Content Marketing Economy: Then v/s Now ft. Devaiah Bopanna

As we witness an evolution in the landscape of content marketing, Devaiah Bopanna draws parallels between how has content marketing economy changed in the last few years and what it means for brands and creators, today.

In a fireside conversation with Social Samosa, Devaiah Bopanna, Co-Founder, All Things Small, Former Head Writer, AIB takes us through the changing landscape of content creation from the perspective of brands and creators, while sharing some pertinent suggestions for content marketing and writers.

The Evolving Landscape: Content Creation & Consumption Patterns

With the pandemic and people inside their homes, content consumption increased manifold since the last year. Bopanna shares that in this day, platforms are optimizing at a rapid pace so that more and more users are present on the channels. “In my opinion, machine learning has shaped content consumption today”, he says. This is followed by the influx of content creators across channels, who have become the center of several shows as they create authentic content for consumers.

Since people have lost connection with real life in lockdown days, they want to consume more content closer to reality through various content platforms and content creators.

For the people who are missing real-time connections, he highlights, “Brands need to become more humane and authentic to survive on the Internet.”

Further he explains some key highlights in content landscape:

• People want to know more about what is happening and thus, content has shifted from cinematic to personalized content creations where people want to experience the trials and tribulations of the content creators. Moving towards the fandom of a person than just the format.
• The Internet world is very fascinating, now the connection we build in real life lasts longer because of social media
• Authenticity is something people want to see now as they are way smarter with more information available on their mobile phones

Content Creation: Brands & Creators

As brands continue to tap on various moments and topicals for instant recall and in some cases, even awareness, he shares they need to be authentic and reactive. Timing is everything on social media, he adds.

While collaborating with content creators, as a brand, it is better to associate with the content creator while creating content, instead of doing it the other way, Bopanna suggests. Even the new-age brands can think like a creator and create content that is focused on their target audience. Further, he explains that building a community for such brands helps to understand what and how should the content be served.

In today’s day and age, having a creator mentality can help to understand your audience and maintain the timing, he opines. Being quick and putting things in real-time helps to stay trending and relevant to the topical/moment at that time.

“Consistency and how deeply rooted are you into pop culture matters.”

While the phenomenon of delving into pop culture doesn’t happen overnight, it comes back to how well you build your community and deliver content to these cohorts. “Trend is more of a function of an accident”, he quips.

Also read: Language, Video & AI: Ajit Varghese on creating value in a social world

Future Tips & Trends

With the steadfast machine-learning and technological abilities, the platforms change at a rapid pace. But in the case of brands, social media has validated them with metrics, explains Bopanna. As social media continues to evolve, transparency has increased with time as everything is visible in real-time and can be analyzed/evaluated basis the numbers across the platforms.

However, to sustain in the content marketing economy, he summarizes with some relevant tips for the content writers:

• Acceptance: You cannot be good every time, you just need to accept that
• Embrace the platforms: Actively create content for several platforms.
• Tap on to the trends for visibility and recall

Devaiah Bopanna, Co-Founder, All Things Small, shared the virtual stage on Day 2 of Social Samosa’s marque property SM Live in a Fireside Conversation with Hitesh Rajwani, CEO, Social Samosa Network.

You can watch the complete event here: