Links of Note: Top Trends and Predictions for 2010
The View from Here
It’s Jan. 31st already, and that new year feeling is fading fast, which reminds me of my favorite line from Shelley:
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?
But while we are still in the season of resolutions and predictions, I’m providing below a list of Top Trends posts, which will shape my reading and likely my blog posts, in the coming months.
So, what’s your top technology or business prediction for the new year?
And have you decided yet how to pronounce 2010? Is it ”twenty ten,” or “two thousand ten”?
Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty officially weighs in that either pronunciation is correct, though both she and the Associated Press have made the same style decision, to call this year “twenty ten.”
I’m not sure if I’m just very formal or being contrary, but I find myself more often saying, “two thousand ten.”
Enough with New Year’s and winter thoughts. Just 48 more days, until Spring. Onward.
Technology and Web Trends
From TechCrunch: Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010
ReadWriteWeb’s Top 5 Web Trends of 2009
From WebWorker Daily: Where Will We Be at the End of the Next Decade?
From iMedia Connection: Emerging platforms you should bookmark (or forget about) in 2010
Technical Communication Trends
From the Technical Communication Center (by Larry Kunz): Technical Communication Trends in the 2010s
From the Scriptorium Publishing Blog: 2010 predictions for technical communication
From the Cherryleaf Technical Authors Blog: Ten trends in technical communication for 2010 and beyond
From the I’d Rather Be Writing Blog: Top Trends in Technical Communication
Inbound and Online Marketing Trends
From the HubSpot Blog: Must-Read Inbound Marketing Predictions and Resolutions for the New Year
From eMarketer: 12 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2010
From Search Engine Land: The Big List: 2010 Marketing Predictions & Resolutions
Content Management Trends
From CMS Watch: 2010 Content Technology Predictions
Online Learning Trends
From the Social Media in Learning Blog: More (social media) predictions for 2010
Search Trends
From WebPro News: Search Trends for 2010 and Beyond
From the Skipease Blog: Five Google Search Trends for 2010
From the SEOmozBlog: 8 Predictions for SEO in 2010
Social Media Trends
From Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy Blog: Slides: Four Social Media Trends for Business in 2010
From Social Media Today: Five Social Media Predictions for 2010
Personal Branding Trends
From MarketingProfs: Personal Branding Predictions: Top 10 for 2010
Related Links
Social Media Marketing: Free Toolkit from MarketingProfs
Social Media Marketing: Free Kit from MarketingProfs
In addition to coming up on a year blogging, I am also celebrating my first year anniversary, as a MarketingProfs member. Since that time, I’ve started contributing to the MarketingProfs newsletters on search engine marketing, but in addition to freelancing for MarketingProfs, I remain a satisfied customer.
As a Pro member, I’ve benefited from MarketingProfs premium content and on-demand marketing seminars. I am constantly amazed at the low-cost of the membership, especially given the quality of the online seminars and the stature of the presenters. Unlike most webinars, MarketingProfs offers seminars in an hour and a half format, providing a much more generous question and answer. The accompanying presentation materials are always highly professional.
This year, I’ve also attended both MarketingProfs virtual and in-person conferences and joined its several online communities. I’ve learned from MarketingProfs’ diverse content as well, including daily posts, how-to-articles, case studies, guides, and reports.
If you’re interested in social media for marketing, and want to enjoy the benefits of basic membership with MarketingProfs (including free, limited access to its content), you can start out, by downloading the Free Social Media Marketing Kit.
For Pro members, don’t forget that in honor of MarketingProfs 10th birthday, you can renew your Pro membership for 40% off, if you renew by 1/31. If you’re a Basic member, upgrade quickly to receive the same generous discount.
Under the “Related Links” below, you can learn more about the benefits I’ve experienced first-hand this year, from my MarketingProfs membership, and by participating in its high-quality events. Another great resource to check out is the MarketingProfs Blog, My Daily Fix, with ongoing opinion, commentary, and news.
