Digital Marketing and Web Strategy by Bob Hazlett | One Half Amazing!

As you may remember, I’m doing these 30-day challenges throughout the year to test myself and improve in small chunks.

I figured if I could run 5 times per week at 5 miles per session, I’d be right on schedule. I wasn’t running for time, although I did cut about 7 minutes off my overall time during the month, but rather just running to get in the 5 miles I needed.

You may remember back in December, I laid out this grand idea to take on 12 separate 30-day challenges instead of participating in the usual New Year’s resolutions. Well, I just stomped my boot into the forehead of January. Here’s an update of how it all went down.

This month, I vowed to meditate for 15 minutes each day in hopes that I would become  enlightened and clear-minded. Meditation would set the tone for the remainder of my 2011 challenges and serve as a resource when I needed to go a level deeper.

The task itself wasn’t tough, but finding time to sit and calm my racing mind was. My mind would constantly float away in unfinished tasks or thoughts. A little nugget of inspiration that I picked up early on was that my meditation didn’t have to be perfect, I just had to ‘BE’ really helped calm my newbie fears. By the end of the month I was getting better at letting the

distractions pass and bringing my mind back to center.

Of course I had my ups and downs. Some sessions were better than others. I found that sitting upright in the morning gave me good results and weekends were even better (no priorities, no rush to get out the door). I tried all different sorts of meditation from guided meditation podcasts, sitting up, laying down, relaxation iPhone apps, mantras and even theta wave brain synchronization. The Simply Being iPhone app with nature sounds really helped and the Get High Now app created some cool trippy visualizations.

I think I’ll continue to meditation throughout the year, but probably not on a daily basis. 2-3 times per week would be more than enough.

Looking forward to February, I’m going to attempt to make 10 different websites. Some are ideas I’ve been sitting on for a while now and others were given to me by friends. It’s going to be tough in this shortened month. Instead of trying to make a buck with the sites, I think the big part with this challenge is to learn to work fast, make quick decision and get rid of any perfection mentality. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll keep you updated.

How to create the perfect landing page via the folks at Formstack. Click image for larger view.

A New Year means a fresh start and lots of resolutions. If you’re like me, that usually means they last all of about a week before you give up or life just gets in the way.

A few weeks back, I spoke to the Memphis PRSA Chapter mostly about using location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla for business. But as an added bonus, I threw in 5 digital marketing and social media predictions for 2011. Here’s what I think will happen over the next year.

1. Everyone becomes a media company
Wow, Bob that’s pretty broad. So, here’s where I’m coming from. Consumers are adapting to the way businesses are using social media. When they feel like they’re being sold or that the information is no longer relevant or valuable to them, they move on.

Companies are falling back into their old media ways of business. The companies that evolve and ultimately win are those that will be able to create original, non-salesy and valuable content that speaks directly to that individual and not a mass market. Status updates, videos, email, tweets, etc will all need to be on target.

Content is king may be cliche, but it will be ever so true in 2011 as companies show greater focus on the what rather than the where.

As a side note, watch the “social media gurus” of 2008 become the “content gurus” of 2011.

2. Privacy
Facebook had some small issues in 2010 about user privacy, but I think you’ll see larger groups exposed in 2011. I see this as a blow-up from a major social site that could expose lots of user personal data. The technology is evolving too fast and users are naive and overly trustworthy.

You may even see the government step in ala the “Do Not Track” regulation to help protect consumers. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife, hide yo data.

3. Question and answer sites will be the break out stars
People are making real/major decisions based upon what their real/virtual friends think. The sites you’ll be talking about this time next year are question and answer sites like Quora and Facebook Questions.

4. Group buying gets better
Groupon hit mainstream in 2010, but they still have a lot of opportunity to grow. I think you’ll see better personalization in Groupon deals such that they won’t be necessarily city-wide offers but rather deals that appeal to the demographics and psychographics of their audience. For example, a man living in downtown Memphis who likes football won’t necessarily see the same deal as a man living in East Memphis who enjoys baking.

5. Hot sites to watch
Sort of miscellaneous hodgepodge of predictions at #5.

• I think VYou.com has lots of potential in the social space and fits nicely with prediction #3 above. VYou is a mix of twitter, youtube and a dash of chatroulette (the good part).
• Watch for big developments from Google  in 2011 and maybe in Q1.  In 2008, I wrote that I thought Google had the biggest opportunity and the best pieces in place to really blow the doors off of social. Even though some of their latest ventures have fizzled out, I still think they are better positioned than the likes of Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Apple. Rumors of their +1 project have been swirling in the recent months.
• Niche and personal sites like Path and Instagram will flourish.

By the way, if you’re interested, check out my predictions from 2009 and 2010.

Those who make your life easier — and those who make it harder.

Those whose presence helps you perform better — and those whose presence makes you do worse.

Those concerned about doing the work — and those concerned about getting the credit.

Those who leave you feeling up — and those who leave you feeling down.

Those who simplify — and those who complicate.

Those who listen when others are talking — and those who wait when others are talking.

Those who give — and those who take.

Those who last — and those who fade.

Which are you?

A little inspiration for 2011. Have a kick-butt holiday!