Marketing Trends for 2016

At the start of each year, there is always a lot of interest in predictions for the year ahead and the latest marketing trends.”What’s Hot?” and “What’s Next?” are always the most common questions when I give webinars and talks! As we near the end of the first month of 2016, and people look to the year ahead, the interest increases. Since it’s that time again, in this post and a series of others looking at customer lifecycle tactics, I’ll look at what I see as the latest trends in marketing which look set to continue into the rest of 2016.

To inform my thinking on marketing innovation, I’m always interested to hear the view of “hands-on” marketers in businesses running digital marketing activities as to what they see as the most important trends and I’m grateful for readers input into research like that shared in our Managing Digital Marketing report which we will be updating later in the year.

In a poll launched in the Autumn I asked readers to give their views on which digital marketing techniques will matter most to their businesses in 2016. The question was:

Since we’re talking trends, I’m interested to hear your opinion on THE biggest trend in digital marketing as shown by what will make the most difference to your business (or your clients if you work for an agency or as a consultant), i.e. which digital marketing technique will give you the most uplift or incremental benefits?

credit website :www.smartinsights.com

Everything You Need To Know About The Google-Twitter Partnership

Google and Twitter recently reached a deal that once again gave Google access to Twitter’s firehose. Columnist Neil Patel summarizes what we know so far and offers predictions and advice for search marketers.

Google and Twitter are back together (again). In early February, the news broke that Google and Twitter had reached an agreement that will provide Google full access to Twitter’s stream.

Although we don’t know all the details, we can make a few clear statements plus some assumptions about what’s ahead for the world of search and social.

What Does Google Get From The Partnership?
The partnership means that Google now has access to the stream of tweets known as the firehose. The firehose, aptly named, sprays nearly 9,000 tweets per second (as of the time of writing) into the ether of the Internet. As if Google didn’t have to index enough information!

In the old world, Google used to crawl Twitter in order to pull out relevant tweets for search results. That didn’t work very well — try to crawl a velocity of 8,766 tweets per second, and you’ll find out why. If Google did try to crawl Twitter at the appropriate rate, Twitter might very well crumple up in a heap of server meltdown.

Instead, Google now has complete access to the firehose.

Why else would Google want to cozy up with Twitter? Because Google is about all about information — and preferably timely information. Twitter gets timely.

Users aren’t satisfied with the information that is four hours old. They want information that is four seconds fresh. That’s precisely why Twitter was invented.

When Google was a nascent startup, its founders wrote down a list of “10 Things.” Topping the list is this: “Focus on the user and all else will follow.” A little further down, at numbers three and four respectively, are, “Fast is better than slow,” and “Democracy on the web works.” The list also includes several items oriented towards the power of and need for information.

While such statements may be airily dismissed as jargony corporate mission statements (at least they didn’t use the word “synergy”!), Google has done a pretty darn good job of abiding by them.

A quick glance at the Twitter-Google mashup shows us such an alignment. It’s about users. It’s fast. It’s democratic. It’s information. In sum, it’s a pretty good idea.

Article Credit: Searchengineland.com