Among nearly 1,000 other marketers, I attended Content Marketing World a few months ago. We were all looking to enhance our content strategies and learn the latest and greatest methods and insights. Based on that experience plus my job as Content Manager at Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I’ve conjured up my content marketing predictions for 2013. Here we go (in no particular order).
More Newsjacking attempts
David Meerman Scott coined “newsjacking” or the process of injecting your ideas or angles into breaking news in real-time in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business. I see more and more brands attempting this approach since the PR ROI is massive. Plus the means to find the breaking news is increasingly possible with social media and search tools. There’s even a company called Trendspottr. Succeeding at newsjacking, however, is another story! That’s the challenge.
More Chief Content Officers
With the growing importance of content marketing, a content leader is needed at the C-suite table. A high-level leader with stellar content marketing experience can bring real value to an organization. Check out MarketingProf’s Chief Content Officer, Ann Handley, and Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing Magazine.
No More Blogging to Blog
Many brands have corporate blogs. But a shift is happening where brands are now recognizing that their blogs can serve as a lead generation tool and a place for community development. Their blogs have dedicated managers, editorial calendars, strong calls to action and a team of (internal or external) writers.
More Visual Content
With Pinterest, Instagram and other image-based social platforms growing in popularity, so too will visual-based content. That means infographics, videos, and great cover art for ebooks and blog posts are all important pieces of that 2013 content marketing pie. If you need help, there are organizations that will create visual masterpieces for you, such as Jess3 and Visual.ly.
More Short Bursts of Content
Data is showing that shorter form content is winning out in terms of sharability online. Here’s some facts:
- Facebook posts of 80 characters or less receive 27% more engagement, according to a Buddy Media data report
- Popular Slideshare presentations use fewer words (on average, ~24 words/slide) (source)
- In addition to the fact that Twitter requires short posts with their 140 character limit, the use of shorter hashtags are more popular
What content marketing insights do you foresee for 2013? Share your ideas here and Happy New Year!