Some things are easy to predict. Some are hard. I’ll try to include some of each kind.
Just for the record, I’m not giving myself any credit for things that have already happened or been announced prior to the actual start of 2013. Of course some of those things certainly might give us a bit of a head start of figuring out what’s coming.
Here we go!
Marketing
- We will continue to see ads that make us want to buy something – as well as those that unintentionally discourage us from buying things we already wanted to buy
- There will be a notable increase in ads for gyms and exercise centers during the first few weeks of the year, followed by increased membership and people flocking to gyms – which will in turn return to normal levels by February
- More and more “free” web sites will struggle with ways to monetize, whether that means increasing advertising (potentially losing some eyeballs in the process), or charging a fee
Technology
- Moore’s Law will continue to be challenged by the laws of physics – and creative scientists and engineers will continue to find new ways to make CPUs smaller and faster
- The last few years have seen more and different XaaS offerings, and increasing kinds and amounts of data are stored in the cloud – trends which will only accelerate
- Phones will continue to get smarter – with the occasional challenge
Social Media
- So long as the media continues to immortalize criminals with round-the-clock coverage, social media will continue to flow with a commensurate number of opinions on how to deal with the problem
- More and more print publications will stop printing, such as Newsweek which is producing its final printed magazine on December 31
- Privacy will become an even bigger and higher-profile issue than it is now:
Prediction for 2013: Someone will say something bad about Facebook and Privacy, and it will go viral. #toolschat
— Linda Bernstein (@wordwhacker) December 6, 2012
I admit that the one about marketing and sales of gym memberships was a gimme – that happens every year. The Facebook privacy prediction from Linda Bernstein is probably pretty safe, too. What do you think of the rest of my predictions? (Share your comments below.)
I agree with all your predictions. Somethings will change, somethings will stay the same. Somethings will get larger; somethings will get smaller. And tech companies will continue to sue the living daylights out of each other.
I didn’t think to mention all the tech companies suing one another. Maybe that one is in the “gimme” category too?
Agree with you both. I think there will be a huge change in the way we share info like being able to drag images, gifs, videos across channels and incorporate into different programs. Such as dragging imagery into a photoshop-like program then dragging that manipulated image onto a tweet or some other program. I could also envision the implementation in Twitter to use images instead of text. Way to use algorithm to convert pixels into 140 characters and display an image instead of 140 text characters. Like a hybrid of Tumblr and Instagram ( good-bye? )
That’s one I didn’t think of at all Jeff. I’ve been impressed to see some people appear to get past Twitter’s 140-character limit by using non-alphanumeric characters, so it doesn’t seen such a stretch to extend the concept to actual graphics. I’m reminded of the Power to the Pen campaign sponsored by Pilot Pen, which challenged bloggers to write their blog in longhand (presumably using a Pilot pen), and post it as a graphic rather than in HTML. I love how an old technology can augment a new technology, like serial and parallel data channels… but that’s a whole ‘nother topic. 🙂
Without attempting to cover all things, I propose these two points: I think 2013 will finally be the year that mobile matters. That’s something I need to keep an eye on because I build WordPress websites. I believe that in 2013 there will be a tipping point where the value of GooglePlus is realized by a critical mass of people who activate there. http://lindasherman.me/what-you-are-missing-on-googleplus/
I like those Linda. In fact you’re reminding me that I’ve done nothing to make this site mobile-friendly. What’s your plan?
Here’s an article I think you should find of interest Steve. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-predictions-2013/
In answer to your question about mobile, as we discussed during #BlogChat on Sunday, your site is holding up fine on my iPhone. Yes, you should check it for other mobile devices but I think quite a few sites that are already launched can get away without needing to rebuild. The site I referenced previously, LindaSherman.me is on a responsive theme. I think responsive is a good choice for most new site builds.