Courtesy to facebook, I’ve managed to get opinions from some of the gurus of online marketing on a simple question:

What areas of online marketing will present the biggest changes in 2008?
So here are their responses:
Mert Erkal: This is indeed a great question. Offhand i can say that there has been an increasing trend in free giveaways and gifts in online marketing. You should give first, and then expect to get. Without adding value to others, you will not be successful in online marketing. Also internet users are very sensitive on SPAM mails. 2-3 years ago you may have a chance to sell a product after a mail bombardment, but now you are easily blacklisted if you keep on sending SPAM mails. I guess there are two types of online marketers; cheaters and value adders. Value adders are those who use the product first, understand the features and possible problems, satisfied with the product and then suggest people. Cheaters are the ones who is dying for a few dollars. I guess value adders will dominate the market, and the number of cheaters will decrease.

Eytan Wiener (SalemGlobal): Being able to really grasp and act on the tremendous potential of social media.

Aaron Wall: Many marketers will be misdirected by hype pushing social media.

Jeff Quipp: Great question btw. Here are my thoughts;

1) definitely, Google’s algorithm(s) will become more complex, as they turn more to personalization and rankings based on user behaviour. Companies that still charge based on ‘absolute rankings’ and/or set expectations based on positioning, will have to adapt.

2) usability will be increasingly viewed as a really important component of the marketing mix for two reasons:
a) it will positively impact rankings, as user behaviour will become a more important factor
b) in many cases, its more cost effective to increase conversion rates than it is to drive more qualified traffic.

3) social media will dedicate more and more time to identifying and penalizing voting blocks within their networks, so their algorithms will evolve considerably. As Muhammad Saleem discussed in a post yesterday (http://muhammadsaleem.com/2008/01/06/is-socializing-ruining-social-news/), many people “don’t actually vote for what we like best, but we vote based on what our friends like and what they want us to like”, meaning the best content doesn’t always hit the homepage.

Jill Whalen: Jill has an insightful post SEO Pioneer and Visionary Jill Whalen of High Rankings Envisions 2008 Major Trends.

As little as Aaron Wall had for his answer, his response actually impacted me the most. The hype that’s already surrounding social media will ripple throughout 2008 and major changes in their algorithms will definitely occur. Its not just Google we need to keep an eye on, but the growing interests of social sites as well. Currently, the general method of social media is to gain friends, increasing your own popularity and then your submissions will slowly follow as you post. As much traffic as some people get for social media, it is still not as well targeted as traditional SEO but can be consistent if its done the right well. Being in its early stages of evolving, social media will certainly be somewhat underestimated by major companies. They will either excel in social media if they have an experienced search engine marketer or they will dive onto the vehicle blindly gaining minimal exposure for their sites. There’s still much to learn with social media and 2008 will unfold a number of flaws with various social networks.