Now, I will admit: most of the content produced is garbage. One of the first lines in a blog post several months ago began with the proclamation that your content is crap. However, I consider how history has a tendency to preserve the worthy while destroying the weak. Contemporary with historical greats like Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Michelangelo were thousands of artists, writers, and sculptors whose works have been lost to history. These nameless masses, so forgotten that the collective consciousness does not even recall their category existed, failed to be great and so were forgotten. The same can be said of content today: while the digital world threatens to preserve all, history will only pass on what is worthy of being passed. True, some digital archeologist of the future mining the depths of the deep web may come across some embarrassing tidbit that we hoped would be lost forever, but the collective consciousness will only recall the best of the age.

Now, I don’t expect you just to accept that we have entered an age that will be remembered for the creation of timeless pieces that will be remembered for as long as we can view them, there are many indicators that we are entering a new renaissance that I will outline below.

Sheer Quantity of Content

You have probably heard the expression “a thousand monkeys typing at a thousand typewriters for a thousand years will produce the complete written works of Shakespeare.” While mathematically dubious (the odds of randomly producing even one of Shakespeare’s plays are so astronomically small as to be impossible for all practical purposes), it does speak to how repetition over very large numbers will occasionally result in statistically improbable events.

However, note that this is at random, and human beings most certainly are not random creatures. When we produce content, we want it to be consumed and enjoyed by our audience. Furthermore, we are creating more content (written works, graphics, videos, games) than we have at any point in human history. In fact, according to a Science Daily article, the period from 2011 – 2013 produced 90% of all data created by man up to that time (the article was written May 2013). Moreover, all of that data is analyzed, reported on, and written about.

With the sheer demand for content by marketing agencies and the consumer alike, the chances of producing an excellent work of art steadily increase.

Practice, practice, practice

The practice that people are getting ties in with the statement regarding the volume of content above. As stated previously, humans are not random creatures. We want the stuff we produce to meet a particular end, and when it fails to meet the quality we expect we get feedback and correct our methods in order to produce a more acceptable result. The number of opportunities out there for independent artists to practice their trade are greater than at any point in human history. With an internet connection, people can make their hobby pay for itself while working a full-time or part-time job to make ends meet. Once you have had enough time to practice your skills, you can apply those skills towards a career.

Remember that all the great Renaissance artists had time to practice. The demand gives people opportunities to practice that did not exist before, refining their crafts from amateurish to masterwork through sheer brute force.

We are Getting Smarter

While there are many faults in our education system, the fact is: people are getting “smarter”. I put this word in quotes because intelligence is still very difficult to measure, but IQ tests suggest that every generation is more intelligent than their descendants. This effect, called the Flynn Effect, has made it so that IQ tests have to be made harder to maintain an average score of 100. Now, Flynn himself (for whom the effect is named after), suggests that we are intelligent in different ways. We are more analytical and logical than our ancestors were, but we probably wouldn’t have as good a memory (you can read an excellent article on this by the Smithsonian here).

Furthermore, as people pursue more cognitively demanding jobs, they are becoming more creative, logical, and analytical. Psychologists have long recognized that the brain is much like a muscle: the more you use it, the fitter it is. With jobs demanding more and more of our brain power, our mind must adapt to these requirements and build up more endurance and more power. The net effect is the capacity to produce much better content as time moves forward than previous generations.

We Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

However, we cannot arrogantly proclaim that humans of today are leagues beyond what our ancestors were. One could argue that the increase in average intelligence comes from the fact that people are more educated on average than in the past, and the fact with education is that in order for it to make it into the school system: somebody has to discover it. It is easy to proclaim superiority by understanding germ theory, but it is very difficult to put germ theory together until somebody finds these tiny little microorganisms, and you can’t find them until someone builds a microscope, and nobody will think to make a microscope unless they think there is something to find.

The fact is, previous generations have produced some exceptionally brilliant individuals in many fields, and what they learned is now being passed to students in school. Once the knowledge is passed on, these students are free to build on that knowledge and information to say “what next?” Centuries of writing, painting, and sculpting have taught artists what resonates with audiences and what does not. Just as much time spent in marketing has taught advertisers who learn from history what triggers the impulse to buy and what turns people away from your brand.

Leonardo Da Vinci, though a fantastic artist, was also known as a brilliant inventor who was centuries ahead of his time, and from that brilliance and the intelligence of others like him we have tools to make the next big leap.

The Utility Value

I hope I’ve made a strong case for the foundations that will fuel a new renaissance. However, I still need to fulfill a promise made in the first paragraph: what is the utility value? While the occasional editorial is acceptable, ultimately this IS a business blog, not a personal one. It should offer something of value to customers. The value here is an understanding of the scope of the competition in the internet marketing and especially the content marketing space.

