Editor’s Note: Noz Urbina, content strategist, author and conference organizer, is happy with the direction, if not the speed, of content trends. His wishes for the holidays and for 2014 also include a little time for reflection and the chance to meet practitioners at events like Congility.
My holiday wish is that things keep going exactly as they are and maybe go a touch faster. Structure, meaning and true user-centric thinking are finally starting to permeate into the general market, but the interesting thing is: why now?
I believe strongly that, out of sheer necessity, Content Strategy, UX and Content Marketing will be pushed into better alignment in the coming couple of years. We’ll be compelled by our users and the big trend-setting organisations to think not just multichannel/multiformat – departments publishing their content in lots of formats and delivering it across more than one channel – but “omnichannel”: a user-centered approach, where we look at coherent experiences across all user touch-points, and direct CS, UX, and CM efforts in supporting strategic alignment.
When I first heard omnichannel I thought it was a bit of silly buzzword. That’s what we always meant by multichannel delivery and UX, wasn’t it? I’ve since realised that the new word represents the mentality shift from “my project, my content, my multichannel UI” to the user and the reality of their experience, regardless of projects and silos. I’ve dedicated myself and my new practice to this focus and made customer experience across silos the theme of Congility 2014. It’s not about marcomm vs techcomm any more – it’s all just communication!
Even Tim Berners-Lee has been pitching the need to build the infrastructure to pull it off, since 2009.
So, may some time off give everyone time and perspective to reflect on more important things than work. We’ll need it, because 2014 will bring us lots to do. Hope to see you at Congility, ICC, or somewhere else this coming year!
Happy Holidays!
Noz
