Social Media

The last trend in a 5 part series following Marketing Goes Real Time, The Web Leans Back, Brands Take User Generated Data Seriously and The Conversation Changes From Mobile to Mobility

5. CONTENT MANAGEMENT BECOMES A BUSINESS PRIORITY

The last trend is that of content management becoming a business priority.  As the ‘community’ fascination and like race that burned through our industry 12 months ago continues to calm we’ll see more brands begin to realize just how valuable fresh and timely content is.  That realization though will extend beyond the walled garden of the Facebook page and confines of the company blog and begin to permeate the entire business.

That said the primary driver of this shift will still be social.  As social customer service continues to flap in the wind, a recent study illustrated that only 3% of customers prefer to use social media as a service channel¹⁶, brands will need to change the conversation from one of ‘if you DM me your details I can help’ to one of brand interest and engagement.

We’ll also see the current search vacuum of decreasing CPC’s driven by mobile collapse courtesy of Google’s Enhanced Campaigns.  This will again force brands to invest in content to build out their organic presence in a drive to better balance their paid and owned programs.

The growing importance of prospect and customer comms, a hot topic in many boardrooms will further accelerate the branded content need.  As marketers look to personalize content and communication, agencies will be forced to supply a steady stream of fresh and relevant content.

This will bring changes to the way content is viewed within the campaign mix;

Content will infiltrate campaign planning as the conversation shifts from one of ‘content is king’ to that of ‘content is currency’.  As a result campaigns will include their own content long tail to help extend the life and depth of the message(s) in market.

As a result there will need to be a re-evaluation of the current content production model.  Campaign shoots, client commercial arrangements, talent contracts, post process and delivery methods will all need to be rethought.  A process of optimization will need to be agreed that embraces flexibility and feedback that allows for inefficient creative to be altered mid campaign.

So there we are.  My 2 cents on what will affect our industry in the coming year or years.  The final point I’ll leave you with is that these trends rarely happen in isolation so if one begins to accelerate the others are likely to follow.

Thank you

Sources:

• 16 – Emarketer & TNS Omnibus Social Customer Service Survey 2012

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