Related Links
- MarketingProfs Virtual Event: Digital Marketing World: Spring 2009 – Winning Against the Odds
- MarketingProfs Conference: MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009 ~ re:invent, re:charge, re:engage
- MarketingProfs On-Demand Seminars: Summer on Demand at MarketingProfs: Recordings Available for Social Media Series
- Search Engine Strategies Keynote: Charlene Li on How to Prepare for the Future of Search
- MarketingProfs Research: B2B Marketing in 2009: Trends in Strategies and Spending
Getting to Know You: A Quick Poll
Understanding Audience
“Getting to Know You/ Getting to Know All About You/ Getting to Like You/ Getting to Hope You Like Me…” Richard Rodgers, “The King and I”
In the spirit of Darren Rowse’s How to Be a More Relational Blogger [Tips for New and Established Bloggers], and my new years’s resolution to participate more in the blogging community (both on and off my blog), I launched a survey yesterday, wanting to learn more about the folks who are dropping by. I got a pretty decent number of views on this post (of course, that’s relative for a new blogger), and one poll response (thanks especially to that respondent)…which brings me to today’s follow-up to yesterday’s poll, where I’m trying to butter you up just a bit, so you feel more inclined to respond…:-) I think there are about seventy regular visitors here, or maybe only the same ten who keep returning each day…(I’m not sure I’m analyzing the stats correctly…) Anyway, whomever you are, whether that’s 70 or 10 folks [I like to think it's 70]…thank you for your continued interest! :-) Welcome also to first-time visitors…
Sometimes, you return readers unmask yourselves, usually when I least expect it, via the occasional comment, or even mentioning my blog in-person, when we randomly meet—which reminds me a bit of Battlestar Galactica. “How?”— you might ask. A good question.
Well, I was a regular fan of the new Battlestar Galactica series (yes, a bit in touch with my inner-geek there, but a lot of us were on that one…it was such a sexy, smart show!)…and whenever someone reveals that s/he has been reading my blog, I feel like one of the Final Five has been revealed from that show’s last season or two (you remember…the human Cylons that stood on the staircase landing in the dream foyer, with their identities disguised in white light, or were they just wearing phantom-like sheets? ok, you don’t remember…well, never mind…let’s move on…)
A private person by nature, I never had any strong urge to leave footprints on the web, until I recently caught the blogging bug…so, if you’re more of a lurker-type than an online contributor, believe me, you’re in good company here, up until very recently. But coming up on a year blogging, I still can’t help wondering a little bit about who you are…are you technical writers? are you marketers? are you writers who have done both? are you more trainer-types? are you in leadership roles, in the trenches, or consultant types? people I’ve worked with? are you working? unemployed? in transition? are you using social media? …are you interested in the more inspirational posts on social media for good? Are you by any chance, mainly my hubby and kids? (For awhile there, unknown to me, my youngest daughter used to view my About Peg Mulligan page multiple times a day to pump me up…It worked, btw.)
Sometimes, I think that maybe my daughter has enlisted the entire first grade class to do the same each day…But if that’s the case, thank you, too! (“Hi, Honey! “Hi, Kids!”…) I’ll take my readers, wherever I find them, very gratefully.
Knowing even this high-level information would help me with the topics I select. (…so please don’t be surprised if Miley Cyrus or Ashley Tisdale rank higher in my topic selection next week, if my theory proves true.) Regardless, I think having that mental picture of who visits here would help me to write a bit more conversationally, and with greater focus.
So in the quick poll below, please let me know a bit about your reasons for visiting this blog. (If more than one reason applies, please select the best reason.) In the free text option, also feel free to add any reasons I might have overlooked. Or in the comments, I’d love to know what types of posts you like the most, or answer any questions you might have, possibly about this first year of blogging, especially if you are a beginner blogger as well.
Understanding my audience is the purpose of this survey. That’s one of the first rules of technical communication, marketing communication, training, UI, or any product development. I kick myself for not asking sooner.
All feedback is anonymous and really appreciated.
–Peg
Photo Credit, di_the_huntress
Related Links
Oprah as One of Us
Oprah's 24th Season Kickoff Party
In Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust, co-authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith describe trust agents as “people who humanize the Web” (p. 20). They go on to organize their book around six overarching but interrelated behaviors that describe what a trust agent is (p. 28).
Making Her Own Game
In the opening chapter on “Trust, Social Capital, and Media,” Brogan and Smith mention Oprah Winfrey, as amply demonstrating the first characteristic of a trust agent—that is, being able to “make your own game.”
In popular entertainment, Oprah Winfrey went from being the local TV weather reporter to a multimillion-dollar media enterprise. Though she used traditional media tools to accomplish this, when you look back on the circumstances of Winfrey’s rise, you’ll recognize all the various points in her career where she made her own game (against some fairly daunting odds). Put another way, making your own game is about standing out (p. 29).
