Have you got bored of saying Happy New Year in emails yet? This may well be the last new year related article you read so I will try and make it a good one. 2011 was another bumper year for digital but like IE6, that's dead now. What does 2012 have in store?

Social Commerce

Conversion optimisation will be the SEO of 2012 (if it isn’t already). Ranking and traffic are crucial starting points but are irrelevant without conversion. Aside from applying user centric design, inspiring content and products we can greatly support conversion with social proof.

The weight of the opinion of our peers in commercial decision making is immense. Social proof is the theory that we look at what others are doing to reassure us we’re making the right decision. To date almost 50% of shoppers have made a purchase based on a recommendation through a social network. This will only increase with moves by Google to bring search results and social networking more closely aligned with Google+ data influencing rank. In 2012 brands will begin to invest more in taking a sophisticated approach to social commerce and harnessing peer power.

Location Based Marketing

Although Foursquare and Facebook Places have trail blazed location based marketing, uptake is still not that great. However targeting consumers by location is a sophisticated way to engage people in a way that’s personal to them.

Google recently announced it is working on new products that make use of its location based services. Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of product management, said during a session at LeWeb in Paris that they were exploring monetisation of check-ins. In a similar way to mainstream mobile web I can see this prediction hanging around for a while before it really takes off, but it will.

Mobile Payments

UK smartphone adoption is forecast to tip from 40 to 60% this year and for many the relationship with the phone will become more intimate than ever. 83% of millennials already sleep with their mobile. With large storage capacity and creative apps in abundance everything we need is on our mobile. In 2012 so will our wallets.

Roughly 170,000 UK shoppers a week are already using eBay's mobile app. PayPal saw mobile transactions multiplied by almost 6 times in 2011. Google Wallet should be launched in the UK for the Olympics. Near Field Communication (NFC), which enables data exchange between two devices will become a standard smartphone feature. This in turn will create opportunities for mobile operators and brands to engage with consumers in convenient new ways.

Gamification

The number one buzz word of the previous year was gamification. 2012 will be the year this evolves as brands embrace the concept, following early successes of Get Glue and Badgeville. Gamification will see brands integrate this technology into their own products and services, offering more sophisticated points and rewards systems.

Convergence of platforms

In 2012 we will see a greater emphasis on single build development projects that encapsulate all digital platforms into one single code base. HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS3 will form the foundation of all these builds with minimal native coding. This will be partly to save budget but mostly to create a consistent, real time user experience across all digital touch points.

In order to achieve this developers do require the widespread adoption of standards compliant browsers by users. Thankfully smartphones already use pretty sophisticated and up to date browsers. The acceleration of the innovative browser chrome, which is only 3 years old and already holds 26% market share, shows that we are beginning to see the stranglehold of IE, at 40%, loosen.

Social platforms to look out for

You might think its all about Facebook, Twitter and Google+ now but you might want to look out for these up and coming (mostly mobile) platforms in the next twelve months:

• path
  
• pinterest
  
• instagram
  
• ifttt

Going Public

The latest forecasts suggest that Facebook will be worth as much as $100 billion on its Wall Street debut, creating at least a thousand millionaires. The expectations for the Facebook IPO are very high. Many internet firms, including Groupon and LinkedIn, went public in 2011, but the response was mostly underwhelming. However investors have big hopes for Facebook and as regulators enforce the public disclosure of figures in the build up we will be learning a lot more about its business model and their future vision for the social web.

Did I miss anything? Please let me know in the comments below.

Since the global economy tanked in 2008 things have been pretty gloomy for most of us. Inflation is soaring, unemployment is high, credit has all but vanished and the debt-laden government is cutting at a faster rate than happy hour in Sweeney Todd’s. Not great. However in an effort to try and look on the brighter side of life I thought I would examine how these economic conditions have actually helped progress the digital industry.

1. User Centric Design

I have worked in digital since 2001 and in that time one of the most frequently frustrating experiences has been persuading people to design for their users, not themselves.

Design solutions should be based on a thorough understanding of the core target audience and clear business objectives that you wish to convert on. However I have spent many hours in meeting rooms trying to persuade decision makers not to commit design hari-kari by letting personal preference dictate the path we took. I have tried everything from blunt refusal to regaling the fable of Homer’s Car but could never seem to surmount the issue.

However, when market conditions are tough and budgets need to work hard you cannot afford to risk losing valuable eyeballs and custom because you prefer pink to blue. Briefs have always pertained to place the user first but we have noticed clients like Channel 4, BBC, The British Library, Pearson Education and others I cannot directly mention put increasing emphasis and budget on analytical research, user focus groups and thorough usability testing during the design phase.

