Environmental Trends, Opportunities, and Threats
The People creating industry continues to draw interest from all types of individuals, professionals, and corporations and is constantly evolving. Podcasting which was once associated primarily with just IPODs is providing a flexible avenue to communicate through audio content. User generated content and blogging continue to connect individuals and groups while providing an avenue to feel needed and part of something. People are using these avenues to create business, drive revenue, gain information, and advertise products and services, and present views on a variety of topics.
Environment trends: Individuals and Corporations are starting to depend on the blogging industry, podcasting industry, and user generated content industry as a way to convey their message, connect with other individuals for feedback and instruction, or simply to market their brand and products. The sub industries of People Creating provide an environment to do just that. The podcasting industry provides record labels, musicians, media outlets, news outlets, and radio shows an avenue for consumers to listen to their product in a both flexible and economic environment. The way customers listen to radio programs, news reports, and even political debates offer a completely new way to enjoy technology. The user today can simply access a podcast through an internet or PC device and listen to their favorite content without even turning on a radio. The user generated content industry is utilizing the increase in demand for video sharing as ability for companies to increase and track customers through various media channels like YouTube and MetaCafe and also capitalize on a revenue stream as this demand grows. You Tube has become a phenomenon, individuals from all walks of life are dependent on it for information, entertainment, and a source of sharing content. Story Telling and use of customer’s videos within the user generated environment is current trend that companies are using to help bring attention to their brand and bridge the gap between the product and the company. In 2011 Coca Cola launched a campaign to travel 262 countries in 365 days to demonstrate that Coke touches all part of life utilizing You Tube videos to document the process (Bean, 2012). The blogging Industry has evolved over the past twenty years and has started to present itself as a major revenue opportunity. Blogging is not trending down it is becoming more and more merger with on-line and social media. Currently, brands are trying to get closer to blogs utilizing them as “influencers” in their products similar to ambassadors. There is a current trend for companies to pursue professional published blogging sites to help leverage that resource and provide an avenue to create brand awareness (Stelzner, 2012). Blogging has become a way of life for individuals, businesses, corporations, and professionals who have subject matter expert knowledge. Web 2.0 as a whole is seeing an increasing trend in large corporations starting to invest time, resources, and funds into the Enterprise Content Management market that utilizes various Web 2.0 services. The current trends are being shifted by according to (Englehardt, 2010) “These range from cutting IM expenses, leveraging Web 2.0 for marketing exposure, gradual shift to web-based work environments, cloud computing, shift from traditional paper/desktop to web, and collaboration.” Many companies are adopting a form of Web 2.0 as part of their long term strategy and it is estimated that the Enterprise 2.0 environment will grow to over $4.6 billion dollars (Englehardt, 2010).
Opportunities: The opportunities for these industries will continue to only be limited by the innovation of individuals and will change on a yearly basis. The major opportunities for all three sub-industries (user generated, podcasting, and blogging) will be leveraging their messaging platforms as a tool for individuals, corporations, public relations departments, schools, and media outlets to collaborate and drive value into the market place. This will create revenue opportunities, less expensive advertising, personal interaction, ease of information, and use of the personal consumers as a way to drive business. The podcasting industry provides an opportunity to leverage marketing firms, and publicity as a way to deliver their message through a downloadable service. The user can find out information by simply downloading their message and listening to it on a PC, phone, or I POD. Podcast can drive revenue through donations, sponsorships and advertising revenue. Also, there is an opportunity for a more commercial model where podcast are downloaded as a subscription service or a pay per download (Pollack, 2007). This creates an opportunity for both the individual and the professional. User generated content and primarily the video generated content is driving opportunities through brand awareness and use of personal experience as a form of marketing and public relations. Companies are references you tube experiences and videos from customers as a way to drive value into their products. If you have watched a You Tube video lately you can see the small advertisements that try to draw you towards a product and display the benefits. People are learning how to play guitar, make paper airplanes, and put together things they would not have been able to otherwise through the use of user generated content. The biggest opportunity in this industry will be working with small and large corporations to drive revenue through advertising and marketing. Blogging is a way of life for most people and provides them opportunities to be individuals and leverage their expertise creating more information for the end user. Evolving technology and end-user applications for blogging sites provides blog companies with greater opportunities. Currently companies are trying to utilize blogs as a branding mechanism for their product, and this creates a big opportunity for intermediaries to match the blogs with the right company (Stelzner 2012). There is even a growing opportunity for paid sponsor posts which is where companies will pay for a blogger to post something (Stelzner, 2012). The opportunity for significant expansion exist, as most blogging sites do not have as strong a presence in overseas markets as they do in the US market. Finally, more corporations are willing to pay for the most sophisticated blogging interface and also bring on permanent staff to better utilize this technology. Overall, these three industries provide the biggest opportunity to consumers, individuals, and businesses as it delivers the ability to receive and transmit a message through a platform that uses collaboration in the form of sight and sound and leverages our current technologies. Threats: Opportunities bring about threats and technology has provided many industries opportunities but it has also brought many industries to their knees. The people collaborating industry is no different as there are several threats related to the industry. The first threat is misleading communication whether that is in the form of an incorrect entry, incompetent blogger, and individual opinion with no factual data. These industries rely on subject matter experts, user generated content, which can be misleading resulting in the need for damage control for both the company and the individual. Global expansion and corporate governance are also threats in each of the sub-industries as we move forward in the future. Another threat is the platform and infrastructure itself. The People Collaborating industry relies on fast and flexible communication platform which is provided through web-site hosted services and internet communications. In the event that a hosted service or site go down the staying power of the industry and company is lost and customers don’t easily forget how unreliable the product is and this creates a significant threat. The industry faces the traditional threats like ease of entry, advancing technology and will require constant innovation. There is always a threat of individuals who are out to utilize these platforms as a way to hack into blogging sites, and post inaccurate information as well as the issues of SPAM. Finally, the competition is very high and the threat of consolidation exists. Once the IPO of Face book is successful, more companies will be looking at that model, trying to find a way to leverage synergies and consolidate forces.
Major Changes There is expected to be changes in revenue sharing for advertising, global change in communication behaviors, impact in the attitudes of internet users, privacy and online security, and the adoption of Web 2.0 going mobile. Also, the industry faces heightened challenges on how cloud computing will impact the Web 2.0 environment. Finally, there will always be something new in technology and the expectation of Web 3.0 which would connect our collaboration (Web 2.0) with real time co-creative web. This would grow 3D portals, presentations, integrated games, education, and business.

References

Engelhardt, E. (2010). The Enterprise 2.0 Market – current trends and market failures. IncrediCube. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from http://www.incredicube.com/the-enterprise-2-0-market-%e2%80%93-current-trends-and-market-failures

Pollack, P. (2007). Podcast study shows current and future trends. Arstechnica. Retrieved March 13, 2012 from http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/04/6538.ars

Bean, J. (2012). Marketing, PR and communication trends 2012 - User-generated content. Mynewsdesk. Retrieved March 24, 2012 from http://www.mynewsdesk.com/us/pressroom/mynewsdesk/video/view/marketing-pr-and-communication-trends-2012-user-generated-content-6938

Stelzner, M. (2012). Blogging Trends for 2012: What You Need to Know. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved March 24,2012 from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/blogging-trends-for-2012-what-you-need-to-know/