Many have written about how to make your content stand out (a quick Google search for “How do I Make My Content Stand Out?” reveals a first page filled with articles on exactly that), but few understand just how serious the competition is. It is not just making your content stand out amongst the noise: if you deliver useful, interesting, relevant material and use promotional tools like Outbrain and ESPECIALLY make use of social media channels, your content will stand out. What will be difficult though, is handling competition that is just as good as you are and delivering the same quality.

Somewhere out there, probably working for your competitor, is the next great writer, the next great film director, the next great artist, getting their start in a marketing department somewhere and honing their craft. The overwhelming majority of content might be spam, but these are the people who will be able to bury your content just on quality alone. The good news is that there are others just as brilliant out in the pool of the unemployed somewhere, and you just need to find them.

Of course, such individuals do not come cheap. Somebody who is highly skilled at their job knows they are highly skilled, and will demand compensation to match with their abilities. Furthermore, if you stifle these individuals with unreasonable deadlines and a small budget, you’ll never get the full potential out of them. Invest heavily in your creative content teams. Otherwise you might find yourself a forgotten shadow of history. Without such investment, you may end up among the billions who have lived and died throughout history. Forgotten, eclipsed by the competition whose efforts made them immortal.

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Content Marketing saw massive expansion in 2014, with businesses investing more in providing readers with good, informative material. A big part of this increase comes from seeing how companies who bought into the content marketing game early managed to acquire huge returns on their investment. With more companies making the investment than before, those looking to stay ahead of the curve now need to become even more creative if they wish to stand out. Here, we’ll deta­­il some of the trends that are emerging in the field of content marketing to make sure you can stay ahead of the curve.

Social Media

There is no understating the value of social media in marketing efforts, ESPECIALLY when it comes to content marketing. My philosophy is that there is no content marketing without social media. This is our company’s most essential content amplification tool. It does not matter how many websites you can get to host what you produce, or how well-crafted that content is. Without social media to boost your content, you are missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of views that could potentially become customers.

However, this is nothing new: yes, social media is important, you know that. The emerging trend is not that social media is being used, but how it integrates with content marketing. There has been this tendency in the past to put marketing into a series of silos: you have conventional marketing in one silo, SEO in another, and social media in another, with each operating independently. This is something that is going to change. Social Media and content marketing will soon become indistinguishable from each other.

Businesses will soon have to, if they have not done so already, merge their content managers and social media managers into one cohesive unit, and the two will have to closely coordinate their actions. If new content goes live, it cannot be advertised on social media simply “when the social media manager can get around to it”, it needs to be advertised right away. On the inverse side, the content manager cannot post their content “whenever”, they must time it with when your audience is online and looking for content to consume, something the social media manager would be intimately familiar with.

Content Creation Focused Positions

In the past, content creation suffered a shortage of professional writers. Often those responsible for this job had other responsibilities and could not devote their full attention. Even more damning, content created for SEO purposes was often of low quality, written by writer who wasn’t being paid enough to put more than 10 minutes worth of effort into the job. The idea of having a full-time writer on staff was still restricted largely to news and entertainment venues, with marketing departments simply making writing one of a myriad of responsibilities that the content creator had.

In 2015 I believe we will see a trend where full-time content creators will be a more common fixture in businesses. This comes from the increasing demand for high-quality content that can only come from somebody who can sit down and write in a distraction free environment. Marketing departments that have not done so already will find themselves searching for full-time writers, editors, graphic designers, and more. They will also recognize these individuals are more valuable when allowed to focus on creation, and will delegate management responsibilities to others. The need for high-quality content means we will likely see a surge in positions that are writing and design heavy. This is good news for good writers who have long felt their skills to be undervalued and bad news for those who haven’t learned to write more than five-hundred words worth reading.

Personalized Content

As content marketing evolves, it must also become more targeted. In warfare, attempting to defend everything means you defend nothing, and attempting to market to everybody means you appeal to nobody. Providing personalized content will require, first, learning exactly who your customers are. This means engaging with them and learning on a personal level their likes, dislikes, interests, and more.

The goal of personalization is to appear as more than just “a brand” to your customers. You want to be something special. This is why brands looking to gain an edge will have to start micro-targeting. They will narrow their targeting even further. This will require even more content to be produced to target each of these various buyers. This need for personalized content will come from the combination of internet search and traffic largely being geared towards what the end user wants to see, and the marketers wanting to be seen. As search engines become more sophisticated, and users more adept at browsing, marketers will have to become cleverer and more intimate in order to get their message across.

