When it comes to digital marketing, there are trends that whisper…. and trends that SCREAM.

Capitalizing on trends that whisper is what makes you seem cool and ultra-informed. But it’s the trends that scream that you really can’t afford to miss out on.

Right now, one of the loudest trend I’m anticipating in 2012 is video taking a bigger slice of the online marketplace. It’s not like this is some kind of bombshell prediction. It’s been building for years….

Right now, almost all of the biggest players are pushing to video and pushing HARD. Netflix, YouTube (owned by Google), GoogleTV, iTV (Apple), Amazon Prime, and countless others are all dumping big money into prime video.

Not to mention, the tablet devices that are reshaping our browsing experiences are all designed to stream video.

Here are a few quick facts just to show you how strong this trend really is.

Just yesterday, it was announced that there a full hour of video is uploaded on YouTube every second — 60 hours every minute of every day.

Cisco is re-engineering its routers to deal with what they call the “video onslaught,” i.e. they’re projecting that 90% of all internet traffic will be video by 2015.

Past 5:00 at night, more than half of all internet traffic is already video traffic — Netflix and other companies serving prime video.

What does this mean for marketers? Obviously, it means you need to start embracing video — YESTERDAY.

For over a year, I’ve been recommending that you test video sales letters, no matter what industry you’re in. We offer a ton of great trainings at Digital Marketer.

Recently, my team stumbled onto the power of the YouTube thumbprint. Here’s a hint: If your Google search result has a YouTube thumbnail, it ranks higher and it gets a LOT more clicks.

So there you have it… this trend is practically screaming its head off. All you have to do is listen.

When most people watch a football game on TV, what are they looking at? The ball, right?

It’s like that old saying, “Keep your eye on the ball.”

The next time you watch a football game (and considering the staggering ratings numbers the NFL is putting up these days, most of you do), I want you to try something new — spend at least an entire quarter watching anything BUT the ball.

You’ll be surprised at how much more you’ll actually learn about the teams… about the match-ups, the coaching, and the play calling.

At Digital Marketer, we have a saying (ironically, one that we stole from a superstar of an entirely different sport); “Go where the puck is going to be.”

Sometimes the ball (or puck) is just a distraction. It represents the past… What really matters is everything else.

Not that the current play is irrelevant. BUT isn’t the current play really designed to set up the next?

I mean you wouldn’t be much of a football coach if you couldn’t think a couple of downs ahead of the current play.

I’ve said all of that to say this: Most people are watching the ball. You want to be watching THE GAME.

For example, while most people are wondering how successfully Google+ can compete with Facebook — HubSpot understands that’s not what Google+ is about. Instead, Google+ is really about generating social media ratings and recommendations to enhance Google’s search capabilities.

Ebay, Microsoft, Best Buy, Yahoo… these guys are losing their spot on the starting roster. They may make a big play on special teams now and then, but their missing out on the bigger picture.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google are the 4 bigs, and they created even more separation from the rest of the pack at the end of 2011.

For example, as of right now Apple’s iOS owns 52% of the mobile web market share. That’s more than just a competitive edge.

To take our sports metaphor a step further, we should all be watching film on these guys. These guys are where 2012 is going. Why?

Because the “Big 4″ were the first to realize a truly “big picture” strategy. You won’t find these guys on the field. Or on the sidelines with a clipboard in hand. They’re in the skybox. They own the teams AND the stadiums.

In other words, they own the platforms — iOS, Android, Facebook, Amazon.com, etc. As an entrepreneur, or a marketer, you can either compete against these owners — or you can bet on their teams.

Clearly, the easiest way to profit in this type of game is to place educated bets. That means it’s time to get well-educated. Right?

With Amazon’s killer holiday sales and its Kindle Fire competing fiercely the tablet war, Amazon is a fine place to start studying up. We’ve got an excellent $7 report at Digital Marketer, “Partnering With Amazon,” that help you do just that.

For years, programmers have griped about having to cater to Microsoft’s browser near-opoly. Internet Explorer, designers complained, didn’t play by the rules and wasted tons of their time.

Most of these web designers will be happy to know that IE’s kung fu grip on the browser market is finally and quickly breaking down. Last week, StatCounter broke the news that Google Chrome is now the world’s second most-popular browser, narrowly edging out Mozilla’s popular Firefox for the number two spot.

Even more important, Internet Explorer’s users are abandoning the browser in droves. As it stands, IE is clinging onto 40% of the global market, down from 56.6% just two years ago and 95% in 2004.

What can we learn from this?

• Microsoft is missing the boat. It doesn’t take a genius to see that smartphones and tablets are taking over. Google and Apple are heavily invested in the mobile marketplace and therefore their browsers are getting a bump.
• IE is a default, not a choice. It’d be interesting to find out how many Mac users have actually downloaded IE to their machines – far fewer than have installed Chrome or Firefox, I’d be willing to bet. As user sophistication increases, the power of manufacturer biases decreases – an important lesson for all (Google and Apple included).
• Google is doing a much better job keeping users inside its universe.  Like Microsoft did with IE, Google is cranking out proprietary features that run best on Chrome. For example, Gmail offline only works on Chrome.  If and when Google releases a version of Chrome for the Android, Google house brand compatibility issues will probably become more common.

