Fast Web Media takes a look at the trends that will dominate the digital sector in 2013. Get in touch with us: hello@fastwebmedia.com

1. Digital trends for
2013

2. 2013 Ever Increasing Circles
Since its inception in June 2011, Google+ has managed to acquire 500 million
registered users. 235 million are active across Google (+1'ing apps in Google Play,
hanging out in Gmail, connecting with friends in Search...), and 135 million are
active in just the stream. Google is striving daily to perfect digital integration within
a single Google account, and this is becoming increasingly evident. Companies and
especially ones that operate heavily online are finding Google+ quite useful in
obtaining a higher search ranking.
As there is integration between all of Google’s other public facing services
such as Search, Google places, Google Maps etc., any business on Google+
will likely see an SEO boost from maintaining an active Google+ page, since
they are indexed by Google and help achieve a higher online visibility. Also
those likely to benefit from this improved quality in search results are white
hat link builders, with Google keeping a close eye on false profiles and links
to spammy sites getting a penalty.
Looking at current predictions for 2013, Google+ isn’t going
anywhere but up, and with the current increase of Google
integration in Digital Devices, Android smartphones coming with
Google bundled software straight out of the box and their
current Nexus line-up makes them a force to be reckoned with.

3. 2013 The BIG Picture
We're set to see an increase in integrated 'holistic' marketing in 2013. With explosive
growth in mobile usage, a plethora of social networks and platforms, and huge
differences in media consumption habits, now more than ever brands need to
integrate their efforts to stay ahead of the game. Luckily, vast improvements in
analytics and measurement have allowed marketers to ensure they're integrating their
marketing effectively across all channels.
Thanks to attribution modelling, we now understand a user’s journey to an
online purchase better than ever before, and this means budgets can be
targeted to the right people, with the right message, in the right place, at the
right time; regardless of your media mix. However, one challenge still
remains: having all of your reporting in one place.
This is where Fast Web Media's BIGprofile can really help.
BIGprofile is an operational service that integrates best practice
digital strategy with a host of data sources and analytics APIs,
and brings it all together via a reporting dashboard. That means
less time trying to collate your resources, and more time spent
on the important stuff: actioning new ways to target your
customers and increase revenue.

4. 2013 Upwardly Mobile
The mobile industry is constantly evolving and growing at an astronomical pace.
Currently 20 per cent of UK internet traffic comes from a mobile device. Over the next
year we will see even more communications, commerce, entertainment and service
industries dependent on wireless services. The two biggest drivers of this demand are
video streaming and M-commerce usage. By 2015, video is likely to account for nearly
60 per cent of all traffic. Likewise, M-commerce has dramatically changed the way
brands reach customers, making it faster and easier for consumers to make purchases
on the fly while avoiding the hustle and bustle of the high street.
Typing on mobile phones is an on-going problem, according to an
eConsultancy report, which says that two thirds (67%) of shoppers find it
difficult to purchase from a mobile device. So brands will need to develop
solutions which remove the effort of typing an address from a mobile device.
Meanwhile, mobile search is poised for tremendous growth in
2013 as advertisers shift additional budgets and consumers use
it more often. This will, in turn, increase advertising on mobile
search platforms still further, and local-centric companies such
as Yelp.com and Local.com are likely to become even more
significant. Responsive web design is therefore more important
than ever as companies have to ensure their site adapts to the
settings of whichever device it is being viewed on. Fast Web
Media has been building responsive sites since 2011 and will
continue striving for innovations in the field in 2013.

5. 2013 Data Projection
Social media, mobile devices and websites are the greatest generators of data about
human behavior that we've ever had, for the simple reason that 2bn people use them and
everything we do on the them is logged and therefore available for analysis. Every day, we
create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today
has been created in the last two years alone, according to an IBM report.
This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information,
posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction
records, and mobile phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data.
Enterprises are awash with ever-growing data of all types, but at present only a
half of one per cent of the world’s available data is being mined for value.
In 2013 we will start to see more companies leveraging opportunities
from this data in real time, e.g. turning 12 terabytes of Tweets created
each day into improved product sentiment analysis. Big data is more
than simply a matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new
and emerging types of data and content, to make businesses more agile
and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond our
reach.

6. 2013 NFC - Touchdown!
Mobile is all about shortcuts, and near field communication, or 'NFC', allows you to
transfer data to your mobile device via 'touch' (or bringing into close proximity) rather
than scanning via a QR Code or augmented reality app. NFC facilitates fast and simple
setup of wireless technologies, such as Bluetooth & Wi-Fi, and will bring the mobile
wallet closer to reality by providing solutions in areas such as: security access,
information collection and exchange, loyalty and coupons, payments and transport.
NFC, though not present in current Apple mobile devices is present in the
new Nexus, and recent Blackberry, Samsung, Sony and HTC handsets.
Facebook are also developing NFC technology. Advances made to NFC
technology in Japan have inspired the industry to sit up and take notice, but
mobile companies need to capitalise in 2013, persuading banks and credit
card companies to get behind it to ensure users have the confidence to start
touching rather than swiping.
Some progress has already been made, with MasterCard recently
signing a strategic partnership agreement with C-Sam (NFC
mobile wallet and transaction platform provider) and the Oyster
readers on all London's buses being upgraded to accept
contactless payments alongside Oyster transactions. Further
integration can be seen in the "Recommended on Google" shop
window stickers, which are embedded with NFC technology and
allow users to access information/offers/vouchers simply by
holding their phone up to the window.