It is very illuminating that when budgets need to work harder you see increased investment in a particular area. You might think the trend would be to “best guess” and cut corners but when you have to get results, you can’t afford to muck around on design.

2. Wider adoption of new ideas and trends

Similarly I have also noticed corporate brands embracing and adopting fresh ideas and trends that I previously would have associated to forward thinking geeks and start-ups. Open source software is now pro-actively requested rather than suggested and a lot of the old wives tales about lack of accountability and support have been put to bed. Did anyone ever try calling Microsoft when their .Net site crashed anyway?

I no longer spend a significant portion of my week scanning signed NDAs as people have begun to appreciate that the best way to succeed online is to share and iterate your great idea rather than hide behind password protection for months whilst crafting the all-singing all-dancing solution. Instead I am pleased to see clients shipping the minimal viable product and holding budget for future iterations once real users have got their hands on it.

If the economy doesn’t sort itself out soon we might even see the Agile project process becoming a regular fixture but I think it will be a while before people can fully trust the cost effectiveness of that path.

3. Customer Service is fashionable again

About 10 years ago it was decided upon high that customer service units should be offshored to reduce costs and this would be a great deal for the consumer because of more competitive prices. I am not so sure the consumer agreed, or got a better deal, but it didn’t really matter, as they had no way of really being heard beyond mouthing off in the local pub to a few disinterested souls.

I guess the powers that be didn’t anticipate social media. When your margins are tight and undercutting on price is not viable customer service can be the differentiator. As consumers feeling the pinch we want to spend our pennies effectively and that means taking informed recommendations from others. It is near impossible for a brand to buy a good online reputation. Brands have to prove themselves if they want to build trust and loyalty. Simply put, they have to engage.

And many have! I have anecdotal evidence of BT sorting out a huge billing mess triggered by a frustrated tweet I sent out and I know of many others. It has spawned the Thank You Economy and has proved to be a champion bottom line strategy by guys like Tony Hsieh. It is a return to the principles of the local store where properly serving the community made all the difference between success and failure. Mass consumerism killed that off for a while but it is back now with a vengeance.

4. Death toll for IE6

Internet Explorer version 6 is over 10 years old and the time has come for it to take its place in the historical archives. In a tough environment you need to differentiate from the competition and maximise your budget reach. Neither of these is likely when you are catering to the low-tech needs of 2.9% of your user base (and it’s shrinking rapidly).

I was heartened to see that Google is dropping browser support on its products for anything beyond the previous two versions and the new Alpha Government Project spearheaded by Martha Lane Fox deviated from traditional Government website guidelines by ignoring IE6 and focussing on modern web standards to create delightful experiences for the vast majority. I highly recommend reading their design principles blog post.

5. Innovation in technology embraced

In much the same way we have noticed an embrace of new trends by previously conservative decision makers we have also seen dramatic shifts in how clients look at tech. Cloud platforms and virtualisation servers have been around for a while but have only been seen as acceptable solutions when the cost effectiveness of them became a determining factor on whether a project could happen or not.

Previously we were dreaming up physical dedicated server solutions housed in Central London using traditional (expensive) CDNs to distribute media. This often meant large up front costs to buy expensive licenses and kit. There used to be a sense that it was important to completely own and house your own web architecture, and there was a real distrust of using someone else’s platform, it felt that it even cheapened the offering.

Now we are not only seeing powerful and scalable cloud services becoming common for site hosting but within offices virtualised documents, file sharing, and other software as a service is being widely adopted. We are using a more diverse and tailored toolset to increase efficiency as team sizes shrink, budgets reduce and competition intensifies.

In conclusion...

I do think all of these trends were coming regardless of the economic situation we faced but the recession has certainly brought focus to what is important, killed off a few ridiculous old wives tales that were holding us back and opened our minds to new and improved ways of working.

Would you add any other items to the list? Let me know in the comments below.

You have probably heard about the recent social media explosion surrounding Quora. There have been some pretty grandiose claims about how it could be "bigger than Twitter" and "the future of blogging" so I thought I would give you a closer look to see what all the fuss was about.

What is Quora?

"Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organised by everyone who uses it." - their definition

• You ask a question and the community answers it. You can also subscribe to topics, answers or people that interest you.
• It utilises your existing connections via close ties with Twitter and facebook so you are more likely to start getting answers from people you're already engaged with.
• The best answers get voted up Digg style, the dross is pushed down so you iterate towards quality.
• Relevant content is collated into a facebook-like feed enabling new content to be brought to your attention (via notifications).
• It has a strong, intelligent search engine for easily finding topics and answers surrounding the question you might have.