Five years ago, it was hard to imagine a world in which Microsoft was not a dominating presence, but here we are.

As Apple, Amazon, and Google continue to expand into mobile territory and online retail, their ecosystems will only become more attractive to marketers. And each of these mega-brands appear to be taking a page out of Microsoft’s playbook, leveraging their own products to shut out the competition.

If you haven’t set up a brand page on Google+ yet – now’s the time. And I don’t say this because having a Google+ profile will send tons of traffic to your site, YET.

I say this because it’s quick, it’s easy, and if you don’t do it…

…someone else may get there first and set up a fake profile where yours should be.

For some reason – perhaps to simulate a more organic social media startup – Google has adopted a pretty loose policy when it comes to verification. The thing is, Google+ is not exactly a startup – at all.

Mashable’s Todd Wasserman was apparently able to create a fake Coca-Cola page in minutes. To Google’s credit, it’s since been taken down.

Google+ has a few other shortcomings as well. For example, it’s hard for users to find brands (you have to search “Brand-X google plus,” not “Brand-X”).

Also, Google+ only allows one administrator to access to the brand’s page. ONE.

I’ve been pretty enthusiastic about Google+ and its marketing potential for a while. And based on Google’s reputation, I believe they’ll eventually get it right.

There may be a few hiccups, but Google+ will eventually become an important part of your social media strategy. It’s that simple.

Create a brand page, start experimenting, and you’ll be ahead of the curve. Resistance is futile… this is Google after all.

Check out what others are saying about Google+ brand pages:

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/28624/How-to-Create-a-Google-Business-Page-in-5-Simple-Steps.aspx

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/google-pages-gets-mixed-reviews-136444

http://scobleizer.com/2011/11/08/i-wish-i-had-never-heard-of-googles-brand-pages/

Have you had any awesomely positive or negative experiences with a Google+ brand page thus far?

**Note From Ryan: I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about Google + and its role in digital marketing…

“Is it a Facebook Killer?”, “Is it a Twitter Killer?”, “Is it going to be useful for business?” (to the second question, I happen to agree with Shoemoney, and I think Google + is a big reason why…)

For most of these questions, it’s still too soon to tell.  BUT… I asked my social media manager Shane Stearns to write a quick post about how we’re using it and here is what he had to say: P.S. My comments are at the bottom of the article…

You’ve no doubt heard at least a few things about Google Plus, Google’s new Social Network.  If you’re one of the lucky 20 million, you have already have your account setup and you’re beginning to explore Google Plus wondering if it’s something that will become part of your daily life.

I’m not going to bother venturing into the discussion of ‘Will Google Plus Kill Facebook?” Why would I waste my time wondering that when I could be getting ahead of the game and start using it for what it’s going to be good at?

Here’s the good stuff I’ll be using Google+ for.

1) Circles: Circles is how Google+ allows me to accurately group my followers so that I can be more targeted about the information I share and the information I receive. This isn’t a power trip, just a simple recognition that not all of my followers have the same interest. So I’ll be that much more effective when it comes to truly engaging with like minded people.

2) New Strategies: Google+ is NOT the same as Facebook. Therefore Google+ will not and should not be used the same as a Facebook Fan Pages. So I’ll be testing, trying and tweaking new social marketing strategies, an opportunity not otherwise presented (more on that to come in the future).

3) +1: +1 is Google’s version of the ‘Like’ button and you can pretty much bet on the fact that +1 will become a factor into Google’s search algorithm. Needless to say I’ll be all over the +1 map, integrating it into my sites.

4) Business Profiles: Google+ announced that business profiles will be announced a lot sooner than the planned. With that said, keep an eye for mine.

Ryan’s observations:

My advice?  Stop wasting your time debating about Google+, pondering how it’s all going to pan out. Dive in now, get started and figure things out along the way.

Here is the BIG idea, Google+notices are posted INSIDE everyone’s Gmail inbox, this is 100% REAL-TIME Gmail deliverability. This one point alone makes Google+ a must for any email marketer.

Second, SEO! Yes, SEO. When you write about a subject on Google+ and your circle friends Google that subject, your comments and links are displayed AUTOMATICALLY on Google’s page one. This is HUGE!’

No backlinking, no on-site optimization, just TONS of free traffic.

P.S. How are you going to use Google+?  Leave a comment below?

I had an interested thought this morning….

If someone were to ask you, who is _______ (fill in the blank with a name of someone you know about), how would you reply?

6 months ago, you might give a brief explanation and then follow up with a, “you should Google him/her.”

Today, I believe most of us would say, “You should Facebook him/her.”

