This is the very interesting article which predicts the content marketing for 2016.
While this post wasn’t
wholly accurate (who can tell the future perfectly?), a lot of the trends I
touched upon did come to pass. What’s even more exciting is that these patterns
are now dovetailing in interesting directions. In addition, over the course of
the year I’ve noticed completely new movements beginning to materialize. Instead
of highlighting what came to pass from last year’s post, I want to begin this
year by looking ahead towards the year to come and outlining six brand new
content marketing predictions for 2016.
Prediction 1: Google+ Will
Not Survive
Google+ has been something
of a question mark since its hyped introduction over four years ago. A big
ambitious project by a company completely qualified to be ambitious has clearly
not panned out. While Google+ certainly has its vocal advocates, its
overall user base is vanishing quickly and shows no signs of rebounding. Just a
few weeks ago, the Google+ team announced a
total redesign in an attempt to resuscitate the product. While this “pivot”
might give aficionados hope, the new set of skin and pared down feature set is
a Hail Mary on Google’s part and is too little too late.
The first sign of death
for Google+ was flagging membership and activity. However, the biggest blow was
the
“dis-integration” of Google+ from Google’s other projects that
occurred earlier this year.
Hangouts and Photos
getting spun off as
their own products is also telling of the future outcome of the
platform’s demise.
Soon, the dismembered
pieces of Google+ will be distributed throughout Google’s product line as their
dream of a “fully integrated Google experience” dies a slow, painful death.
I simply don’t see the
service lasting through the year. Quote me on that.
Prediction 2:
Direct-To-Platform Publishing Is Just Getting Started
This year already saw a
clear trend emerge as platforms realized that they could disintermediate
content and grab more attention and advertising dollars in the process. Snapchat
Discover, Facebook Instant Articles, Google AMP, Twitter Moments LinkedIn
Pulse, and Apple News are already making waves and disrupting the model of
digital publishing.
Even though most of these
programs are only in their pilot phases, there are many in the publishing world
who are already seeing
the writing on the wall (no pun intended!)
Underestimating just how
much of a shift this groundswell constitutes will be the death of traditional
publishers. As content creators have grown ever more reliant on platforms for
traffic, they have relinquished control of their key resource: attention.
Platforms are just
beginning to realize that they can take advantage of the readership they
generate by integrating content directly instead of pushing people to other
properties.
A previous article this
year, I touched upon how content creators can begin to accommodate this change
by republishing
their content to other platforms, but this is not so much a solution
to this underlying problem as much as it is a stop-gap measure.
2016 will see this trend
further disrupt the publisher/platform relationship and more power will be
clearly given to the platforms. The only way for publishers to re-assert
control will be to devise a way to build and engage an audience within a given
platform and to foster loyalty that translates outside the properties where
their content is living and being consumed.
Prediction 3: Facebook
Will Player A Bigger Part In Dictating The
In both the primaries and
global politics, Facebook’s trending topics have helped shape and define the
discussion and the sentiment
surrounding world affairs. Media outlets used to set the tone, but now the opposite
is true.
A 61-million person study
published in Nature in 2012 found that Facebook use and exposure to certain ideas
could have a “significant influence” on voting behaviors.
Not only has Facebook’s
core user-base increased dramatically in the years since 2012, but the amount
of time spent on the site and the degree to which content users see has become
polarized have increased as well. Outrage and strong opinions abound as “social
subcultures” begin to reinforce the echo-chamber effect and help spread
virulent messages quickly throughout the social media sphere of influence. The media is
complicit in helping to spread and leverage this outrage, all while
riding the wave of the emotional response these flashpoint posts are almost
guaranteed to garner. Being able to harness such strong emotions is risky, but
content that does so responsibly can achieve dramatic social lift. In the
coming months, brands will not be able to stay relevant and stay neutral at the
same time. Your brand will be forced to choose a point-of-view and embrace it,
so make sure to choose carefully.
