It all seems so logical: you attend industry trade shows, webinars, network and listen to water-cooler gossip about the newest technology and trends out there.
You do a great job creating business cases, corralling teams and getting blessing on budgets. Everything seems to be moving forward, and then… BOOM. The technology landscape changes and the latest and most effective way to connect with customers and drive revenue is old hat.
As frustrating as it can be to get caught in this circle of innovation, technology has become part of our lifestyle. Integrating technology into the way in which we publish content has become a part of our everyday business life.
Old Technologies We Just Got the Hang Of:
In 2013, we saw growth across Pinterest, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Vine, Buffer, In-app Commerce, Native Advertising and even Content Marketing. We looked to social and viral outlets to help us drive subscribers, increase eyeballs and raise engagement. Some of these technologies have died down in terms of effectiveness, while others have integrated themselves into consumer lifestyles in a natural manner and will continue to grow into effective marketing channels.
New Technologies On The Rise:
In 2014, we’ll see the rise of the next generation of technologies meant to bring us closer to our customer and into a deeper conversation with our prospects. They will drive us to be even more innovative with our outreach.
Here is a sneak peek at some of the technologies you need to be on top of in 2014. Over the next few columns, I will be interviewing companies from this space to provide deeper insights.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) meets Content: While NLP is nothing new, companies like idio are taking it to the next level by using it to automatically understand how each customer is interpreting our content, in order to serve up tailored communications. Watch out business rules and segments, the leading companies today are doing things automatically at the individual level.
- Audio enabled content distribution: Move over QR codes and even proximity-based notifiers, here comes companies like LISNR, who have created an audio based platform that activates sound around consumers to deliver meaningful content. Yes, audio waves that trigger content. You have to check it out.
- Multi-perspective content co-creation: MovieMaker is nice, Photosynth is dimensional, but smartphone cameras can now be networked thru apps to create an entirely new experience. Companies like Vyclone enable group capture and co-creation of video from different, but shared, perspectives of the same event.
These are just a few of the technologies you should expect to see make waves in 2014. We also need to be prepared for wearables, optimized low file size imagery, scanning and much more. The opportunities are endless.
If you know of a new or up and coming technology that has the ability to change the world of publishing, feel free to share in the comments.
Title image from Vyclone.com