On the web: Looking ahead to 2016

Clint Lanier, crlainer@gmail.com 1:02 a.m. MST December 28, 2015

Clint Lanier(Photo: Courtesy photo)

LAS CRUCES - In terms of digital media, social media, digital advertising and web-based marketing, 2015 was an amazing year. As was predicted in 2014 we saw a number of existing technologies finally come into their own and surge into importance. Video is chief among them, as are mobile-based technologies.

And although there are no shortages of articles claiming to prophesize the digital future, I thought it would be fun to add my own two cents. So without further ado here are what I see as the main digital trends to watch for in 2016. Start thinking about them now and how your business can begin preparing for them.

Video continues to rise

This one (and admittedly the next) are cheaters, as they are most certainly coming true. However, they are important to keep in mind. Did I say important? I meant crucial.

Video has quickly become the number one consumed digital content in the world. Already YouTube gets over one billion unique visitors per month. That's more than any other platform out there. And that's just on the website. That doesn't include videos from YouTube that play on other sites, like Facebook or blogs: the amount of video streamed every day is mind-boggling.

In a report released in mid-2015, computer hardware and software manufacturer Cisco said that video will account for 69 percent of all internet traffic by 2017. If you don't have a plan to use video for your business, you better start thinking about it quickly.

Mobile is king

The certainty of the importance of mobile websites was made concrete when Google announced in the spring of 2015 that they would begin giving preference in search results to those sites that were "mobile friendly."

This played havoc with the search engine optimization (SEO) of many sites. Those that had always scored in the top of the rankings were suddenly lowered and replaced by competitors who had sites that were easy to view on mobile devices (mobile friendly).

In 2016 it will become even more important. Ultimately, small business owners will be forced to turn their websites into mobile friendly sites, as not only will search engines demand it, but customers will too as more and more browse the web with their phones.

More web apps

Apps are already a familiar part of the vernacular thanks to Apple and Android mobile devices. Over the past year, however, we've seen web-apps become more popular for various other devices as well, including for desktop computers and even smart televisions.

I use web apps routinely for everything from banking to shopping, and quite honestly they've made my life a lot easier (I haven't set foot in bank in months).

Look for even more web-apps with different and expanded functionality. Also look for the opportunity for small businesses to create their own apps for shopping or to provide information for their customers.

Continued fracturing

Web-based customers continue to fracture as more apps, more social media sites, even more web platforms are created. We've already seen this trend in social media marketing. Businesses that want to dominate their space must have a strong presence in Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, SnapChat and others.

The coming year will see this become even worse. I believe as more and more niche-based networks, apps and platforms become common, businesses will become more selective than they have been in the past few years. Right now, even with the number of networks mentioned above, a business can still do a fairly good job of covering each. However this will grow increasingly impossible and we'll see businesses focus on doing one or two really well.

More content

The slogan over the past year has been that "content is king" when it comes to marketing. In other words, putting "content" out (and by content we mean advertising with entertainment value) is the most important strategy you could have as a business.

As a result we've seen a multitude of programs – what we used to call television shows – created by brands to promote the brands. We see memes and images all the time that are funny and that we share enthusiastically, unwittingly sharing the brand name that created the meme as well.

This will continue, and soon we will be searching for the marketing in disguise as entertainment to entertain us.

So there you have them: my five predictions for 2016. If you are a small business owner and you're trying to figure out what kind of marketing goals you should set for the new year, maybe this list will give you some ideas.

Happy New Year and thanks for reading!

Clint Lanier is an adjunct professor at New Mexico State University.

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