2011: A round up on what’s going to be big in digital customer experience this year

As we build momentum in 2011, there’s plenty of interesting reading out there on predictions for what will be big in digital media and customer experience this year.  So, here's a simple guide to the big themes that will be prominent in Digital customer experience in 2011.

The ‘professionalisation’ of digital media:  This appears in many guises  throughout the different lists and I’ve chosen ‘professionalisation’ to reflect trends to do with firms understanding that ‘social’ isn’t the remit of one employee or one team but is now the nature of their business, and indeed all business.  Examples to look out for include: increased demand for in-house digital talent; recognition of Facebook and Twitter as standalone channels; increased awareness of the importance of privacy, and investment to ensure this is handled appropriately; use of social feedback to inform strategic decisions; and increased maturity and use of data analytics.

Let’s go mobile:  This one’s simple – it’s the importance of mobility.  We’re talking mobile as a channel, mobile web and mobile apps. If the experts are to be believed, mobile will be big business in 2011.  There are still loads of questions about how it’s going to work, whether solutions will be supported on all popular mobile operating systems and how ROI will be measured but we should start to see some answers emerge over the next 12 months alongside a whole host of exciting new solutions.

The human touch:  For all its techie wizardry, digital media is ultimately still about people and we can expect to see more of this in 2011.  Be it the ‘humanisation’ of the online user experience (through things such as live chat, virtual environments, co-browsing, streaming of live events, virtual sales characters and improved personalisation), the increased demand for full sensory experience (highlighted through the expected growth of video) or the set up of community platforms and applications that bring people together around a particular topic or context– Digital media is finding its heart.