What is in Store for 2014?

If you are anything like me you are excited about all the technological possibilities of 2014.  Each year it seems like we begin the New Year with ideas of what is to come and somewhere along the line we find that the internet industry has more in store for us than we imagined. Despite that, I thought I would gather up a few predictions I heard and think may be ahead of us in 2014.

Mobile is here.  Mobile devices accounted for 28% of the web traffic in the third quarter of 2013. That is a 67% increase from last year at that time according to the Walker Sands Quarterly Mobile Traffic Report. More and more people are turning to their mobile devices in lieu of their desktop counterparts and anyone with a website should be ready and able to catch their attention and be ready for business no matter which device people are using.

Social will continue its growth. Recently Google’s Executive Chairman went on record as saying that one of the biggest mistakes he made was not anticipating the rise of the social networking phenomenon. But 2014 Google promises to be more in the know, and your business should be as well.  Despite the fact that it just launched two years ago,Google Plus is now home to more than 540 million active users. LinkedIn receives 142 million unique visitors per month.

Images and video will be key. Just as we saw with Pinterest turning the world of images into a spellbinding addiction, you will continue to see the power of images increase in importance to communicate and transcend messaging and brand as never before. As more and more businesses find that a quick video clip or powerful image can grab their customers’ attention, they will find ways to use the new tools out there.

Content sharing will be expected and appreciated. With Content marketing making a huge push in 2013 and so many brands having a strong social media and online presence, customers will become more used to (and expect) their favorite businesses to share their insights in 2014. As more customers try to find their favorite voices in the noisy environment, more smart businesses will offer them a trustworthy community where they can find consistently useful data, such as blogs and newsletters with targeted content and stories.

Whatever the year of 2014 brings, we hope you have a good and prosperous new year and look forward to weathering all those exciting changes together.