This is a big deal for a few reasons

1- Just as the term Google became a verb, so has Facebook.  When a website name becomes a verb, is that when it’s finally made the crossover to big time? *I know we’ve been using Facebook as a verb for a while, but I think it’s now a more used verb than Google.

2- People are turning to the core of their social sphere for a lot more these days.  We’d rather refer to a stream of live information than turn to Google for their potentially dated insight.

I’ll prove it….Facebook me! You’ll find the most up-to-date, live information about me and what I do/ am doing. More so than on a Google search with dated web pages that I haven’t had the time to SEO!

Does this ring true with you? Comment below!

Learn More:

Facebook is no longer the underdog, and it’s not longer safe to ignore it because your competition may be leveraging it to take the upper-hand over you.

Go HERE to learn from 5 experts about how to use Facebook to boost your brand faster than anywhere else on the web.

New data was released by Silicon Valley Insider revealing that Facebook is the most time consuming website above Google and Yahoo. How much time is being spent on Facebook?

41.1 Billion minutes per month!

It’s a pretty impressive milestone for Facebook to pass.  They seem to be hitting a lot of milestones lately. Even still, Google came in at 39.8 Billion minutes per month.

Facebook and Google may be head to head on this one, but the minutes spent on each site are being used very differently from a user perspective.  Facebook may be getting the most minutes, but they’re going to have to continue to differentiate their monetization strategies (from Google) to suit their social environment if they want to get to Google’s success level.

With that said, I think they’re making steps in the right direction to make the most of their unique user experience.

How do you think Facebook could best monetize their users beyond what they already have in place? What should they be doing with their search engine?

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Google apparently has quite a bit of magic up their sleeve that they’ll be revealing this week. It seems that their Google Doodles in the last few days have been a symbol of the change to come.

If you notice in the doodle today, the letters in the Google logo light up with color as you type in your search.  This is the Google way of letting us now that streaming search is on it’s way.

Google streaming search is now in action as Google now starts listing search results as soon the user begins to keys in their search query. You can stop typing as soon as Google guessing correctly.

In a way, this is just Google flexing a muscle to show how instant they can index results and how smart their suggestions can be (Sorry Bing). But it’s a feature that will deem itself very useful to make search faster and more accurate, ultimately increasing the amount of searches Google will do each day.

It seems this is just the first of a lot of new introductions by Google…

In a recent talk, some Google executives discussed the intent to take search to a new place, automatic search.  Google wants to start searching for you, answering questions you haven’t asked yet, but that your probably interesting in.

I won’t speculate any further because much of this is still in the making, but I will say that the smarter Google gets, the smarter we can advertise.

The more Google can identify what each user is interested in, the more accurately provide them with your content and advertisements whether it be with streaming or automatic search.

Do you agree that progressions like these are a sign that internet advertisement is just beginning to see it’s potential?

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Google just added a new and very important filter to their search home page for Blogs.

After the search results index for your key word, click more on the left column and select ‘Blogs’. At this point you can also select the option to be given the blog’s homepage rather than the particular post url.

If you’re involved in blogging, you probably know that it’s important to network with other bloggers within your niche. While Google’s filter won’t list them all, it’s a great tool use along with others to help identify the people you should be friends with.

Getting in contact with these blogs will present opportunities to increase the reach of your blog and the activity on your blog by getting more comments from another blogs writers and subscribers.

If your involved in seo, you probably know that blog commenting is a key aspect to creating quality back links. Using this blog filter is an effective way to locate blogs and individual posts that would be relevant to the content you’re writing.

This filter won’t tell you which sites are ‘do follow’ blogs, but again you can combine this filter with other browser plugging to find out if the blogs are do follow.

Can you use this simple filter as a helpful tool in your blogging and SEO?

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CNN posted an interesting article that pulls back the veil a little deeper on the relationship of Google & Bing. It’s a wise observation to see how Google has piggybacked many of Bing’s innovations.

I don’t use Bing much, so I wasn’t quite aware of how obvious it was. Here’s a few examples of how Google copied Bing.

1-    After Bing launched it’s colorful, photographic design, Google quickly tried to the same thing by allowing users to add images. They even had a default image for the background.  Users didn’t like it, so they quickly recanted. (shameful)

2-    Just one day after Bing announced the integration of Twitter into it’s search results, Google quickly made a deal with Twitter too. (desperate)

3-    Google even ‘borrowed’ Bing’s search results layout by breaking search results into categories. (smart)

Maybe Bing isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. Right now it’s just been known as the 3^rd place search engine, and I’m not sure any of us really believe that will ever change. (although we hope for it)

Do you guys like the things Google has copied from Bing and does it kind of make you want to give Bing some more search time to see if their innovations really are smarter?

Or are you so intergrated into Google’s apps (gmail, voice, chat, analytics) that you it wouldn’t make sense?

Comment below and hit the Facebook Like Button!