Applying the Archimedes Effect as Gatekeeper
Later in the book, Brogan and Smith describe how Oprah uses the Archimedes Effect—a trust agent principle about leveraging opportunities—by being a gatekeeper for her audience.
Here is a rule of thumb that works really well when it comes to leveraging your relationship with your audience: Don’t ever sell to your audience. Instead, be their gatekeeper.
Think of Oprah Winfrey. She gives and gives, constantly, and leverages that goodwill into bigger and bigger guests and giveaways. But does she ever try to sell to her audience directly? No, Winfrey leverages her audience to provide visibility: to stars, to movies, to car companies. She protects her audience from the bad stuff, and lets the good stuff pass through, making her audience even happier as a result (p. 128).
Being One of Us
For me, even more than making her own game and effectively harnessing the Archimedes Effect, Winfrey epitomizes the trust agent principle, described by Brogan and Smith as being “One of Us.” Being “One of Us,” the co-authors explain, is “about belonging” (p. 29). In David Carr’s NY Times article on Winfrey’s success, A Triumph of Avoiding the Traps, Arianna Huffington observes how Winfrey has always been One of Us:
She was transparent and authentic before those things were cool,” said Arianna Huffington. “When she went through her battles with weight, with her battles to come to grips with her past, we went through those things with her. Now with social media and the Internet, those things are the coin of the realm, but she got there before the rest of us did.
Nice (and Smart) Folks Sometimes Finish First
In my previous review of Trust Agents, I ended with a bit of rhetoric, asking myself as much as the reader, whether it’s possible for nice guys (and gals) to finish first in business. If they are fortunate enough to succeed, I wondered in that post’s conclusion, how often do they remain true to the qualities which brought them so far?
In Winfrey’s case, I find an example that shows it is possible. Here, another quote from David Carr’s NY Times article demonstrates how Winfrey stayed true to herself, and how that genuineness is largely responsible for her business success:
Yes, she followed her heart and taught us we were all pretty on the inside, but Ms. Winfrey also ignored conventional wisdom. As a novice actress, she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in “The Color Purple,” but turned down role after role because she knew her talk show was the thing that would butter her bread. When she does get involved in movies — she is very much behind “Precious,” a recent release — it is a matter of personal conviction combined with commercial calculation.
Oprah, not Winfrey
And if you want really visceral proof of just how much Winfrey is One of Us, check out this ***amazing*** video of The Black Eyed Peas performance of “I Gotta Feeling,” with Oprah on stage in Chicago, kicking off her 24th season. I mean—just look at Oprah’s face—the pure emotion, openness to both her own and others’ experience, and connectedness to her audience. It’s so real, and it’s so, so cool.
Postcript: I called her Winfrey throughout the more book reportish part of this post. —But when I was looking up quotes that I remembered from the Trust Agent book, I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t finding Oprah’s name in the index. Only then did it occur to me that she has a last name. But she’s always been just Oprah to me—because she’s One of Us.
Photo Credit, Vectorlyme
Related Links
2010: A DITA Odyssey (free webcasts, sponsored by Scriptorium Publishing)
Yesterday (1/19), I attended an excellent free webcast, Dita Features in Madcap Flare, sponsored by Scriptorium Publishing, on how MadCap Flare supports DITA constructs.
Scriptorium’s Overall Assessement of DITA Support in Flare, Version 5
- Flare, Version 5 provides a way to create web-based help output.
- Flare, Version 5 provides good support for DITA components (content references, DITA maps, etc.)
- Exporting Flare content to DITA can be problematic.
- Round-tripping (DITA to Flare to DITA or Flare to DITA to Flare) is not supported in this version.
There’s still time to register for webcasts on how these additional tools support DITA-based information.
- On February 16, Simon Bate will demonstrate the DITA features in the oXygen XML editor.
- On March 16, Scott Prentice of Leximation will demonstrate how the DITA-FMx plugin works with
FrameMaker 9.
As an added bonus, attendees can win a free license of the tool shown during each demo. For more information about these sessions and to register, visit Scriptorium Publishing’s events page.
If there are other topics you’d like to see covered in later free webcasts, please send suggestions to training@scriptorium.com.
Related Links
