If you notice the history of how we’ve used internet (as a connectivity platform), we started with primarily one-to-one communications – email, starting in the 80s. Email communication was the predominant form of online content, back then.
We then moved on to one-to-many content usage via websites, which helped brands take their corporate materials to a global audience. Sharing information and uploading the information available in physical forms to a digital form was the predominant form of content in this phase.
An in-between phase was about the blogging scene, where we shared our opinions in online spaces that aped mainstream media – we created our own media vehicles to share our views and opinions.
Then came the many-to-many platforms, via social media. Here, everybody seems to be speaking to everybody else, even though there are controls to manage the conversation as one-to-one and one-to-many options. This phase is largely about rampant sharing – we’re now sharing everything from ‘my cat rolled over’ to ‘I got laid!’.
We don’t intend to stop doing any of these, even though, occasionally, and quite sensationally, we hear of something or the other dying – email/blogging is dead…or websites are taken over by Facebook page and so on. But nothing is dying and everything continues to have its own place.
The question then is about what is next, as far as content goes, on the internet? In other words, what kind of content are we likely to witness next. Without getting tactical, here are some guesses.
1. Rise of content from inanimate, internet-enabled objects
Yes, seriously. We’ve already heard of the internet-enabled fridge that supposedly restocks based on what is taken out of it. But consider many other ‘objects’ sharing data online simply because they will soon be internet enabled. Trains, cars and buses sharing data on their movement, in real time; Television channels sharing data in real time on the programs that are airing/airing shortly; Hospitals sharing data in real time on doctor/bed availability; Roads sharing data in real time about parking space availability…you get the drift. All this data from internet-enabled ‘objects’ could be a huge source of data online that we may start mining and using in assorted ways.
2. Rise of the automated content
This is happening already, to a limited extent – like the Foursquare checkins that happen in tandem with GPS, but I expect it to happen more frequently, much to our annoyance. Not just checkins – think about other actions that are automatically streamed online. A purchase in a store could be streamed in the store’s online profile, tagged with our named gathered from the credit card; A restaurant could share information on what we’re eating, via an internet-enabled table, again, tagged with our name gathered in some way; Our Nike shoes already send information on the distance we’ve ran, anyway. Think of more opportunities here.
3. Content not built around search engine discoverability
While we do have some form of protected content (paywalls, password-protected groups etc.) already, right now, the tearing need for all brands is to open everything and get Google juice. That Google juice enables more people to see the number of people connected to the brand and it becomes a cycle in gaining numbers and getting more people to share information to and fro.
What brands seem to be missing is building non-search visibility driven online spaces that offer exclusive access and hence, exclusive benefits too. These have existed in the real world for a long time – organizations like Freemasons and Rotary International have followed this principle for ages where they do not intend to make their groups and memberships so public. In the online space, the reverse is happening at an alarming pace thanks to discoverability by search engines and the benefits in increasing visibility for brands – the logic being, the more the number of people visiting, the more the potential sales/business pipe.
At some point, brands should get over this numbers routine and build online spaces that are shielded and exclusive, to select people, based on some criteria. The content available within these spaces would be hidden from the mighty search engines, for a reason – to maintain exclusivity – and the sales/business funnel from such online spaces is likely to be far better for brands, based on the kind of exclusivity offered.
To be correct, this one is not about new content, but existing kind of content that is used/handled differently. When the intent of the content changes, there may be inherent changes to the nature of content itself.
What kind of content do you expect to arrive and take center-stage in the coming years? From where and from whom?