Every year, new technological trends emerge in various industries. Irrespective of the industry your business serves, it is extremely crucial to keep up with technological trends. Knowing the technological trends that are gaining traction or are being widely adopted in the market can help your business recognize and understand the usefulness of such technology for the success of your business in the long term.
As a tech-forward small business owner, tech trends can help you better understand and implement relevant tech tools to help your business keep up with current advancements, strengthen its position in the market, and exponentially grow your sales.
Here are some latest tech trends that you can follow in 2022:
1. Hybrid tech trends for decentralized work operations
According to a Zippia survey, 63% of high-growth companies use a “productivity anywhere” hybrid work model. Many small businesses now use a hybrid work arrangement whereby employees come into the office occasionally and work remotely otherwise.
Hybrid work trends have transformed the way of working. What does this mean for growth-oriented small businesses? This means an emphasis on decentralized work operations, flexible working hours, and asynchronous collaborations. It is feared that asynchronous communications and other similar aspects may cause delays in project completion, causing small businesses to shift towards synchronous work meetings in hybrid work models.
Hybrid tech tools are trending due to their ability to support synchronous interactions between in-person and remote participants. Employees can huddle, brainstorm and implement ideas by connecting remotely. For example, the latest Excalidraw is a digital alternative to a whiteboard. It is widely used in the IT industry to sketch out and make plans for upcoming projects.
Similarly, Google Meet, Zoom, or Slack are used to facilitate one-on-one conversations, team huddles, and company-wide scrums. All of these platforms provide HD video conferencing, which boosts productivity and improves communication.
Small businesses can benefit from implementing these hybrid tech tools. They can hire a wider mix of people with a variety of different skills to work remotely and communicate with the office via hybrid tech tools. Different time zones and operations can be facilitated by flexible working hours and environments. Small businesses can grow without the hassle of expanding their offices to accommodate new employees.
2. Social media tech trends to connect digitally
One of the important goals for small businesses is to interact with customers and build strong customer relationships. Since social media interaction has gained traction over time, many businesses are turning to digital marketing to reach a larger pool of audiences online.
Small businesses must track social media tech trends to stay abreast of what their customers want because trends on social media platforms change rapidly. In 2022, short videos are highly trending on social media which is serving as a quick way to consume content and highlight its main points.
To engage target audiences and achieve marketing objectives, small businesses can create short videos. For instance, a short video on the launch of the most recent technological advancement can attract potential customers, inform and persuade them to visit your business page for more information and, in some cases, make a purchase.
Conversational marketing is another popular social media trend. Direct messages sent to customers via chat box are one prime example of this type of marketing that has been around for a while. However, as a result of changing technological trends, this marketing tactic has altered the landscape and is now more focused on customer engagement aspects of marketing.
The idea is to reach out to potential customers in the promotion of their brands or products. For instance, a small tech business is introducing a new phone. Customers can be engaged by promoting one of its desirable features, such as the phone’s excellent camera quality. People can participate in this trending marketing campaign by posting a selfie taken with the phone’s camera and reviewing its quality.
This promotional campaign can reach broader audiences and can be trusted because 1- The customer shares their own experience and, 2- An increasing number of potential customers are available online who can view and follow the same trend.
You can improve marketing effectiveness and follow trends with the aid of digital marketing tools. Small businesses can schedule social media posts using social media scheduling platforms to be posted at high-traffic times. It ensures that audiences view your posts at the ideal time and that your posts are placed to generate the highest response and engagement.
Staying on top of social media tech trends can help grow your customer base and powerfully promote your brand.
3. Serverless computing trend to automate business processes
Routine business operations are monotonous and repetitive. Additionally, using manual methods could make these processes inefficient and prone to human errors.
Small businesses have switched to automating these processes by implementing software as a service. According to Gartner, spending on cloud services worldwide is predicted to top $482 billion in 2022. Software-as-a-service provides you with affordable platforms to use and run your operations smoothly without the hassle of installing or buying the software. With a minimal monthly or yearly subscription, you can use the SaaS platforms to automate processes, save money, and allocate resources to other crucial tasks.
Software as a service has long been popular due to its affordability, but in 2022, serverless computing is becoming an ever more popular trend. With serverless computing, users can access the cloud without having to worry about infrastructure management and server provisioning. Additionally, you do not pay a fixed price for bandwidth or storage. Instead, you get to rely on a service that is truly pay-as-you-go.
Growth-oriented small businesses can scale using serverless computing without running the risk of under or over-provisioning. The software scales automatically without any user interventions.
4. Enhanced Cybersecurity from possible threats
A Verizon report found that 43% of cyber-attacks target small businesses. There were countless scams, data breaches, and thefts recorded just last year. This has raised concerns about stringent information security. Current trends indicate that more companies than ever are prepared to invest in cybersecurity solutions to secure their software.
Cybersecurity is the method that is used to protect the network, system, or applications from cyber-attacks. It serves as protection against identity theft, cyberattacks, and unauthorized data access.
The right security hardware or software can enable your business to achieve its full potential without compromising security. You can choose the category that best fits your business from the available options. For example, Syxsense is an endpoint security solution appropriate for small businesses. Businesses must prevent data breaches as their consequences can be crippling, such as monetary losses and damaged reputations.
Conclusion
Small businesses, when equipped with thorough knowledge of current tech trends, can implement the right technology tools and grow their business successfully.