IM Success in 2014

Social networks are going to continue to be huge and only getting bigger. Google seems to be moving more and more toward replacing all but high authority backlinks with social factors in their rankings.

And I think video marketing will continue its upward trajectory as more people have faster connections and less issues with streaming and large file sizes.

John

I think interactivity is becoming more important. Ten years ago the internet was a bit of a one way street. You went online, read some blogs, checked out some videos, and that was about it. The internet talked to you but you didn't talk back.

Now people are expecting more interaction. Every blog has the option, at least, of allowing comments. Some of the most popular websites, such as Reddit, are all about user interaction. If we look at the app market, games are huge right now because they allow for interactivity. Sites like Facebook and Tumblr are clearly interactive.

People on the internet are no longer so passive, they want to take an active part. I think if you want to continue growing long into the future, you'll need to develop some level of interactivity with your readers or customers.

How long till there's backlash from the focus on video and social marketing (the way we've seen with over-zealous backlinking)?

I can imagine it won't be long before there are all sorts of spammy YT videos, and bogus social signals ("fake" followers, likes, fans..).

I guess it really is an ever changing landscape. Stand still or fail to adapt and you'll be left in the dust. Then again, there are tried and true techniques and methods that seem to show little sign of losing effectiveness.

Well, all I can say, you are definitely right about SEO moving towards more of a Social direction.

YouTube/Video Marketing will eventually take over blogging.

People are less about reading and more visual in there information seeking approach. Anything that supports this will be a winner.

If you Google some key phrases you will see lots of businesses offering a service to help with traffic generation.

Without knowing the niche it can be hard to suggest.

A general observation about internet trends:

The problem is one of market maturation leading to fragmentation. If/when you can recognize a new media in development, it will be dominated by 1 or 2 providers who channel their adopters positive energy as more and more people adopt the new media and if you advertise there you will be tapping into that concentrated flow.

Over time, more and more competitors will come into that new media segment and will dilute the participant pool. The energy will bleed off and it will be more difficult to figure out how to advertise effectively.

Eventually people will start leaving the use of that media channel simply because the perceived benefit is overwhelmed by the costs.

Facebook and other social media are becoming passe' . They are fading. Same thing with services like LinkedIn. What it costs to people to maintain their accounts and interact with these services is outweighing the benefits. A core of users will continue. But the adoption phase is over for them.

I am not sure what the "new" thing is.

Another observation is that these social media very much alter the way people interact both on and off line. They alter the way people think and how they perceive. Things like Facebook and Twitter have encouraged a world where thinking hardly exists and reacting with sound bites or emoticons is considered communicating.

There will be a backlash against this as people can only deal with this kind of vacuousness for so long.

Data monetization - if you're not getting intelligent about your marketing you will get walked on.