Some of the latest developments that are becoming more and more prevalent is the notion that mobile content will overtake voice, reducing voice’s share to 10% of mobile usage, according to research firm Gartner. Mobile phones will become the leading content customizer and preference reader. This means that someday soon digital displays in grocery aisles will pick up your phone’s signal and display items or offers designed after your preferences or it will recognize you as soon as you enter your favorite restaurant and suggest drinks or food items appealing to your tastes only. Soon “digital paper” will turn store displays, billboards and newspapers into digital screens that will function like websites, with ever changing personalized content. Even your television settings may soon serve you advertising designed just for you and digital papers will do the same based on your preferences.

Audiences are going to be worldwide. Local viewing or limited audiences are quickly disappearing; MySpace now has over 100 million viewers which is a double digit multiple of any traditional media source. Certain blogs today are already counting more than 5 million subscribers. The days of the power of the established media brands are over. Communications are becoming more “one-on-one” and content will be more and more relevant and search will allow people to find exactly the content that appeals to them and to subscribe to more of the same content or be fed more related content or more customized content.

News and information will spread faster than ever before. Social networks will gain in importance and become a second life for people. They will live in their virtual world and create new dimensions and personas for themselves, as opposed to their lives in the physical world where they will not feel as free to express themselves. News and opinions will start to take on new forms and spread through social networks.

Web 2.0 and 3.0 are already here. Web 2.0 allows anyone to create content and for that content to gain authority. This changes the landscape where businesses were able to just communicate their message and consumers had limited or no ability to express their views and influence the message. Content produced by amateurs is gaining in appeal to consumers over professionally delivered content. Consumers now even produce content, such as Wikipedia, that has more relevance and accuracy than more authoritative sources.

The traditional media will continue to play an important role, but they will morph more and more into digital media companies, establishing a new order of digital media that will soon be considered traditional again.

You must be ready to make the switch to the digital era or risk finding your product difficult to market to the individual tastes and preferences of the audience who are becoming better and better at searching for their exact needs and finding ways to have it delivered to them where and when they want. Simply adding some social media sites and website optimization to your current marketing plan is not sufficient. Companies, small and large, will have to establish a web presence and originate their marketing plans from a digital point of view, incorporating traditional means until their relevance ebbs away. It is important to use digital thinking as the basis for your marketing initiatives, rather than try to fit them into to your traditional thinking.

Elmer Coppoolse, CEO
Snowball Digital Relations, llc
www.snowballdigitalrelations.com.