Trends and Patterns in Digital Content – wallpostmedia com

Take a second to think about what a typical day looks like. How often do you find yourself recording your phone while commuting for videos, listening to a podcast while you prepare food, reading news headlines on a break from work, or mindlessly scrolling on your phone while winding down for bed? For many, this is just a part of normal daily life, and no longer a special digital lifestyle.

The past few years have shown a remarkable change in digital content consumption that few other habits have ever experienced. If you are a brand marketer or a Digital Content creator and you want to know where your outreach efforts are heading, you have to look beyond your own perspective of the truth and understand the reality behind the frameworks.

The past few years have seen more content consumption on digital platforms than any other time in history, and we have to look beyond the frameworks of the digital content on the consumption trends.

Digital content is being consumed more now than it has ever been, and we have to understand media habits.

More Screens; Clearly Less Time

Current estimates say the average person dedicates 6 hours per day to media and entertainment. That’s likely not a shocking number. What is remarkable is how that number got segmented.

Old media habits die hard, but they must die. Internet video is preferred over old media video. Time spent watching old media video is time spent watching Internet video, and that time is increasingly spent on short-form video.

That doesn’t mean linear TV is gone. It’s still the major format of TV viewing across the world. For most audiences, being “digital-first” does not mean being “digital-only.”

Mobile is No Longer a Channel — It’s the Norm

We often use the term “mobile strategy” with the assumption of various options. The truth, especially over the past several years, is that most people use mobile devices to consume most things. Smartphones have become the dominant way to access, view, and share videos. Mobile networks have become the most used, and most expanded, with video being the most dominant.

This has negated many previous ideas about “good” Digital Content. Vertical videos are much easier to view and consume. Blank spaces to accommodate a horizontal format are a waste of the viewer’s time and make the Digital Content more difficult to consume.

There is Subscription Fatigue — But More Subscription Brand Loyalty

Streaming is the primary format of video entertainment. Nearly every household has one or more paid subscriptions. The convenience has diminished the cost and created a drain on time. Nearly half of all consumers have canceled a subscription at least once in the previous six months.

Here’s something more interesting: quite a few people who cancel a service come back to that service. Instead of thinking streamlining is dying, it is more accurate to say people manage subscriptions more actively by pausing and resubscribing services based on preferences when they want to watch something. People prefer this over the habit of paying for services indefinitely.

Social Media is Blocking the Door to Everything

Social Media is no longer about catching up with friends. For many people, this is where the news is, where entertainment is, where people shop, and where people learn. This is a one stop shop for billions of people. Even more, a growing number of people say the content they see on social sites more closely matches their interests than Digital Content from traditional media or publishing channels.

This change is especially important for Digital Content creators. For many people, social media is their primary way to discover content and it is no longer a secondary publishing channel because of the algorithms.

Listening and Reading Have Not Fully Left Us

Many people are saying that attention spans are shortening, and that is why there has been a massive decline in reading. This is not entirely true. Reading has gotten easier for many digitally and listening to the news has been more accessible and cheaper, leading to increased subscriptions of digital news and audiobooks. Now, the majority of people get their news online.

Reading and a desire for longer stories have not diminished. They have just changed screens and formats.

Varied Preferences

There is a digital divide according to different demographics that is interesting to point out. In general, women tend to occupy the internet more than men, especially older adults. The pronounced gap is among older adults. The Digital Content they access is different too. Women access social media and visual platforms more, but men access sports and gaming more and access video platforms more.

If you are trying to access a certain audience, digital content consumption is not one behavior, but multiple, often simultaneous, behaviors and is many things based on demographics, familiar content, and the reason for accessing the Digital Content.

Implications for Digital Content Creators

Several things can be inferred from all of this:

• You will need to think about the mobile and vertical formats of your Digital Content more because that is where the interest and attention are more concentrated.
• There is a place for both short- and long- form Digital Content. They won’t be competing against each other. People layer both forms as they go about their day.
• Use social media as a means for content curation and not just as a means of Digital Content distribution. Many people will engage with your content on social media before they go to your website.
• People are consuming their content more actively and more responsibly, but they are not quitting platforms, so Digital Content loyalty should not be considered dead.

Here is the bigger picture: these days Digital Content is not consumed less, people are just being more careful about where, when, and how they consume it. The content that is seen vs. the content that is scrolled past is at least partially dependent on the content creator’s willingness to accept and understand this recent change and use it to their advantage, as opposed to resisting it.

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