Biggest Trends of 2011

Internet Competence

It was just two years ago that just having a blog meant you were pretty far ahead of the game as far as the club calf world goes.

Now?

Everybody who is anybody has at least two out of four from blogs, Youtube channels, Twitter accounts, or a Facebook page.  A good portion of the big boys, that just a few years ago looked down on all of this web foolishness, have all four.  Everyone keeps track of Steerplanet and has a username ready.

The INTERACTIVE web and social media presence is no longer just something that so-and-so does because he doesn’t have time to do anything else.  It’s now something everyone does because everything else depends on it.

Show Broadcasting

Shows have been broadcast for quite some time now, this trend is nothing new.  I know DVAuction, Cattle in Motion, and Liveauctions have been doing it for quite some time.

What's changed is it’s hit a tipping/saturation point now where major shows are now expected to do it and it’s weird if you don’t (hello San Antonio).

The tipping point has been a switch from sporadic broadcasting of a show here and a show there to a continued effort by operations like CIM and MLC.tv to turn it into a profit center through the sale of highly targetted advertising.

And yes, major shows are starting to become selective about who they let broadcast.  Like broadcasts of sporting events, major shows have come to realize that their broadcasting partner impacts their brand and they are choosing them accordingly.