7. 2013 The Trend is your Friend
Long a mantra for city types playing the markets, tracking and incorporating live
trends within marketing campaigns will become more and more important for
marketers. With such a wealth of data available from such a vast range of source
(including chat rooms and Twitter, from which trends are being discerned and
used to ‘auto’ buy and sell shares), it is increasingly common for real time
available data trends to be used to help shape real time marketing campaigns.
With that in mind Fast Web Media have launched weatherFIT, an innovative new
PPC software that ensures specific adverts are sent to specific towns and cities
based on live weather conditions.
All the marketer needs to do is to tick a box for the ideal weather trends
he’d like a specific advert to be seen during and the rest is dictated by
the actual weather itself. If a brand or company is aware of any specific
live trends that could help their business, FWM would love to discuss
further with a view to developing a tool based on our existing trend
template.
Get in touch at: hello@weatherfit.co.uk

8. 2013 Objection Sustained
2013 will see the continued growth of Hactivism, a digital form of protesting. It can
be seen in many forms, from simply defacing web pages or email bombing, to
website mirroring, anonymous blogging and Doxing (outing of private information of
individuals or corporations). A detailed account of the person’s life (browsing history,
banking details, emails and so on) will be collected, manipulated and used against
them as online attacks on large organisations and government bodies by hacktivisim
groups around the world increase.
This will see the rise of specialist teams for digital crisis communication to
provide counter-Hacktivism services and data forensics (ownership, clean-
up and erasing) will be a specialist requirement in reputation
management as the victims of hacktivist groups seek to protect
themselves.

9. 2013 Loyalty on the Cards
As m-commerce increasingly becomes the most convenient route to purchase for online
consumers (currently just over 30% of retail traffic in the UK), digital reward and loyalty
schemes will become more prevalent as retailers and location/loyalty specialists look to
secure their apps' position on people's devices.
In the UK, smartphone owners are beginning to curate the apps on their
devices, with relevance and frequency of use being two of the key indicators in
apps surviving the cull. Apple are already ahead of the curve here having
recently introduced Passbook for iOS, a virtual wallet where loyalty cards and
coupons can be stored, while the successful offline loyalty schemes are all
readying app-based updates.
One new player to the market is Elephanti, a sort of loyalty-reward-
card-meets-Foursquare app. When a consumer uses the app, they
will find partner stores offering guaranteed discounts exclusively
available to them and other users of Elephanti. Yelp, Foursquare and
other location-based services are reading similar updates to rival
this offering, while anticipation is growing for the digital evolution
of the UK's most successful loyalty scheme, the Tesco Clubcard.

10. 2013 Every Thing, Everywhere
The ‘Internet of Things’ may sound like a strange phrase – isn’t the internet itself the
‘Internet of Things’? – but the term has a very specific meaning. The ‘Internet of Things’
refers to the rapidly increasing number and variety of devices (things) connected directly
to and available from the Internet, as opposed to via a PC or server. From cameras, TVs
and printers to ovens, door bells and light bulbs and sensors of all kinds, especially RFID
chips, your world will increasingly be available to you online, giving you data and remote
control of all the electrical devices in your life.
Perhaps more importantly, the devices will also talk to each other, sharing data
wirelessly. Although the idea isn’t new (companies such as www.thinfilm.no
have specialised in the Internet of Things for some years), the progression of
technology from 4G networks to the IPv6 protocol and the prevalence of wifi
networks in homes, offices and hotspots around the world are rapidly
destroying barriers to devices being online all the time.

11. 2013 Inbox Autotuned
Responsive design has been around for a few years now, but its application doesn’t stop
at your website. This year it was estimated that around 55 per cent of 18-34 years olds
read marketing emails on their mobile device, so it's vital to ensure your email campaigns
are optimised for on-the-go devices as well as your site.
This is where responsive email comes into play. Like responsive web design,
responsive emails are built to adapt to the device they're being viewed on,
shifting automatically to its resolution and screen size. By doing this, the email
accommodates the user's preferred method of reading their messages, and this
in turn improves the chances of an email being read, clicked on and ultimately
achieving its goal of driving awareness, traffic and sales.
Technical problems have so far rendered responsive email almost
impossible, but with technology becoming smarter, that will change
in 2013.