The Future of Content Management

Although content management systems (CMSs) have been around for years, there are several major forces converging that will continue to drive this market segment up in nearly every direction. What once was a unique process for large companies and publishers has shifted to become a standard requirement for nearly every business operation that values its online presence.  

Today, the massive growth of multimedia content, coupled with the increased demand for rapid content deployment is forcing nearly every business, large and small, to integrate real-time online management systems to handle a vast catalogue of content objects.  The current thinking is that content management will continue to mature in the coming years, and will ultimately place everyone with an Internet connection in a position to contribute their own content in this mass global library.  

Content management can be simply defined as a process of converting and publishing content online without the cumbersome translation through programming. CMS tools have the ability to efficiently publish all forms of content to their respective online locations without involving technical resources. This shift in online development to direct Web publishing is responsible for much of the Web 2.0 state of affairs.  

The idea is that if you can film it, photograph it, write about it, develop it, or even sketch it out, that content can be immediately published, syndicated, and responded to online. The opportunity for publishing in real time has greatly expanded the need for more content as citizen journalism becomes integrated into the process of mainstream media. So if content becomes a future commodity, as trends suggest, what will drive the market years from now? 

The fact is that the old “content is king” model is quickly transitioning to speed and syndication to segmented markets. Through on-demand tools, such as RSS and embedded media, it seems the new communication model is all about delivery of what you want, as soon as it becomes available. Timing has become everything in the new media model, and you can watch how “exclusivity” will become the trading stamps for media consumption.  

Take the birth of Jennifer Lopez’s new twins. Instead of allowing the paparazzi to cash in through traditional and online media, the star and her husband decided to cut a multimillion-dollar deal to release rights to their new baby photos in print and another deal for online release. Timing and control at the top of the media food chain will begin to drive the new economy, giving the power back to the content source, who can stage, capture, and manage the immediate delivery of events and even random situations. 

The trickle-down effect of content management is hitting small business interactivity as well. We recently developed a fairly robust content management system for a pizza restaurant. Yes, that’s right: a pizza franchise called Mellow Mushroom, which perfectly fits into the whole social networking scene online. Their site is dynamically controlled by an online marketing manager who is responsible for updating their content, photos, and even their extended social network pages. The bottom line is, they capture business online and engage customers further by using their Internet site as the hub for the patrons that identify with their brand and social foundation. 

As content migration speeds up in real time and citizens are engaged in street journalism, the only way to stop the massive influx will be filtering. Content is expanding exponentially every second online, and search engines are struggling to spider the information as fast as consumers want it. Sites that can deliver fast and slivered content directly to those that want or need those objects will expand their market share while other, more traditional online media watch from the sidelines.  

If you are in the content space today, ask yourself what’s your timeframe for content delivery from start to finish. If you are not planning on ways to shorten the cycle to market, you can bet your content will get there faster without you in the future. 

— Peter W. Bowman, Executive Vice President, Avericom