Unlike many in the PR blogosphere, I haven’t made any public predictions for 2006 (and don’t intend to). If you do a Technorati search you’ll find hundreds, if not thousands, of bloggers who have.
Web 2.0 this, AJAX that, blogs the other…
Even many of the PR-related predictions are focused mostly on the technology tools we’re using now and ones that are about to hit us.
Those tools are key to everything, undoubtedly, but what about the uses to which you put them? What about the communication?
While some of my fellow PR bloggers have talked about communication as part of their predictions, no one I’ve read says it as succinctly as Don Dodge:
It is all about communication. I started thinking about the highlights of 2005 and what might be big in 2006. As I synthesized the list, the common thread was communication and connection. Blogs were big in 2005 and will continue to explode in 2006. TypePad, Newsgator, Onfolio, Technorati, Digg, and TechMemeorandum were all big parts of my everyday life in 2005. MySpace, FaceBook, and MSN Spaces were huge parts of my kids daily lives. Skype burst on the scene with its acquisition by eBay. All of these companies are about communication, or more precisely, user generated content. The trend is pretty clear, this will be the Next Big Thing in 2006.
Communication and connection – right on. All the firms Don mentions are in the business of enabling people and organizations to do things themselves and easily interact with others. What we’ve seen in 2005 is purely foundation-building, setting the scene for what’s about to come.
User-generated content (ugly term) – no question as the means for people to create and publish their own content are spreading like wildfire, beyond the initial stage of the blogging, podcasting and information-sharing platforms we all know today. Pay attention to communication-and-connection enablers like Digg (check out DiggSpy!), AllPeers (peer-to-peer sharing, launching soon), Goowy (lifestyle manager), YouTube (video sharing) and others. Tech plays a big role here, especially AJAX.
(Quick aside: everyone will know what ‘communication and connection’ means. But ‘user-generated content’? Let’s be clear on a definition. Mary Hodder has the closest definition I can agree with. Any other contenders?)
It’s not hard to see the enormous and further-developing impact all of this communication and connection plus user-generated content will have on organizational communication (especially the connections). There for the taking is the new role for the communicator as counsellor and adviser on how the organization can make the most of this new environment as an engaged participant.
We’ll see further inroads being made into demolishing command-and-control communication practices, led from the bottom up, with some smart companies leading the demolition from the top down. We’ll also see continuing resistance to these changes from die-hard organizations (who will become less relevant in the overall scheme of things).
Boy, this will be a terrific year to be in the communication profession.
Oh, I guess I have made a prediction for 2006.
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.