Greater Emphasis on Entertaining and Informing

A big part of content marketing is remembering that it is ultimately about telling a story. It is no accident that good content marketing is beginning to closely resemble good story telling. This recognition that advertisement must become entertainment is not actually unique to the digital era: there is a reason why Super Bowl Ads are as much of a draw as the game itself. And no good story can be told without characters, and especially not a protagonist: and you want your company to be the protagonist in your brand’s “story”. Going forward, you’ll see businesses either producing more content with the intent to be thought-provoking and fun to read, or injecting themselves into places that are already thought-provoking and fun to read.

As part of this emphasis on making people want to engage with your content, I believe that a greater emphasis on episodic content will also come to the fore. If you’re entertaining already, and people want to consume your content, then you can keep them coming back for more. Just remember that you’re still a marketer, and that all content should still drive towards a particular goal (conversions, lead generation, thought leadership). As such, you’ll never be a full blown entertainment or information venue, but you CAN get close. If all else fails: mixing your content in with something produced by a full-blown entertainment or information venue will be incredibly useful.

Taking Stands

This is probably the item that many in the field will disagree with, and I’ll be the first to admit I could be wrong here. However, I believe that this will be the logical result of the way content marketing is going, the current political climate in the developed world, and the general attitudes of my generation which is now finishing college and, in some cases, well along their career path. I see 2015 as being the year companies start to take stands, and if it doesn’t reach full steam this year, it will reach full steam by 2016.

Lobbying is nothing new in business, but to date corporate lobbying has always been affiliated with causes that have a direct business interest. Company values of tolerance and equality are often tied with the business interests of that company, knowing that appearing racist or sexist is a good way to lose customers. While I’m sure Human Resources departments and business owners genuinely believe in these causes, remember that they did not become common in companies until after decades of activism provoked change in government policy that then trickled down to businesses, and many would argue we still have a long way to go.

What I expect to change is that businesses will take stands on issues that do not appear to have any ties to their business interests (at least, not to anybody outside the marketing department). While certain issues will likely always remain closed due to their highly volatile nature (I’m sure the one that popped into your head starts with the letter “A”), others are a good way to make your company stand out. By associating your company with a cause, you can get people to buy not out of any real desire to own your product, but merely by affiliation with a cause. However, one has to be careful with the timing: while having a brand recognized as being “ahead of its time” can be a good thing, you don’t want to be so far ahead as to alienate your consumers.

Taking a stand on something everybody agrees with is easy of course, the tricky part comes to those issues where a consensus has not yet been established. In these cases, your marketing department has to really analyze the target markets, and try to establish what the consensus is now, or what the consensus will be later, and determine what causes are important to them and what stand to take based on that data. This is a difficult endeavor, and certainly falls under the category of “high-risk, high-reward”. I will break down the best way to approach this tricky quagmire in the next post, for now though, remember that courting controversy can be a very good thing for your marketing goals. The entertainment industry has already thoroughly proven the value of controversy to sales, and I’m confident 2015 will prove it can work elsewhere.

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Unfortunately, the “newspaper graveyard” is increasing a rapid pace.

Are Newspapers dying a slow death?

The combination of people ditching newspapers in favor of reading articles online has reflected the trend our nation is currently following. There are some timeless publications that will never go out of business such as The New York Times or The Washington Post (to name a few). With that said, even those major distributors have adapted online versions of their stories. To further the notion of dying newspapers, Wikipedia has an entire list of defunct newspapers.

Clearly, the main catalyst behind the dwindling newspaper industry is, of course, the internet. Think in laymans terms for a moment, why would someone pay a monthly fee for the newspaper when they can access the same stories online using their computers, cell-phones or tablets? It all boils down to a waste of money for the average person. Not to mention, once the newspaper has been printed  and delivered they cannot update an ongoing story or situation until the following day and the entire premiss could have changed drastically. The idea of purchasing a newspaper service just does seem like a logical choice in this internet age. Therefore, several newspapers are definitely dying a slow death and the select ones that have adopted a online version will continue to survive.

Can Mainstream Media & Social Media Find a Happy Medium?

This obvious answer is YES. Although, as the great Lee Corso famously says, “Not so fast my friend!”, we must recognize we’re in the midst of a giant paradigm shift. In other words, out with the old and in with the new. The Millennial Generation has unanimously decided that social media networks are the present and future of obtaining information. Meanwhile, the aging Generation X or The Baby Boomers population hasn’t completely passed the theoretical torch towards this movement just yet and as a result we still see companies like the yellow pages hanging on by a thread.

