5 Emerging Trends for 2010

By Matt Valentine 

I am clever. You can tell because the title of this article rhymes. I am also trendy which means I have been the victim of some pretty terrible movements in fashion, hair, you name it. I had a bowl cut back in ’95, I owned cargo pants from Old Navy in ’98 (which I am going to resurrect in 2010), I was Emo for a week back in 2000, of course I became metro sexual for about a month in 2005, until my girlfriend broke up with me for taking too long to get ready. 

The point is I like to stay on top of trends. And now that I am a young businessman I try to focus my energy on emerging trends in the business world, instead of trends that make me look like a fool (although some of these may make me look foolish if they don’t pan out, but by then whose going to remember I wrote this?). So, with all kidding aside here is what I think the emerging business trends of 2010 will be.

Going Mobile-

Smartphone’s are pretty trendy right now (yep, I said it) one of the few trends that I actually don’t regret getting involved with. And that’s just it. With more and more people using iPhones, Androids, Blackberry’s etc. marketers are going to be targeting us where they know they can reach us and that’s on our phones. Expect to see businesses both large and small rolling out a slew of mobile targeted marketing campaigns.

Soon your text inbox may be inundated with coupons, updates, announcements etc. Will it get annoying? Probably, just take a look at some of the things you have in the spam folder of your e-mail, but it will happen for better or worse.

Social media will continue to expand into the mobile market in 2010 as well. Expect to see some updated mobile versions of your favorite social media apps in 2010 so you can follow all of Ashton Kutcher's important tweets like: 'Watching my wife steam my suit while wearing a bikini. I love God!' Seriously, why is this guy the most followed person on Twitter? In fact, have you ever looked at the top ten most followed people on Twitter (and you can here http://twitterholic.com/) ? It reads like a who's who of people with nothing important to say. Barack Obama at #4...who is that guy?

Hyper Local-

Everything from news to business advertising will be going hyper local in 2010. As regional newspapers and news outlets begin to feel the fallout from layoffs and cutbacks a void is going to be left behind and that void will be filled by hyper local news portals. As that trend begins to emerge along with it will come hyper local advertising.

A good example is something called PlaceLocal developed by PaperG. According to PaperG’s website, PlaceLocal is, “a local ad platform that can automatically build a stunning, customized online ad for any local business.”

Basically, PlaceLocal will build the ad for you and run your ad on well known websites in your area. You have the option to upload your own ad, or edit the ad PlaceLocal created. Expect to see many small businesses utilizing local ad providers like PlaceLocal in 2010 to promote their business.

Staying at Home-

Thankfully, I am gainfully employed, (you don’t think I just write these magnificent articles for fun do you?) but many Americans (about 10%) are not and even more have had to take reduced wages and reduced hours as businesses are still reeling from the economic recession.

Many have taken this unwelcome free time to turn themselves into entrepreneurs, or more accurately homepreneur, a word someone just made up. According to the SBA (Small Business Association) half of all small business are home-based and according to me, due to the ease of technology and relatively low costs, that figure will continue to rise in 2010. 

Waving Goodbye to E-mail-

I’ve said it before here @ http://kdf-comp.blogspot.com/2009/12/death-of-e-mail-and-wave-of-future.html, but 2010 could truly see the death of e-mail as Google introduces Google Wave (I told you I was clever; see heading). Google Wave is currently in a preview stage and is accepting new users by invitation only. Invitations are limited to 8 per person so if you know anyone on it and really want to see what Google Wave is all about ask them for an invitation. Better yet, if you help spread this article around and make me look good I’ll send you one of my coveted invitations. I won’t go into all the details of Wave in this article as I have already done that previously so feel free to check out the other link.

Going Green-

Going green has been trendy for a while now. How could it not be with a dynamic spokesman like Al Gore? Despite recent controversy surrounding the global warming issue businesses and consumers alike are still embracing the green movement. This will lead to new opportunities for small business entrepreneurs as businesses shift to sustainable business practices, products and services in 2010 and beyond.

