One thing I really like about the first quarter of the calendar year is that plenty of new statistics and trend reports are made available concerning my field of digital marketing, communications and the global impact of disruptive technology. I typically like to read through as many of them as I can, pull out key themes and then compare and contrast them to what I see happening myself through the consulting work I do.
Following are some of the better Digital, Tech and Media Trend Reports that I have come across:
We Are Social – Digital in 2017 Global Overview
This one is a must for a quick visual overview of the global digital landscape. I like how they use a variety of data sources and point out variances in sample sizes where applicable.
We Are Social – Digital Yearbook 2017
A general country by country breakdown of digital media statistics.
We Are Social – North America Overview 2017
This one covers additional digital trend details surrounding Canada, USA, Greenland, Bermuda and St Pierre & Miquelon (note: there is a separate report for the Caribbean).
Altimeter – 2016 State of Social Business
This has been one of my go-to sources on digital/social media governance and hiring trends for nearly 5 years now. It’s nice to see them evolving their questions as the landscape evolves.
Deloitte Global – 2017 TMT Predictions
TMT stands for Technology, Media, and Telecommunications. The Deloitte Global team did a wonderful job covering all three of these areas. From the Internet of Things and DDoS attacks to Vinyl and Mobile Machine Learning.
Deloitte Global – 2017 TMT Summary Predictions Infographics
If you don’t have time to read through the above (although I highly recommend that you do), this visual summary is the next best thing.
Deloitte – 2017 Tech Trends – The Kinetic Enterprise
From dark analytics to mixed reality, machine intelligence, and blockchain, this annual report analyzes the tech trends that could disrupt businesses in the next 18-24 months.
KPCB – Internet Trends 2016 Code Conference
While this data-rich slide presentation uses late 2015 data, it nonetheless provides quality trend reporting covering areas that none of the other reports tackled. I use it to fill in certain gaps in data that I can’t find anywhere else.
Analysys Mason – Africa Telecoms Outlook 2017
A great source of digital / telecoms statistics specific to Africa. The entire continent is evolving rapidly in this space and requires dedicated analysis. I like watching mobile trends here very carefully as they are quite often an indicator of what’s to come to other areas of the world. This is primarily due to the fact that many people in certain regions of Africa have skipped decades of technological evolution and jumped right to mobile as their first and only internet touchpoint.
Pew Research Centre – Social Media Fact Sheet
This is a greatly trusted resource for American demographic statistics regarding various social media platforms. It is typically released toward the end of each calendar year.
For quick, up-to-date figures on internet connectivity rates around the world (especially mid-year when no annual reports are around), this is my go-to source.
Let me know your own favourites!
