Everyone loves making predictions for the year ahead. But how did last year’s predictions for 2012 turn out? Check out this post and this post from last year for a batch of predictions for 2012. I haven’t gone back and checked them all, but I’m guessing most of the predictions for 2012 could also be predictions for 2013.
While Santa is checking his list twice, let’s link over to some of the more interesting lists that have crossed my path lately:
Top 10 Social Media Blog Posts of 2012 (WCG)
Top 10 Social Media Acquisitions of 2012 (Social Fresh)
Top 10 social media f-ups of the year (redeye)
Top 10 most important SEO & social media marketing tactics of 2012 (VentureBeat)
11 Biggest Social Media Disasters of 2012 (Mashable)
Top 20 Social Media Marketing Articles From 2012 (Social Media Examiner)
It’s that time of the year again. I’m Googling and consolidating links so you don’t have to. Here we go:
6 PR and social media predictions for 2013 (Ragan)
10 Social Media Predictions for the Next 12 Months (Matmi’s musings)
14 Experts Predict 2013 Social Media Trends for Small Business (ATT Networking Exchange blog)
25 Inspired Marketing Predictions for 2013 (Convince and Convert)
2013 Digital Marketing Predictions (Social Media Today)
Crazy Baldy’s 2013 Marketing Crystal Ball Predictions! (Vocus blog)
Digital and Media Predictions 2013 (Millward Brown)
Digital Marketing In 2013: Predictions From 86 Industry Luminaries (CMO.com)
Digital strategy 2013: Predictions from the industry gurus (SmartCompany)
The 2013 Marketing Predictions Post: Content Marketing And Social Business (Forbes)
My RSS feeds are lousy with links to stories and posts with headlines that begin: “57 Ways To…” and “86 Resources You Need For …” and other such things. Information overload takes on a whole new meaning when one item in that overload is, in itself, an impossible-to-absorb litany of ideas, links, programs, applications, strategies, tactics and more.
Which is why it was so refreshing to see this headline pop up from the good folks at Social Times: Two Ways to Improve Your Google Search Rankings. Appropriately, it should take you about two minutes (well spent, I might add) to read it.
One of my fondest memories from my junior high and high school days was wandering through the stacks of a store that not only sold actual books, but sold nothing but paperback books. Very cool place.
Ah, but those days are long gone.
I received my Barnes & Noble holiday mailer the other day. I’m a member there, and if I’m not getting it on Amazon, I’m probably getting it at Barnes & Noble.
Still and all, it’s discouraging to go into one of their stores and see the square footage provided to books decreasing while the square footage for games and toys continues to increase. Am I in a Barnes & Noble or a Kay Bee?
So: the mailer.
What do the coupons in the mailer feature? Godiva chocolate. Starbucks coffee. Harney & Sons tea. Toys & Games. Books? Well, only by inference: There are coupons to “save 20% on one item.” So to the extent that an “item” could be a book, I suppose books are there.
But am I the only one who finds it odd that the word “book” isn’t printed at all in a Barnes & Noble mailer? Okay, that’s not precisely right: The word “bookmark” appears once (“Holiday Bookmark just for you!”), because along with the detachable coupons there’s a detachable bookmark.
In other words, B&N is pretty much saying to me: “Okay, if you’re a Luddite here’s something you can use with those big, clunky paper doorstops, but we really don’t want to sell any more of those things to you. We’d rather you buy a cup of coffee and a Nook.” The Nook occupies a full page of the six-page mailer, though “ebook” isn’t mentioned anywhere, either.
I sure miss The Paperback Bookstore. (That woman behind the register was profoundly creepy, though.)
