Podcast 123: 7 Trends for Business Writers in 2020 (Part 2)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | Google Play
In the last episode, we began looking at 7 trends for business writers in 2020. That episode began to get kind of long, so I decided to break it up into two episodes. If you haven’t gone back and listened to episode 122, I encourage you to do that to get the full picture.
I mentioned this in the last episode, but I’ll mention it again: rather than seeing these trends as a threat, or in some other negative way … I believe they represent opportunities for reaching people in new and interesting ways. And like most things in life, our attitude and perspective will determine whether we embrace these changes and continue to grow … or whether we ignore these changes and become increasingly irrelevant.
So let’s dive into the final four trends for business writers in 2020.
4. Audio is huge and shows no signs of slowing down.
The very fact that you’re listening to this episode is proof that people love audio. Whether it’s audiobooks or podcasts, people love to listen on the go. Audio is so huge that car manufacturers have been creating their sound systems with podcasting in mind for some time now.
This means lots of opportunities for us as content creators and writers. For example, I prepared a consulting proposal for a prospective client a few months ago, and one of the things they were very interested in was getting some help creating an internal podcast for their team members.
But it’s not just companies—it’s any type of listener or audience member. If you haven’t yet thought about creating audio products for your brand, company, or organization, I want to begin seriously thinking about it 2020—whether that is a podcast or audiobooks.
Audio is really huge, and it’s only going to increase. It’s all about delivering your content to your readers and listeners in the way they want, and in multiple formats for different types of people.
And by the way, Google can now search audio, and this is a major development because not only is your written content searchable—your audio content will be searchable by Google as well.
5. A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and V.R. (Virtual Reality) will continue to transform our lives.
Recently, as my son and I were watching The Mandalorian on Disney+, I thought to myself, “There will come a day in the not-too-distant future when we will have robots just as intelligent as what’s on this show.” Star Wars has always featured highly intelligent forms of artificial life … but science and technology are bringing us closer and closer to the time when that will become a reality.
We have a Google home device in our house, plus an Amazon Alexa, and I use Siri all the time on my phone. Nobody knows where this is all ultimately going to take us, but I do know this: A.I. makes life more convenient, and we are only beginning to scratch the surface of where this will go.
For Christmas, we helped our son purchase an Oculus Quest, which is basically virtual reality gaming. I was skeptical because I thought, “Do we really need another video game system?” But I have to confess, I was absolutely immersed in the Vadar Immortal video game. It was literally like I was in a Star Wars world—particularly, Darth Vadar’s castle. I loved it.
Who knows what the implications of these tech developments are. Things are moving so fast that no one can predict. But these are trends we need to watch closely because as content creators, we have amazing opportunities to write stories, content, and media that can impact people in a variety of ways.
By the way, I’m going to include a link in the show notes for a great post by Joanna Penn from the Creative Penn. It’s an article, 9 Ways That Artificial Intelligence (AI) Will Disrupt Authors And The Publishing Industry.
6. Email is still king.
I know that moving from the last point to this one feels like getting out of a convertible into a 1987 Chevy Citation (which was my first car, by the way). Email is much less exciting then A.I. and V.R. But hear me out.
When I say “email is still king,” here’s what I mean: it’s still the most reliable way to connect with your audience. The reason is that most people check their email on a regular basis. For example, you can send out an email to your list, and if you have a 20% open rate, that’s pretty good. But if you blast something out on social media, you are probably not going to have 20% of your total audience see whatever you post.
Email is still one-to-one, it’s personal, and it’s familiar. It’s also very, very cheap as far as marketing goes. So if you haven’t worked on building an email list, you’re missing out. Internet marketers will tell you, “The money is in the list,” and it’s true.
7. LinkedIn continues to be a great place to connect and share content.
I confess that I have not been nearly as engaged on LinkedIn as I should have been the last couple of years. But if you want to be taken seriously as a content creator or business person, you need to be active on LinkedIn.
If you are looking for clients and want to do networking (in a non-sleazy way, of course), LinkedIn is a great place to connect and build relationships. But if you also want to share content, it’s great for that as well.
The key here is to add value first. Don’t be a spammer who is always blasting out content, wanting other people to share it, comment, or like it. Comment on other people’s stuff, share their stuff, and support them. Online relationships are not different than real-world relationships—you must give before you can expect to get.
Which of these trends excite you? Which intimidate you? What are the opportunities for you as a writer and entrepreneur?
