Wow. That’s a really broad topic to headline a post with. What is the future of online content? Where is it going? As a copywriter, this is of particular importance to me because if I want to ensure an ongoing career, I have to be thinking about this. If I stick to old ways of writing internet content, I will find myself out of a job and passed over by the trade I love.
As technology advances, it alters the way we do a lot of things. Some that come to mind are:
It was Bill Gates who famously said, “We’re changing the world with technology.”
So, technology is changing content. Mobile phone screens are pretty small, which takes the idea of an economy of language to a whole new level. Oddly, having more information at your fingertips seems to result in less patience for reading that information, so long form copy is for the most part, dead, especially online.
Infographics are the latest shift from scannable, bulleted copy to something that readers can glean for information even more quickly. There’s a reason Twitter has become the world’s default newsfeed and why it’s so preferred by businesses over Facebook.
I’d answer my own question by saying that the future of content is driven by technology, which in turn influences consumer demand. Content will be shorter and more interactive. Less focused on words and more on images and experience. However, as a writer I must believe that we still need words. That there will always be a place for powerful words, however few, in online content, whatever form it takes.
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