Leverage These 10 Trends Into Your 2013 Initiatives

This year don't forget to focus on big data, connect your communication dots, and have a social conversation with your community.

2013 will buzz with these 10 big trends. Think about practical ways to leverage these into your digital campaigns.

  1. Big data focus. There is a lot of data being assimilated from multiple channels. Add consumer modeling and offer optimization and you have everything in place to drive total confusion. Do not get caught in the big data trap. Optimize what you collect by communicating quickly and making it relevant to the consumer.
  2. Content still rules. Is what you display attractive? Is it useful? Can your content be shared easily? Given all the different social channels and consumer devices, think about incorporating multi-media content. Your content team should think like a movie production house. If it is not interesting, it will not fly.
  3. Connect your communication dots. Are you looking at your data appropriately across all channels? Your customer might just see your message via an email on their smartphone, or they may even delete the message, but you still need to talk about it on Facebook.
  4. Placate and inspire your internal stakeholders. Different departments within your company will all vie for your attention on how they can leverage the power of social media. Be prepared and create a policy, put together training, and offer to mentor these other departments so they can communicate effectively with your fans.
  5. Have a social conversation. While you will continue to talk about your services, make sure you respond to questions and concerns on social media channels. Solve problems, ask questions, inspire your consumers, look for conversation starters, and then nurture this dialogue.
  6. Social will influence. Ask your customers and members for their feedback. Don’t just ask them to rank your stuff; make it specific and seek this on social media, as social will influence your actions. Consumers seek assurances from their acquaintances as they make decisions. Whether it is Google or Facebook’s Graph Search – at the end of the day, “digital word of mouth” will be influential.
  7. Make things mobile-centric. Can you reduce the amount of content so it can be displayed appropriately on a mobile device? Think about offering a text option, be concise, leverage headers, and make the “short abstract” interesting. Reduce, remove, or optimize images for mobile devices. Most importantly, remember to test how your content looks on different mobile devices.
  8. Leverage the power of search. Choose your words well – many brands spend a significant amount of time and money on search initiatives. Why not leverage those words on your social media channels so you can both gain the power of user-generated content and also be found organically?
  9. Brand your channels. Your channels need to be consistent and communicate with consumers as they are expected to. Make sure that your consumers know what each of your channels stands for, and how quickly can they expect you to respond on these channels.
  10. Effective email campaigns. Make your email campaigns count. Transactional messaging is a must, and marketing messages have to factor in consumer preferences. You need to leverage social media into your messages to make them sticky and also ensure that your messages get into the inbox.

Growth of 2013 image on home page via Shutterstock.

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