The new year tends to start with reflections on the past year and clever trend predictions.  I thought I would give you an overview of my favourites so far and maybe a few pearls of my own thrown in.

I'll start by saying this:  where social media and its business is concerned, South Africa and Africa is so well positioned to fleece the mobile channel for its own benefit and the benefit of its communities and perhaps even go about setting itself apart in how it can maximise development potential from social media.

But lets look at general 2010 digital predictions.

Naseem Javad describes miniturisation as a major business trend for 2010:  "Every business process will go through intense compression and digitalisation so when it comes out on the other side of the tunnel, it will have already considerably reduced its operational costs. This will enable the process to function effectively, more powerfully, and be highly replicable, with a lower cost structure like a proverbial silver bullet." 
Full Story:  http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/423/43579.html

Jarred Cinman had this to say about corporate approach to digital campaigns:  "Listen to the local digital marketing industry and one of the biggest complaints you'll still hear is that corporates don't take digital marketing seriously, and they don't allocate the kind of budgets our purple-haired friends shooting TV commercials enjoy."

I believe this is still going to go on for a while.  Although many more brands are dragging their agencies towards digital strategy, agencies are still holding onto the lucrative TV commercial approach.  The solution lies in companies finding digital consultants to help navigate them towards the social media channels.  Towards the end of 2009 I experienced an interesting phenomena, where production houses (TV and photography) had been given the responsibility of creating digital campaigns with the visual assets they had created.  I believe we'll see a lot of traditional agency silos being erroded by this kind of change.
Jarred Cinman full article:  http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/43588.html

In the above article, Jarred Cinman also had this to say about accessibility of the internet to South Africans:  "Despite the huge numbers in mobile internet usage by specific LSMs for specific things (such as Facebook or MXit), the mobile Internet has yet to grab the imagination of the technologically well-endowed. If you own a laptop or a netbook, you don't spend time surfing on a mobile device." 

Again my opinion is that most digital consultants/companies tend to be focused on "specific' LSM's.  The immense growth of mobile internet access via WAP enabled mobile phones is being overlooked.  It would serve FMCG brands and mass market brands well to immerse themselves in the practice of using social media targeted towards lower LSM's.  In fact I would say that the mobile internet has grabbed the imagination of the previously  technologically challenged and the business from this sector will grow hugely this year.

Jerry Mpufane, MD of DraftFCB shares his vision of 2010 digital trends and how brands will interact with them.  http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/43546.html

Also read:  Chris Moerdyk's article on marketing trends for some digital insights:  http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/423/43543.html

Also read:  Top digital Trends for 2010 by Nuri Djavit and Paul Newnes http://www.digitalmediabuzz.com/2009/12/top-digital-trends-for-2010/

If you prefer to listen to a podcast go to the Digital Edge and listen to experts discuss digital trends for 2010:  http://www.thedigitaledge.co.za/cambrient2/view/cambrient2/en/page213?oid=1519&sn=Detail

MBA.co.za have published the following 6 social media trends for 2010:  http://www.mba.co.za/article.aspx?rootid=6&subdirectoryid=2236

Hope you find this short list useful.  I will be back to discuss more hot digital trends soon.