metarand

The Seggr Top Eight Predictions for 2010

The team at Seggr spends a lot of time talking to key influencers at the nexus between technology and business from around the world.

From our unique position, we use our pattern recognition skills to detect and track emergent trends. As we move into the season of giving we wanted to share with you what we see as our Top Eight focus points for 2010:

1. Influence emerges as the universal currency.

2. Personal privacy gets redefined by forces like locational tagging and the intention web.

3. More mobile social business, more game mechanics.

4. Exclusive, velvet rope social networks emerge from the shadows.

5. Augmented Reality begins to move beyond its cool cache and provide real value.

6. Digital curation takes social deep and narrow: laser focusing the firehose.

7. Enterprise speeds up: brands unshackle themselves from ad agencies and get proactive in real time, through microtargeting and deeper, contextual engagement.

8. Social media monitoring standardizes and commoditizes through the emergence of dominant, open platforms and become actionable.

[Picture courtesy of tomhide]

Tags: 2010, Augmented Reality, Brands, digital curation, Enterprise, game mechanics, Influence, mobile social business, Privacy, Social Media, social networks, velvet rope

5 ways influence is rapidly changing the media and advertisting landscapes

On Tuesday I’ll be co-chairing the Future of Influence Summit together with Ross Dawson. It’s an extremely topical area as we are rapidly seeing a complete shift in the media arena as a result of innovations in influence. I personally predict that the whole concept of an advertising industry is about to be turned on its head and that this is already more well advanced than many industry players are aware of.

Ross has pointed to five key trends that are the leading edge of this transformation:

1. The democratization of influence

It used to be that influence was a direct result of a person’s placement on some form of elevated platform – the CEO of a multinational, politician or a journalist with a media empire backing them.

These folks are still heard, but more and more voices of influence are emerging from completely left of field. Tools such as Twitter have liberated the great unwashed masses. Anyone can start a movement and many are.

2. Quantifying influence

How well a brand campaign runs has always been one of the advertising industries great smoke and mirror acts. No more. Influence is becoming far more measurable. In fact, as Ross points out, there will be more metrics for individual influence as well and these will be used as for more accurate guide to who we hire and do business with.

3. Individual reputation trumps corporate influence

We are more likely to trust a company based on the reputation of the individuals running it than ever before. Steve Jobs drives Apple’s influence. Jeremiah Oywang’s move from Forrester to The Altimeter Group was more about him as a key influencer than about Forrester.

4. Influence is the new media

We listen to those who we trust, we listen to those who deliver us value. If a newspaper continuously delivers news items well after you’ve digested them from your personal newsfeed, the newspaper’s influence over you will decrease significantly. Ross sums this up well – publishing itself won’t get an audience – only influencers will create views.

5. The influence economy is born

Again, Ross has this covered: the $550 billion advertising industry may be transformed.

I’m really looking forward to the conversation next week.

Tags: #foi09, Influence, Media