Matt Valentine is the Marketing Manager at KDF Reprographics, Inc. providers of Large Format Printing, Vehicle Wraps, Fleet Graphics, Color Scanning, Posters, Banners and Trade Show Displays. To contact Matt or setup an interview please call 888-533-2667 or visit our website @ http://www.kdf-comp.com/ or you can become a fan on Facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rockleigh-NJ/KDF-Reprographics-Inc/209102776252?ref=ts or follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/KDFReprographic

The Death of E-Mail and the Wave of the Future

To many of us email plays an integral role in our everyday interactions whether they are business or personal.

For the last decade email has been the essential non-voice communication tool. A study of U.S. workers by Pew Internet & American life found that 88 percent checked their inbox at least once a day. Of those 70 percent checked several times a day.

According to a study by the American Management Association, U.S. workers spend an average of 1 hour and 47 minutes per day dealing with email.

Eight percent spent more than four hours a day dealing with email.

According to the Association for Interactive Marketing, small businesses spend 10% of their time on email management.

With all this time dedicated solely to email one has to wonder how anyone could so boldly claim the death of e-mail.

The reasoning is actually two-fold.

First, as younger people enter the work place they bring with them an appetite for instant gratification. Having lived through the social-media revolution they demand and expect instantaneous, real-time interaction. Their devotion to technologies such as SMS and Instant Messaging has led many of them to turn their backs on the “relic” that is e-mail.

In fact, new research shows that the growth rate of instant messaging through service such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft is far outpacing the growth in the use of e-mail.

Second, e-mail has several disadvantages and liabilities. Spam and viruses have not only turned off the younger generation of internet users, but have also caused security issues for small businesses and large corporations alike.

Furthermore, compared with the abilities of many Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook, Twitter etc. where interactions occur in the blink of an eye. Email can be ignored, or postponed until the receiver is ready, a huge disadvantage in the eyes of many.

The truth is however, for business people email is still an extremely necessary form of communication and social media services such as Facebook and Twitter while effective for certain types of communication lack a formal tone that is often needed in a business setting.

I don’t know how many people would feel comfortable updating their boss about a project by shooting him a tweet or posting a Facebook status.

Enter Google Wave. An appropriately named application as it is positioned to be the wave of the future and the proverbial noose around e-mail’s neck.

In essence Google Wave is a real time communication platform that combines a number of elements including email, instant messaging, web chat, social networking, wikis, and project management.

Google Wave introduces a host of “game changing” features that can significantly alter the way we conduct business.

Here are just some of the features Google Wave offers:

-Real-time: Every person involved in a Wave can see what someone is typing as they are typing it character by character.

-Extensions and Apps: Google Wave will introduce a number of extensions and applications that can be utilized in a variety of ways. Users can add a game of Sudoku to their wave, or an extension called Trippy in which users can, according to Google “co-create an itinerary including Lonely Planet recommendations organize, share, print or export to My Maps.” For businesses the Conference extension will prove to be extremely useful.

-Open Source: Allows plenty of room for expansion and innovation. Developers will be able to create new extensions and applications as new needs arise providing Google Wave with endless opportunities to improve.

-Embed Waves: If you have a great Wave that you would like to share with others waves can be easily embedded onto any blog or website.

-Real-time editing (Wiki): Every aspect of a Wave can be edited by anyone taking part in the Wave. Users can add items to a list, expand on ideas etc. all in real time.

-Playback: Enables users to go to any point of a wave and see what was said.

-Drag and Drop File Sharing: Take a file from your desktop, drag it into a Wave and each person in the Wave will have instant access to the file.

-Autocorrecting: Google Wave will automatically correct spelling mistakes, and can even decipher the difference between words like there and their.

Google Wave is currently in a preview phase and will certainly undergo many changes before it is released on a mass scale, but I have to admit Wave looks incredibly promising so far.

It seems very likely that in the not too distant future we will all be riding the Wave, and email will be left in its wake.