While it pains me to admit it, I’ve recently come to realise that content doesn’t just relate to the written word.
As a copywriter, I think I’d like to stay in my little bubble, believing that writing is what makes content king. But, in the ever-advancing digital world, a few good words on a webpage isn’t all you need anymore.
(Image courtesy of Coursera.org)
What made me realise this?
Well, I’ve known for a while that there’s much more to creating content than words. Videos, infographics, images, interactive sections, games, apps – they’re all great content. They’re all going to help to pull users onto your site and, to be honest, they’ll probably work much better than a flat page of written text.
Users want things they can play with and share nowadays, and while a fantastically written blog makes for some amazing lunchtime reading, an infographic you can share with your friends is likely to give users more enjoyment.
I know, it sounds like I’m defecting from the content writing team, but I’m not. I’m just saying that it’s important we encompass all forms of content.
I read an excellent Great Fridays blog (whose clients include Gucci, Vodafone and PayPal, amongst others) and found it incredibly interesting that even something as seemingly solid as the TV industry is facing change, as new content and ideas are launched.
I found the most fascinating point from this blog to be the fact that entertainment companies like Amazon and Netflix have cooked up fantastic new ideas for content. Netflix used its own data on the most popular TV shows and actors to choose a new series to distribute, and the new political drama ‘House of Cards’ starring Kevin Spacey won out.
Amazon has also crafted a cunning content strategy. Users in the USA will be able to vote on TV show ideas the megasite has come up with, and it’ll fund the winning show without any questions asked. It’s certainly an ingenious plan.
Nothing’s really changing though, is it? Content is still king; if you build it, they will still come.
And, to finish everything off, here’s a nice infographic telling you everything you already knew about content, but may not have been able to put into words before:
What do you think makes an amazing piece of content?