On reviewing digital business trends this year, it was interesting to
discover there are three main areas that could unalterably change the
face of business communications, the very future of the internet and how
we use it.
It was Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, who wrote towards the end of
last year that “the pace of change has become blisteringly fast, with
traditional industries – bookstores, video-rental chains, newspapers –
crumbling more quickly than we could have imagined and predicted.”
Looking at the trends he predicted were to take shape in 2012, the first
was that tablet computers such as the iPad will become replacements to
desktop computing and that the mouse will soon be “superseded by
touchscreens”.
Another development, embraced wholeheartedly by heavyweights such as
IBM, concluded in its report that of 2,000 medium-sized companies it
surveyed, two-thirds were planning or had already deployed cloud-based
technologies and 70 percent of businesses are either using or
investigating cloud computing solutions.
For the past six months we have been heavily involved in the
production of a new website, VoIP4Cloud, that offers an advanced,
feature-rich, cloud-based VoIP IP PBX Unified Communications system for
progressive businesses. The site was released earlier this month.
However, in developing the site, there were two concepts, relating to
cloud computing and mobile apps, that we found were gaining real
strength in the market and in business communications models.
There is another part to this triumvirate of change and that is email
marketing. These days, it’s not just about sending endless newsletters
to clients, who barely read the traditional tomes of self-congratulatory
corporate-speak, but about the way it integrates with social media; an
ideal and “compelling” medium on which companies can relay their “brand
voice” on social networks.
These days it’s much more about personal connections and dialogue in
communicating information that counts and companies at the forefront of
email marketing have already recognised this and have moved forward in
their communications strategies also.
Mailigen is one such company that has grown from a small business
email marketing service into an international company, and accredited by
TopSEOs as the fourth best email marketing company and sixth by TopTen
Reviews.
This method of marketing opens another platform to connect and
communicate with your customers, so as to integrate your marketing
message via email, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs. This enables
businesses to interact and engage their company or brand with their
customers on different channels and by a variety of methods.
There are a huge number of media channels to exploit these days, from
Pinterest to video, all with a different approach and style as to how
the marketing message is portrayed. But to really gear ourselves up for
the year ahead, it’s worth taking the time to look at how these trends
will affect business and what our competitors may be doing to embrace
these trends.
It’s a real shake-up in the manner in which businesses interact with
their customers, which makes for very interesting times ahead for all.
In summary, digital business trends this year include:
• Windows 8 is a complete re-imagining of Windows and the Metro
interface takes a traditional Windows users into the realm of the
mobile: instead of files and folders, there are touchable tiles that
fire up your apps.
• There have been a host of analyses recently that point out that
cloud computing has taken a significant hold and that its efficiency and
economies of scale means that companies are racing ahead in the cloud.
• Social media integration provides an ideal and way for companies to
convey their brand voice on many different platforms, with email
marketing now part of the overall convergence of discourse between
company and customer.
Brand Reputation Management
is comprised of a professional team of writers, journalists and
reputation management specialists with years of internet marketing
experience.
Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources
