Internet Marketing Trends for the Next Year

Internet Marketing Trends for the Next Year

This year, we saw advancements in marketing through handheld devices--smartphones, tablets, etc. We also perceived social media making a strong impact in the marketing scene. When you analyze various things that revolutionized internet marketing last and this year, you may be wondering what may be big next year and beyond. In this article, you will see various trends that you can find in internet marketing next year.

1. Mobile Marketing

Today, more than 75 percent of the world's population has access to mobile devices. People not only consume content on mobile phones but also create and share content. Tablets are also as important as smartphones for today's online marketers. In the last two years, many websites updated their designs to be mobile-friendly. Soon, we will be seeing more companies taking up mobile marketing seriously.

2. Inbound Social Media Marketing

Companies now spend much time on social media sites. They create valuable content that drives traffic to their social profiles and thereby create good business leads. This particular marketing technique is known as 'inbound marketing'. The content provided should be rich with text, audio, video, and interactive elements. Such content can drive organic traffic to the company's website and generate revenue. Marketers will also be using various analytics tools to find effective content markets.

3. Improvements in Visualization of Data

Infographics and such other clever data visualization techniques are highly popular these days. In the coming days, we will see more of such innovative marketing techniques. Many startups have created apps that make complex data easily accessible to consumers. People will be seeing more interactive content that will engage and educate them. When deployed effectively, this will prove to be a powerful marketing technique.

4. Loyalty in Marketing

Good companies have always focused on retaining an existing customer as well as acquiring new customers. Today, this has become one of the most important aspects of doing business as the global competition has become intense. Since more people use social media, they can easily share the details of a particular company with each other. This has made many companies focus more on improving the products, services, and support options, so that people will talk about them more often. Building loyalty to the brand is very important in tomorrow's business world.

5. Invoking Social Changes

Today, some brands have a huge influence on the communities they serve. Social media sites have greatly helped businesses achieve this level of influence. Social media marketers employed by a company should share ideas for social welfare in order to increase the influence of the company. By becoming part of the groups in which people are discussing a brand, the brand can easily contribute quite a bit.

6. The Importance of Design

Web design has become a very important aspect of marketing today. Design and analytics firms provide attractive landing pages and sales pages at affordable rates. Attractively designing apps for mobile platforms will be equally important for the future.

7. Analytics

Companies are not generating leads only through websites these days. There are social media sites, video sites like YouTube, forums, etc., that help in lead generation. Hence, configuring the analytics to track the source of each lead is very important for businesses today. This helps in prioritizing the funding on each opportunity.

Conclusion

Marketing may be difficult, but with the tools available today, it has become quite a bit easier. More than a billion people worldwide use social media sites, and there are opportunities for everyone in them. By being creative enough, you can find out many great marketing opportunities.

Is There an Online Life After Death?

Have you ever wondered what happens to Facebook pages, email accounts, and blogs of people who pass away? Do their online friends ever find out? Do their followers and readers miss them? Does their absence have an impact on the online world watsoever? If you have at least one friend that you hold dear in the Internet world, you probably have.



The tricky part about the Internet is that you interact and often get emotionally involved with people you've never met in real life. These people, no matter how deeply they may care about you, will not typically call you at home or at work to check up on you. Their only way of communicating with you is through the Internet so, when you are no longer able to log on, they are left worrying and wondering whatever happened to you. To make matters worse, if you've kept your login information a secret, they will most likely never know.

Most websites and email services have a strict policy about giving out their clients' information, even long after their demise. Even if a family member manages to verify his relationship to the deceased account holder, he would still need a signed authorization to lift the confidentiality agreement. Therefore, your family will still be unable to access or manage your Internet accounts unless you've provided them with your written permission to do so.



The stakes are even higher when you own a profitable e-store or website. Your loved ones will not be able to collect the profits, and they will have no control over the fate of your online business activities. To prevent this, you can either share your account details with a trusted family member, or choose to include your online assets in your will. While making arrangements for your own death is never pleasant, it will save your family lots of trouble.



Your online friends may be shocked by your absence, and your Facebook page may be turned into a memorial wall for them to share their memories of you. Your email accounts will eventually be shut down, and their content will remain stored safely in your provider's servers. However, unless you make sure your family can access your personal accounts, your Internet pages will continue to float eternally in the endless online space.

How Hackers Use Wi-Fi to Get Your Passwords

With the most recent announcement from Snapchat where millions of their accounts were compromised by hackers, we couldn’t be more cautious in tightening up security measures and giving you tips on how to protect yours.

Most people walk into a Starbucks or some place that offers free Wi-Fi, open their Windows settings and find any open Wi-Fi hotspot that's labeled with the coffee shop's name and doesn't require a password. The problem with this type of Wi-Fi is that you don't know you're connecting to the free Wi-Fi offered by the establishment or a hacker's hotspot. Hackers can set up a Wi-Fi through their phones or any device with the right software and wireless card.


Unencrypted Data and Passwords


When you don't encrypt your data, the hacker is then able to read the data being sent to the server. This includes any shopping sites, forums or web-based email accounts that don't have "https" as the protocol.

With unencrypted data, the hacker can then see the passwords you type into the website. Most people use the same password across multiple platforms, so the hacker is able to guess your password for other accounts. For instance, if you use the same password for a forum and your email, the hacker can see the password sent to the forum website and then guess that the password is the same for your email.

It gets even worse when the hacker has access to your email. With access to your email, the hacker can then perform password reminders on other website accounts. With password reminders, the hacker can reset or retrieve passwords for other accounts. The end result is that the hacker has several of your passwords, and this can lead to your bank accounts or financial accounts being hacked.


How to Protect Your Data


The first way to protect your data is to ensure that the Wi-Fi you connect to is secure and it's the official establishment's Wi-Fi hotspot. Don't access random Wi-Fi hotspots even if you need to access the Internet from an open connection. If you do decide to access Wi-Fi, ask the establishment for the name of the connection so that you get the right access point.

If you decide to connect to Wi-Fi, protect yourself by connecting only to sites that offer https. Https is the protocol that encrypts data from your computer to the website's server and back again from the server to your computer. With encryption, the hacker is unable to view the data sent back and forth.

Another way to protect your data is using different passwords for different websites. You don't need one password for each site, but you can choose one password for insecure sites and choose another password for more secure, critical websites such as financial and medical sites. This won't stop a hacker from getting your password, but the hacker won't be able to gain access to your more critical accounts if they get insecure passwords such as those used on forums and random content sites.

The next time you decide to access a Wi-Fi hotspot, be careful that the site is not a rogue access point made by a hacker. If you have any suspicions at all, avoid the hotspot and wait to access the Internet.