What happens next?

Once social media has fully infiltrated all walks of life, collectively we can progress as a whole in terms of how we receive our news and totally eliminate all obsolete methods. There are definitely some promising signs with people immersing themselves with both social and mainstream media. For example, if television viewers are tuned in to a sporting event or awards show, those major networks have recently incorporated the option for those same viewers to communicate in real time with one another. The ability to blend both forms of media ultimately enhances the entire production for everyone. We like to call that a win-win. In the end, the correlation of social and mainstream media makes for a higher quality presentation.

A New Approach to Current Events

Manti Te’o, the subject of an elaborate alleged internet hoax, is currently facing immense criticism from ALL media outlets.

With the integration of Facebook and Twitter, to name a few, as focal points in our daily lives we have left the door open to overnight exposure for the average citizen. More precisely, anyone can receive international attention from a timely tweet or a cleverly designed Meme. The term “viral” has entered

almost everyones vocabulary, and rightfully so. At any given time, a Facebook post or Tweet can literally go viral. The most common occurrence of this happening is during a breaking news story. For example, earlier this week the major headline (other than Lance Armstrong’s highly anticipated interview with Oprah) was the discovery of Notre Dame’s star linebacker Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend. After this “hoax” was announced, within a 24 hour span, a trending array of memes spawned from this announcement. The newly coined “Te’oing” has swept the over the internet and sequentially has now found it’s way to television sets worldwide. From here on out, any current event is fair game for people to scrutinize, ridicule or over-analyze (which is nothing new) but now these thoughts are shared instantly and people from the far stretches of the world are connected. Essentially the  grapevine now grows in all countries across the globe.

Conclusion

Bob Dylan once sang, the “Times are a changin” and that is the truth. One slip-up in todays’ world can mean a lifetime of criticism and a unwanted black cloud that looms over you forever. Which leads me to the pressing issue at hand, has the collaboration of social and mainstream media posed as our friend or foe? I think the answer lies within one another. Can we get positive feedback from this? YES Can we inspire generations of individuals to accomplish the impossible? YES Has the phenomenon of the social media age played a vital role in the progression and innovation of human discoveries? OF COURSE On the other hand, has instances of cyber-bullying caused extensive pain and sorrow for certain individuals? Sadly it has. All in all, I would like to believe that the pros of our new social-media-platform-lifestyles far outweighs any negative human behavior associated with it. Let’s face it, the internet is here to stay and we shall totally embrace it!

Related articles

• ‘Te’oing’ Meme Goes Viral on Social Media After Manti Te’o’s Girlfriend Revealed As Hoax (Photos)

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With the Internet takeover during the last twenty years, the web has become the primary place for somebody to look for a good or a service. Therefore, every company with any aspirations of being successful needs to be on the Internet to draw in as many potential clients as possible. If you don’t have a website, then yes, you do need one. If you do have a website, then chances are you need one that needs to be updated.

Changing of the Times

With the introduction of the Internet in the 1990s and its explosion in the 2000s, everybody now uses it to find their goods and services. Nobody uses the Yellow Pages and traditional methods to locate a business. It’s too much of a hassle to flip through the giant books and tediously locate a business in the phone books. Finding a business on the Internet has never been easier with search engines such as Google and DuckDuckGo doing all the work for you.

Potential Clients

With everybody looking for businesses on the Internet, that’s where your company needs to be in ordre to maximize profits. If your company does not have an online presence, you are losing over half of your potential clients. That’s a ton of profits that is pouring into your competitors’ businesses because they most likely have fantastic websites and devote themselves to the Internet.

Updating a Website

Many websites are outdated and have an unprofessional look and feel. A clean website can convert visitors into customers. Old websites will instantly turn a potential customer away; however, a new website can be your best salesman. Too often on the web, company’s try to make sites where everything stands out, but if you’re trying to make everything stand out, then nothing stands out and it just looks jumbled and messy. A clean site will be pleasing to the eye and will be easier for your clients to use.

Standing Out

There are over one hundred million domains on the Internet. So you’re probably thinking, “How can my site possibly stand out among all those?” Having a clean site and working with an SEO company is a great way to start. Also, having a presence on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can drive traffic and promote a brand name. Companies with a presence on the web and social media are twice as likely to be considered the brand name in the industry.

Costs

Websites are far more affordable than you may think. Rank Executives offers top-notch websites for a price that’s competitive with their top competition. Once you have a website, we suggest reading about the different SEO Packages to get your site ranked at the top of Google in no time! Our SEO Packages are the ultimate, cream of the crop! When you sign up with us, we guarantee that you will see an increase in rankings and traffic.

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