tools will make it easier for people to seek out only the news they care about and tune out all else
7. It’s All a Conversation – as journalism becomes a conversation, so will marketing - just like Cluetrain said.
8. What’s Inside is Outside – mobile devices and consumer generated media mean that whatever a single eye beholds so can the world.
9. Trust Marketing – people will increasingly use social networking technology to tune in messages from individuals they trust (including citizen journalists) and tune out everyone else
10. Decentralized Communication – armies of individual employees will use technology to become the voice of every company; like it or not. The solo singer is dead. Long live the chorus.
What's on your list?
