We're a little bit past mid-year, but it's still a good time to highlight five trends for 2017. The first three come from the Member Clicks Blog and Dan Farkas, a lecturer of strategic communication at Ohio University, at a recent talk titled Marketing on a Budget:

"The digital business that we run today requires that we have a direct relationship with our users," said Meredith Kopit Levien, chief revenue officer of The New York Times. While The Times' proprietary app lives on millions of mobile screens, she explains that social is invaluable for driving sales. "We are most focused on that: building subscriptions and also selling advertising."

The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) ran a contest last year asking members to submit short videos—less than two minutes—that showed the benefits of being a Certified Management Accountant. The contest theme was "You've Got to Earn It."

While advertisers in many B2B categories appeared to consolidate the number of B2B media sites they advertised on in 2016, several verticals saw advertisers buying more high value placements and more rich media advertising, according to the MediaRadar Digital Placement Score report.

What's the greatest opportunity for your business today? For Angela Kornegor, SVP of publishing and education for SIPA member Panacea Healthcare Solutions, and a speaker at next week's Business Information & Media Summit (BIMS) in Fort Lauderdale, the answer is to be creative.

Videos draw eyeballs. (Jim Sinkinson has said just having "video" in a subject line triggers a huge jump in clicks.) And for well-done videos, the heavens can be the limit. Links to videos at SIPA member Cabot Heritage Corporation draw 1500-1800 clicks when I last asked.

"We have to get better at selling, not just relying on Google and Facebook and flowing with their tide," said Matt Bailey, founder of SiteLogic and a best-selling author. "We need to be much more aggressive about creating new channels. And getting better at selling when we're in those channels, or even taking what Google and Facebook give us but do better in presenting the value, developing leads, [providing] better communications—all the activities we used to do before relying on Google and Facebook."

What if you could get the full attention of most of your subscribers/readership/members at one specific time every week?

"No matter how long you've been in this business, you always want to be a learner. And this is an opportunity for personal and professional growth for me—an opportunity to network with some of the most incredible leaders in this country. It's like bringing the publication of Education Week into 3D. It's brought it to life for me."

Josh Andersen, production manager for Fred Meyer, shoots videos for Kroger grocery stores in the northwest, and, at times, for SIPA member BVR so he knows B2B. He wants your production values to be better. "Today's viewing audiences are savvy. They know regular production value and standards. Just by doing some little things, you can bring [your video] up a notch and make it look more professional."