So it's like a discussion forum then... wow!

Indeed! Plus Q&A sites are not exactly unique either so why has it carved out its space on the web and been so highly praised by the big players of Silicon Valley? The answer lies in building personal reputation. Aside from the pleasure of writing, bloggers generally publish in order to share their opinions, experiences and expertise so they can build an audience and ultimately become influential. However this can be at quite a considerable cost in terms of their time creating and marketing that content (ask me how I know!) and is rarely successful.

By engaging with Quora on topics that you have sound knowledge and opinion on you can build audience and influence much faster than before. A well constructed and timely answer will get voted up towards the top and therefore will be read (alongside links to your profile) by everyone following the topic. Invariably, you will pick up more followers and be inclined to write better quality answers to help increase your votes. It's this game mechanic that has really set Quora apart.

Ok, I'm liking this anything else cool?

Funny you should ask. The SEO benefits are actually astounding. Q&A sites are doing particularly well in natural search at the moment (as are video and real time social media content) as the space race for relevancy and fresh content continues between the major search engines. It is completely feasible that your post on Quora could top the search term for the topic whereas your own blog post would normally nestle somewhere on page 5. Now that is powerful, and it's already started happening.

The quality of the current conversations is really high, primarily because of the extremely engaged early adopter community who buys into the concept and is committed to producing good content. Additionally there is the chance of commencing discussions with the top people in each topic field. Thought leaders and CEOs such as AOL's former chairman Steve Case are talking openly with regular users on a level playing field (not from a lofty conference stage). This is your time to be seen and heard by the right people.

It is not to everyone's taste though!

It wouldn't be right if I didn't list a few faults would it?

• The site does spew out a lot of notification emails which can be a little annoying, especially during this massive growth period. Although do you remember how many invites you got to join facebook initially? However, it was enough to prompt one developer to create this spoof site.
• You are building your reputation on someone else's platform. No different to doing the same on Twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace etc. but Quora is still in its infancy and anything could happen. Maybe best not to shut down that blog just yet and possibly repost what you write on Quora there as well?
• As the platform expands into the mainstream there is a danger that it will dilute and get spammed causing the big guns that are currently engaged to get bored by mediocrity from the wider community of fools. Some people feel Twitter is moving this way and it certainly is the reason Yahoo! Answers is widely derided. In this case we could see questions outstripping answers. The community must continue to police Quora for quality but will they stay engaged?
• You can edit another person's question. This is a marmite feature and does feel reminiscent of the warring editors of Wikipedia battling for supremacy. Where reputation matters, big ego also lurks.

Do you use it Mark?

I must admit I did sign up pretty early (last summer) and just clicked about, followed a few of the geek guys I take note of on Twitter and pretty much left it there until the explosion around Christmas. I am following a few topics like "Getting your startup featured on TechCrunch" and "What's the best CMS to build a corporate website?" and the quality of answers are really high! It's undoubtedly a useful resource.

However I'm not addicted to riding on the sweet high of Quora as yet. That may be because I am not really trying to build my personal brand as much as I am for our agency. Quora is currently positioned around the individual although inevitably in the future it will open up for companies in much the same way facebook did. Brands are being mentioned right now so if you represent one I would start searching straight away and getting in on the conversations early.

You can follow me here if you like and please do tell me what you think of Quora in the comments below.

It doesn’t look like we are going to be bowled over by a flood of new digital trends in 2011. All the trends that have been predicted to dominate the digital world this year are those that we are already familiar with, but improved, innovated and expanded.

We are already “social” and “connected” and we go online to fulfil great deal of our personal and professional needs. We will clearly continue spending more time online as more and more aspects of our everyday life becomes dependent on technology. Now we can access internet on the go and anytime we like through smart phones, tablets and the like. As a result, digital trends are becoming an integrated part of cultural trends as they seem to shape and alter the way we interact, exchange information and live our everyday lives. I have therefore picked a few digital trends that I believe will have a significant impact on the way I do things and also those that will be fun to watch evolving.

To start with, there will be shift from ecommerce to social commerce, which has been coming for a while now. Since we can make our buying decisions based on advice from those we trust, why should we rely on the advertising? As a result, we will be more likely to make a purchase online and we will increasingly do so with our smartphone. In addition, our online shopping activity will be facilitated by the relevant app that will make our shopping experience easier and more enjoyable. Mobile apps such as scoutmob.com and shopkick will improve accessibility, help us to get all the product information we need and make transactions fast and painless. Moreover, the use of geo-localised apps will help us save as we benefit from discounts and special offers that come with collective buying. Apart from being kind to your pockets, using apps such Gowalla, Foursquare, Brightkite or Loop will also be social as they let us check where our friends are and what they are up to.

