WDTalk

I read some predictions this morning that really opened my mind to the possibility of mobile, and the most significant was that 2/3 of mobile traffic would be consumed by video. Here’s the predictions:

A prediction for the future of smartphone growth makes some bold projections:

By the end of this year, there could be more smartphones on the planet than humans, and by 2016 there could be 10 billion smartphones. That’s 1.4 mobile devices per capita.

In its global mobile data traffic forecast, Cisco predicts that a solid chunk of growth will come from the Middle East and Africa, with a compound annual growth rate of 104%, followed by Asia Pacific with 84% growth.

What will people be doing with their smartphones in the coming years? Cisco predicts that by 2016 two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be from videos, increasing 25-fold between now and then. ^[1]  source

I knew YouTube had grown to the second largest search engine in the world, surpassing Bing, Yahoo and Facebook, but these numbers are staggering.

Cisco’s prediction includes more than just smartphones, though. It also takes into account tablets, laptops, handheld gaming consoles, e-readers, in-car entertainment systems, digital photo frames, cameras, and machine-to-machine modules.

Cisco believes all of these gadgets combined will put the total number of mobile-connected devices over 10 billion by 2016. This expected 18-fold growth by 2016 is certainly believable, given that in 2011 global mobile data traffic doubled for the fourth year in a row. ^[2] source

App developers have to be loving these predictions.

I pay a lot of attention to affiliate marketers - because their livelihood depends on accurately analyzing and predicting market trends, then tweaking their marketing and SEO strategies to match. The problem with an awful lot of affiliate marketers is that they’re stuck in 2000-2004 strategies – that worked like clockwork then, but “Mom and Pop” e-commerce has transitioned over the last few years … becoming exceedingly difficult. Market share for small to medium sized companies on the Internet is shrinking, while the top 10% of web sites on the Internet continue to grab more audience, leaving scraps for the rest of us.

To complicate matters - the trend to mobile apps has caused an overall decrease in Internet use – with mobile content predicted to double within a year. This results in a smaller piece of a smaller pie for entrepreneurs just entering the Internet with e-commerce strategies – and dreams of working from home instead of fighting rush hour traffic to and from work.

I suspect an alarming number of Mom and Pop shops will – go under or at least by the wayside on the Internet – in as little as one to two years down the road – if they don’t transition with the industry. Let’s be honest here – how many of you understand how to market on Facebook or Twitter, or use any number of hundreds of social media platforms to advance your business – while the future of your business rides on the fence. Your competition isn’t sitting back waiting for you to fail – they’re accelerating the process by incorporating Internet strategies that work TODAY – pushing you further back in organic SERPS (search engine results pages).

My recommendation – follow the guidelines that the major search engines put out there – so you can succeed. Do split testing to determine what works from what doesn’t work, then repeat what works over and over and over. Be open to change.

One of my favorite quotes - “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” — by Aristotle, applies to business across the board. Typically, one or two individuals in an organization will be assigned to develop and follow up on Internet strategies, but I contend that each and every employee in businesses of every size, can add intrinsic value to their business (online). In a world that is trending toward peer-to-peer evaluation, each employee brings with them intellectual assets and their own sphere of influence. Encourage each of them to share what makes them special and your business special – on your corporate blog, industry forums, social media platforms – and the list goes on forever.

Over 95 percent of Millennials (18-35) own – mobile devices AND use them for more than just taking pictures and texting (non-voice features). Moreso than Generation X and Baby Boomers, Millennials are turning away from desktops in favor of mobile electronic devices like laptops and data phones.

Mobile data rocks with Millennials (literally) – as music ranks high on their list of downloads, followed by games. Over 70 percent of Millinnials own an iPod or other type of MP3 player. Not surprisingly, the older generations read more e-books.

Marketing strategies need to – address ‘mobility’ more  than ever. Is your website optimized for iPhones and Droids? Do you have a .mobi domain name? A .mobi name tells search engines your site is optimized for mobile phones and mobile users.

With a 700% increase in traffic – to mobile websites in the past year (ref: Bango Analytics), the mobile Web is set for yet another year of tremendous growth. More than 100 million U.S. cell phones were Web enabled by 2011 (almost double from just two years ago), and experts predict that by 2013, more than half of ALL cell phones will be Web enabled.