Jargon: Content Marketing A Technical Perspective Term

Make no mistake, content marketers, at least the ones in the business more than five years, don't like the term Content Marketing. The bloggers, editors, site owners, curators, publishers, and various other content creators, from photographers to video editors, don't like the back seat position new social media and mobile internet technocrats are putting them into. Simply put, the technologists seem to have come to the game late and are now playing by new rules. If you go back a few years, before the new social media and mobile internet bubbles started, content marketing was simply writing, editing, and gathering stories or pictures. Suddenly, the social group or mobile users came to the web like a flood and the old ways of slowly writing, photographing, and editing videos is just a small part of the brave new world. But in all fairness, there is no shame in the term and the old guard, which is only in this business a bit longer than a decade, should not be put off by the jargon.
After all, the internet is an expanding universe, social media and mobile web are just two of the trends that keep the technology and the users moving in new directions. The latest trends simply add more versatility and define both the content and other aspects of internet use. Some new ways of use, like connecting with people and sharing ideas and information is completely different from how we behaved in the past. The new ways of connecting, informing, influencing, and helping people, gives traditional content marketers another method to be useful with new applications and technologists. True, content is a small element in social media, advertising, SEO, sales and marketing sites. Yet, content in some internet sub-sectors is more critical than ever before. Together with a much wider reach new technologies offer and with new uses, and new ideas, writing and editing text is simply continuing it's role in communication. To most established writers and editors, new internet technologies are expanding their reach. To a few, new uses and technologies are serving as a booster to the old ways they were doing things. Just like using a new computer with many more applications, new internet applications and the connection to mobile devices is giving able writers a new way to sell their skills.

For the new technologists and product owners (i.e. product managers, marketers, and site managers) the coining of Content Marketing as a standard term there is good news. Until now, content writing and editing, seemed like a craft for a few amateurs who can't make their living in the corporate world or writing professionally (magazines, newspapers, publishing and blogs). Yet the range of people and their skills tells a different story. Most independent freelance writers choose to practice their craft for very personal reasons. Many keep on telling the story of “not fitting” into the regimented corporate mold. They don't want or can't sit at a desk day in and day out. Some have negative experiences with management or structure which does not fit personal preferences. Some simply did not agree with their management and did not feel appreciated. Differences in habits, views, and personal values are crucial to creative minds. They also seem to think of the structured world of business management as less open and driven by bottom line concerns (financial, quantitative, objective). This tug-of-war situation is not unique to writers, editors, illustrators, and video jocks. This is the situation we have to live with in the internet realm. The good new comes from simple technology, every writer can sit at their home or cafe and write or edit without taking space at a cubical or nap at the back of a staff meeting. Social interaction and basic company information is also making finding writing work much easier than ever before. 

Finally, it's the standardization of behavior which makes us all more accepting of new work requirements. Until now, most technologists and business managers, had very little interaction with writers, editors, and video producers. The interaction between the creative and the business sides was usually limited to interviews and consultations on how to handle P/R campaigns. This gap is closing in many fields. Some in areas and geographic locations unheard of before. On the strange and wonderful world of content writing and editing, that will come later. So good news comes in many different ways, surprising who is taking advantage of the changes.