The Future Of Content Prevails: Using Entertaining Interactive Content Online

People go online to be entertained, not to be bored by narrow-minded people who waffle on about numerous things on their website. Your task should you choose to accept it: produce content that people will read, share and enjoy rather than, scan-read, ignore and bounce off of.

The web continues to grow with an enormous amount of content published each and every day. The Internet has now become a gigantic hub of information on anything and everything you could ever want or need to know on a day-to-day basis. If ever you need a question asked, within seconds a search engine can find you the information it deems relevant within its search results. Now, even Google is integrating information on its results pages for informational keyword terms. It seems content on the web is forever changing...

What Searchers Want

Google fights to sift through the vast amount of content using mighty Google Penguin and great Google Panda algorithm updates. This is to help the searcher of today to find the exact information they require quickly and easily by giving them the best results Google can find on the web. Google compiles all of the data across the web to bring the most shared, relevant and most lucrative information possible within its 1st page of rankings. 
To get your content in results you need to:

• Make your content relevant and optimised through the use of keywords
• Make it informative using key facts and pieces of relative information
• Link to high authority relevant resources on the web using
• Get your content shared on social media platforms (especially Google+)

Only then will the almighty Google pay attention to your content. Now your thinking, how do I do that?

Simple Tips For Your Content:

• Keep it short and simple: An overload of content will lead readers to trail-off and get bored, forget all the other good points you made or, look for other content online
• Make it visual: This has become a big element for content online today. You get those article sites that are just pure text but really, people are likely to find your articles more interesting if you make them more entertaining with images and stat charts
• Bullet point your most important information: Particularly useful for those who scan read content. Bullet points offer the chance for people to pick out the key pieces of information within a piece of content
• Structure your content: Give your content headings to help readers find the information they came to look at on your page. One header and a whole load of waffle is no use to anyone in a hurry to find out a piece of information fast. Give your content a strong beginning, middle and end. Make your point at the beginning to draw in your readers. They are likely to stick around for a bit longer if you make a statement they are interested to know more about

Format: Displaying Content

There are innovative ways to display your content online that will gain your audiences attention quicker and easier than the bog-standard article. If the content is not entertaining and eye-catching, it’s likely to be ignored and scan-read. By adding visuals and interaction to your content, you can catch more of their attention, get your content shared and found more easily on the web.

Fact: The human brain can only hold about seven pieces of information for less than 30 seconds! – So just give them the key pieces of information you want them to take away from your content

Popular Types Of Content That Get Shared:

• Top 10, 100 and best 5 lists
• How-to guides with steps
• Graphs, charts & statistics
• Reviews
• Question & answer forums
• Competitions - If you can find a way of coming up with a competition that involves people producing content and linking to your site to enter and win a prize, you could be on to a winner

Design Formats For Online Content:

• Content visualisations/infographics:

  Eyes are the visual extension of the brain allowing more information to be processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than through the use of imagination by reading boring written text. Infographics give information a visual format that help people take key facts of information away quickly.

• Presentations highlighting key points:

  Presentations such as using Slideshare or Prezi help to share key points of information with other businesses within your sector. Using a presentation format breaks down your information into easy to use chunks. Now you can hold webinars and virtual meetings making the ability to share information easier than before.

• Interactive augmented reality applications:

  Example: Lee Mack wrote his autobiography and to promote his book, he integrated a free “Mack the Life” Augmented Reality app along on the inside of the cover. The App  allows you to bring to life both the front and back cover of Lee Mack's autobiography, 'Mack the Life'. It shows two videos of Lee Mack that adds to the comedy within the book. Imagine the endless possibilities for what you could do to promote eCommerce products online in the future.

• Video:

  Product demonstration videos and other entertaining videos created to go viral is another great way to gain exposure online to your shop. Promote your videos on an optimised YouTube Channel and get people sharing information about your products. 

• Animation:

  Using animation helps you to dream bigger and create a world that anyone can relate to. Animation gives you the ability to make any branded characters come to life. Animation is also a great way to explain how things work and can be used in-house within your company for things such as training workshops to easily train everyone in the same way.

• Images and photography:

  The use of Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram has pushed the use of sharing images in the digital marketing realm. Create a great image users are likely to share, optimise your images for search engines and you will find yourself with a great piece of linkbait content online that will promote your business.

• Comics and cartoons:

  Comics and cartoon can help to highlight specific problems which may occur on a daily basis within your customer's industry. At the end of your cartoon, you can solve the problem through the use of one of your products or services. Using an entertaining funny joke within a cartoon is more likely to be shared and linked to.
  

• Animated GIFs:

  A GIF is an image file type that is made specifically for the web. The majority of people use them because of their small file size. Another great use for them is for animation in email marketing. They can be used to highlight different eCommerce products you are promoting, be used to demonstrate how a product works, and draw attention to any calls to action. NOTE: I am thinking outside of the box, creative animated GIFs not crazy 90s website banner animated GIFs. 

• Memes:

  Memes are catchy, fun, and memorable. They can help to establish a brand's personality and will tend to be shared more on the web as entertaining pieces of content. 

Don’t go for the bog standard article. Think of something more out of the box. Understand your audience to know what they want to find out, and put your content in an easy to read format.

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