As the digital world is enters all areas of our personal and public lives there will be more and more issues around privacy. This debate has become a driver for innovations and improvements i.e. Facebook groups etc. and it will heat up in 2011 shaping the digital world further.

Let’s look further at these 5 top digital trends of 2011:

1. Apps, apps everywhere

Apps will continue the move beyond mobile, invading other platforms such as desktops, tablets, TV etc. As user expectations grow apps will continue to innovate and 2011 will see the improvements in the relevance of Apps as users look for a more personal, tailored experience

2. Digital convergence

2011 will see multiple devices coming closer together. Experts are predicting that in the future we will have only one device to do everything. The most exciting thing here is the potential of “web-enabled TV”. We have already seen this happening with Google TV and Apple TV. As this trend continues to grow it won’t be long before our tablets become our computers, TV’s, phones and anything else we might need. Expect to see the first “connected TV”, right on cue for the Olympics.

3. Geo-location, Geo-location , Geo-location

We are already used to Google,Yahoo and Bing displaying our search results according to the location we are in but prepare for things to get even more localised and personalised as Google plans to add contextual discovery to search.

This will mean that Google will work out your location, conduct a search and choose the best results for the particular user. Google’s aim is to push search results to users based on their location and their preferences - Google Places and Hotpot will be the means of gathering these preferences.

We will also go local when “checking into” places via our smartphones. We’re all familiar with Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite, Loop, Google Latitude and Facebook Places. Geo-location combined with social media will be huge in 2011 we can expect numerous Groupon and LivingSocial copycats to spring up. You should also expect Google to dominate location (primarily via mobile) with embedded social elements to it.

4. Ecommerce is over - Long live social commerce

“If I had to guess, social commerce is the next area to really blow up” Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) Social commerce involves the use of social media, in the context of e-commerce, to assist with buying and selling products and services online. In the last few years users are increasingly reliant on collaborative ecommerce tools that enable them "to get advice from trusted individuals, find goods and services and then purchase them."

This Social Commerce includes customer ratings and reviews, user recommendations and referrals, shared online shopping, advice forums and so on. Facebook’s virtual currency, “Facebook credits”, will initially allow users to pay for virtual goods such as games, but will eventually let them buy anything, with the network expected to take a 30% cut of all transactions… Procter & Gamble has started selling its Max Factor brand cosmetics through Facebook as part of what the FMCG giant calls ‘small-scale direct-to-consumer’ initiatives. The ability for users to buy products without leaving the site could have major implications for retailers.

"Major brands will create social transactional applications and it will become commonplace for users to be able to make transactions on social media platforms rather than simply using social media to influence their purchasing behaviour," predicts Justin Cooke, chair of the British Interactive Media Association.

5. Internet privacy

The concerns regarding data protection and safety will continue to be a subject of numerous discussions. The debate will heat up this year as the privacy issues have to be regulated and there will need to be consensus between regulators and the industry about the scope of personal information which forms an online identity.

We can expect online activities such as Cookies, digital fingerprinting and behavioural targeting to come under strict surveillance in order to get them regulated and safe. In addition, online marketers will have to work harder to provide transparency and build credibility as consumers are becoming increasingly more scepitcal. They will have to be clearer about their data models and enable users to manage their own profiles.

With the coming changes and developments in digital technology expect to be given even greater ability to engage with all the messages coming at us as we are constantly encouraged to have our say, express our “likes”, comment and make recommendations to our friends.

You can read more about the digital trends here:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7014-digital-marketing-trends-2011-by-econsultancy-ceo-ashley-friedlein

http://trends2011.clickhere.com/ 

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/09/the-decline-of-asocial-shopping-and-the-rise-of-social-commerce/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2010/dec/30/facebook-2011-sophy-silver

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/disciplines/digital/forget-e-commerce-social-commerce-is-where-its-at/3016388.article

http://socialcommercetoday.com/speed-summary-wired-feb-2011-cover-story-on-social-commerce/

http://www.mobilemarketingmagazine.co.uk/content/11-digital-trends-2011

http://www.slideshare.net/eMarketerInc/emarketer-webinar-key-digital-trends-for-2011?from=ss_embed

http://www.mediabizbloggers.com/media-biz-bloggers/113093094.html

http://www.pcworld.com/article/192803/geolocation_101_how_it_works_the_apps_and_your_privacy.html