10 Predictions For 2016 | Be Prepared!
I’m starting early. Getting my 10 Predictions for 2016 in front of folks. And yes, you need to BE PREPARED!
Business needs and plans aside, it’s time to think about tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that. I know the saying, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift,” used to inspire us to live in the moment. But, that doesn’t account for the need to look forward, not backward. Oh yes, there’s that saying also, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way.” So, if you begin today, to look forward, to plan forward, to anticipate fantastic results in the coming year, I predict, you will achieve the ultimate success you wish for!
10 Predictions for 2016
- Business conferences, social media conferences, offline events will become more powerful and more necessary than ever before.
We need to step away from the Internet. We need to get in front of our colleagues, our friends, our prospects, our brands, whomever it is that can help us move our businesses forward. You do that by being present at conferences like our own BlogPaws conference. It’s more than a place to network. It’s a place to purposely take your new, small business two steps forward. See you there! - Communities online will spill into the offline world. We’ve had folks write to us asking if we’d consider starting regional “packs” for BlogPaws. The answer is: yes.
Regional packs could bring more camaraderie to the BlogPaws community online and off. It could extend our educational reach. It could help us learn even more from our community. Regardless of how WE, at BlogPaws, bring regional packs together, I predict the people who are passionate about pets (who among us isn’t? I ask you), will find more and better ways to build relationships that serve to promote the power of the human-animal bond. - The value of the human-animal bond is my next prediction. The power and necessity of understanding it. The very impact it has on all life, everywhere!
We are making progress. We, the people who know the power of unconditional love and healing from our pets, are moving the needle. In 2016, stories about the importance of animals in our lives, education about how animals provide more than just companionship but actually improve our being, and louder voices saying these creatures count, and should be treated with the same respect and care we humans give all parts of the planet Earth, will be more apparent. Let the shouting begin! - The business of blogging will grow and earn the respect it deserves.
Brands will recognize the time, energy and learning we put into our work, as bloggers. Bloggers will recognize the necessity of that time, energy and learning and up the game to build solid content they and the brands they may engage with, will be proud of. We do it now. I know that. We learn. We teach each other. We strive to be a little better, day by day. My prediction for 2016 is to say that finally, at last, both brands and bloggers will take the act of blogging seriously. It’s a communication tool with such great power – each of us must accept the responsibility of using the power to the best of our ability. We must adapt and adopt journalistic integrity in our work. The world is watching. It’s time to still the shrugs of people who say, “Oh, that’s just a blogger.” - Following #4, we in the PET BLOGGER world will gain more respect! Our blogs serve up valuable insight and education, to any and all pet parents out there. We write to share and teach. We write to amuse. We write to support efforts of brands that care about pets, as much as we do. We are a force to be reckoned with. The world will begin to take more notice in 2016. The other blog networks will look at us and say, “They’re doing amazing things…we should join them.”
- Social media will grow; the influence of online writers will grow; the world of authenticity will become a major player in advertising and marketing.
We think this is already true. We each of us grow our numbers monthly, to the best of our ability. We join influencer groups and never sell our opinion – we only sell our time and talent. But, the truth of the matter is, too many brands still think paying for bloggers means buying their voice. In 2016, authenticity, OUR TRUTHS, will finally be accepted as what we do, and social media, online advertising, marketing, anything a brand wants to achieve online, will filter through the voices of bloggers who care about the product and how it works, and who will be proud to accept payment for their time and energy and yes, their TALENT! (Oh My Golly, some of you are SO amazingly talented!) - Focused online education will give smart business people more support in 2016. No one has all the answers, no matter how long we have been in business.
Learning should be a lifelong endeavor. Smart people work everyday to learn something new that will help enhance or promote their business. Webinars and online training abounds, but I predict that in 2016, smart people will select the content that is necessary to them, and will insist on content designed to move their business forward, with immediate action (something they can begin doing today!). - From our own Aimee Beltran, of Irresistible Pets, who joined the BlogPaws team just recently to help take us to the next level, great advice on “sticky content.” She predicts sticky content will dominate 2016.
I think it’s pretty simple. Creating good content will never go out of style. Creating content in 2016 is going to be a lot like cinnamon buns at the mall. Imagine the mall: it’s full of people, stores, noise, music, and food. Then in the middle of all that noise and chaos you smell cinnamon buns. Next thing you know you’re biting down into the fluffy goodness of an ooey gooey cinnamon roll. That’s what you need to do with your content – make that content sticky! Link your posts together and show your readers how to find what they need. It’s not a “new” innovation but it’s how I see bloggers standing out from the noise in 2016. - Speaking of sticky content, Pamela Wilson, Executive VP of Educational Content for Rainmaker Digital (formerly Copyblogger Media) shares her prediction for 2016: People are picky, aren’t they?When a new technology comes out, we’re so excited about it that we don’t even mind when it doesn’t work that well.When people first started blogging, we’d read almost anything. It was free, after all! What could be better?
Not anymore. Now there’s so much free information out there that readers have become particular about what they’ll spend time reading.
If your blog post headline doesn’t catch their attention, they won’t click on it. If you don’t engage them within the first few sentences, they’re gone.
But when you do? Well, your content will stand out (in the best of ways). You see, not enough people spend the extra time and attention needed to make their content truly remarkable. That’s why when readers find a reliable source of information that’s engaging and easy to read, they’ll stick around.
My prediction for 2016? Great content will rise to the top like cream. Like it always has! (oh, did I forget to say Pamela is KEYNOTING at BlogPaws 2016???)
10. What else can I say? The world is getting more selective in what it wants to see online. It’s not hard to predict that online will continue to dominate, that it will grow as the content grows, and it will demand excellence. I predict, for my last prediction, that a major part of our ‘content’ in 2016 will rely on images and video that is captivating, educating, and crystal clear. Those of you who are letting your training in image creation or video languish in ’round-to-it-land, will need to up your game. (she said to herself…sigh)
Let’s all be conscious of the power of tomorrow. It doesn’t rule our world today, because today’s eight hours are a chance to plan and prepare for tomorrow. Be that blogger – the one who invests in herself; who is aware of what she needs to learn; who goes out and gets the education; who embraces the talent she has and who doesn’t stop until she’s done.
Yvonne DiVita is a Co-Founder of BlogPaws. She is dedicated to storytelling and the human-animal bond. When not working on BlogPaws, she writes at Scratchings and Sniffings and The Lipsticking Society. You may contact her at Yvonne@blogpaws.com.
