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What is the future of content? What is the future of media? To market and connect with your audience today but in the future I believe understanding content/media will enable you to successfully transition in this new era we find ourselves in.
Today we start a multi-part series on The Future of Content. In a way we could also name this The Future of Media as the first things we tackle are information, the definition of media, and the definition of content.
Information. We create tons of information and this will speed up tremendously. The Digital Universe study from IDC sponsored by IT firm EMC Corporation predicts that the annual amount of bytes we produce will jump 44-fold over the next decade. We not only talk about this but also I give a quick aside on the information we often don’t consider as data or media.
Media. This is a big one. To really be successful in the content realm I believe we have to redefine the word media. Better yet, it is being redefined and it’s either you know it or you don’t… that’s how strongly I feel about it. I reference a great book in this section Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky. There is a great passage on page 26 that every person looking to market or advertise should take to heart.
Content. What is content? What should we consider content. In a way we can use media and content interchangeably. So is content/media…
- A blog post?
- a quick video?
- a picture?
- facebook update? Facebook Like?
- Twitter update?
- comment on a blog post?
- an up or down vote on a review?
We have to rethink and redefine in our minds what we consider media and content. Now as a marketer that is important but the consumer, your customer doesn’t make this distinction.
Your customer lives in a multi-tethered asynchronous relationship with media.
Which means… they do other stuff while they watch TV. Gone are the days of sedentary watching of content. They are consuming, creating, publishing, engaging, and sharing all at the same time.