Prediction 4: Emerging
Destinations Of Content Will Continue To Pull
Certain networks have
escaped this fall by doubling down on quality and tightening their appeal, but
there is only so much room for established, traditional publishers like the
Atlantic, the New Yorker, CBS, CNN, and others, and the new economic realities
of content distribution mean there is even less money to go around to support
such programming. At the other end of the spectrum, though, are the independent
podcasters, YouTubers, and bloggers that are eschewing large budgets and
mass-appeal by narrowly defining their audience and catering directly to their
needs. The rise of social subcultures has facilitated this diffusion of
attention across various channels.This has led to the unique class of
“superstars you’ve never heard of” who have outsized influence in small-sized
communities. Although they might not be household names just yet, some of these
high-profile social celebrities are beginning to have mainstream impact. In
January of this year; YouTubers Bethany Mota, Hank Green, and GloZell Green
were all invited to the White House to interview Obama, live and with questions
sourced directly from their passionate fanbases. The fact that a couple of
young, non-connected, independent creatives were able to get the type of access
once only open to the Barbra Walter’s and Walter Cronkite’s of the world should
tell you more about this trend than any facts or figures can. Although content
creation has become decentralized and budgets are falling, there is still money
to be made here. That’s because the value of this hyper-focused attention is so
much more per-capita than the fraction-of-a-penny per eyeball that most mass
media relies on. Certain brands are focusing on creating strategic partnerships
with independent creators that align with their unique audience. Just look at
what Squarespace has
done with their podcast sponsorships or how Audible has allied with
relatively small YouTubers like Minute Physics
and Veritasium. Other brands
are taking a different approach whereby they bring this type of small-scale,
hyper-targeted content creation in-house. This lines up with the prediction I
made last year regarding brands becoming publishing houses and the most notable
example of this panning out in 2015 is the amazing work Marriot has done with
their online publication Marriott
Traveller and what Harry’s razors has done with their publication Five O’ Clock. These established and
emerging outlets by independent creators, brands and other players will
continue to disperse the attention of consumers, limiting the reach and
influence of traditional publishers.
Prediction 5: Content Will
Get Easier To Produce And Harder To Stand Out With
2015 has been a defining
year for Snapchat and Instagram, but 2016 will be the year they truly mature.
On the one hand, you have
the emergence of high-quality catered content that is being produced by
relatively few individuals for their narrowly defined audiences (see previous
prediction). On the other hand you have networks that encourage a very large
percentage of users to create low-effort, fleeting content.
What this content lacks in
polish it makes up for in spontaneity, relevance and timeliness. Images and
short video are the perfect media for this type of content and having said
content disappear (be it within an unsearchable ever-updating stream or in a
self-destructing post) helps encourage sharing without overthinking.
Snapchat and Instagram are
the perfect environments for such content, and both are just figuring out how
to improve and monetize. The challenge this presents to brands though is that
it makes standing out with content difficult, and means that your content needs
to be a constantly flowing stream just to stay on your customer’s radar. Brands
that will be the winners in this space will be those who can create processes
that guarantee a consistent rhythm
for delivering highly visual, impactful and spontaneous content. This will
likely require that you forgo some degree of quality as you attempt to balance
spontaneity with effective planning.
Prediction 6: Chat Apps
Will Catch On Stateside In A Bigger Way
In many other regions of
the world, chat apps such as WhatsApp, Line, Telegram and WeChat are seeing
massive user-bases and phenomenal growth. However, growth in the US has been
strong but not as dramatic. 2016 is the year that all of this will change.
Facebook Messenger and
WhatsApp have shown that there is mainstream appeal for instant messaging apps
in the US, but they have not yet fully matured as their own distinct platforms.
In a post earlier this
year, I took a detailed look at messaging apps and exactly what made
them such a promising venue for future growth in the digital marketing sector.
One particularly
compelling statistic was that the growth of mobile chat apps had doubled the
average growth-rate of new mobile users.This alone makes chat apps
promising, but the most exciting opportunity for chat apps comes in solving the
problem presented in the previous prediction.
As general,
user-generated, short form visual content becomes ever more difficult to stand
out in, one thing that could give brands a way to be noticed is a new delivery
channel.
Instead of hoping to have
your content delivered in-feed, you can use the chat features of these apps as
direct lines to tailored audiences in specific groups. This is the general idea
behind the wildly popular Snapchat Discover, and the addition of sponsored
content will likely be the avenue towards monetization for many other chat
apps.
Although the parameters
for how to market in this emerging medium are still being drawn, savvy
marketers will know to closely watch the chat app space and be waiting to jump
on the opportunity to leverage this new channel once it presents itself more
clearly.
Which of my predictions on
content marketing for the coming year do you agree with and which do you think
I missed the mark on? Share your input in the comments below.
Read more at
http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/6-predictions-future-content-marketing-2016-01392001#gHShzyXuHbLMkJig.99
