Bye bye dancing sugar plums, and to 2009. A big enthusiastic welcome to 2010! Surviving the roller coaster of the economic meltdown has not been easy for anyone but the silver lining has arrived as a shining new breed of leaders that are battle-tested, customer and product driven. This voracious collective consciousness is writing history with enormous speed. The focus is on community, health, job creation, the environment, innovation and entrepreneurship. The result, I hope, will be a more sustainable global economy that we can be proud of as it will benefit all people.

“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner”.  This English proverb is a stark reminder that it is in a time of crisis, not during growth periods, where one’s emotional fortitude is tested.

Our evolving digital world presents four  interesting trends to harness for growth in 2010. These are Social, Wireless, Analytics, and Security/Privacy.

Social:

There is going to be a lot more advertising revenue move online according to Forrester Research – especially from the old Yellow Pages which has seen rapid decline in usage this year – as businesses embrace social media as a lead generator and branding method. By dynamically engaging content, including blogs, reviews, videos and the like, business owners are discovering they can build stronger relationships with customers. As such in 2010 we are going to see social media integrated into the sales funnel where business objectives and ROI will be measured.

In 2009 Twitter proved we had an appetite for Real-Time search. In 2010 users are going to help Twitter find its revenue model. Twitter is an amazing lead generating tool that provides a segmentation and geo-targetting opportunity not rivaled by anyone else. I would not at all be surprised if we see an alliance between Twitter and FaceBook as there are clear synergies between these two products.

Wireless:

Our cars are destined to become wireless hot spots which should appease the kids on road trips. However, the increased data traffic will put a stress on the 3G networks. AT&T ran ads this Christmas promoting conservation in the area of text messaging. Apparently 40% of their network is used by 3% of its customers who have smart phones.

Applications will continue to abound and will be available in the cloud and in cross-platform format. Social networking via mobile will drive a lot of the mobile app innovation. Augmented Reality apps aimed at integrating our physical and virtual worlds will continue to be enhanced to bring our network closer to us in real-time.

Analytics:

Businesses will increase their budgets (60%) using existing data and predictive models. There is an understanding now that actionable insights help generate increased leads, eliminate guesswork on allocated advertising dollars, assist in understanding changing consumer behavior, and increase customer engagement.

Security / Privacy:

There has been a 477% increase in the amount of Malware added to Ad-Awares’s threat list in 2009 and expectations for 2010 is that malicious attackers are going to move to the emerging platforms, like smartphones, and social networking sites to launch their activity. Because Hackers follow trends, IBM predicts they will move their activity to the cloud. Businesses and marketers must focus more heavily on monitoring this area.

The Next Big Thing is… an integrated 3D virtual and physical world that provides real-time interaction and commerce