Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

One of the most interesting studies I’ve read recently is Gartner’s Top Strategic Predictions for 2016 and Beyond: The Future Is a Digital Thing, a report published in October that delves into the evolving relationship between man and machine. The key takeaway? “Smart” and predictive technologies aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, and that applies to our business lives as much as it does to our personal ones.

-  By 2018, 20% of all business content will be authored by machines. 

-  By 2020, smart agents will facilitate 40% of mobile interactions, and the post-app era will begin to dominate.

-  By 2018, 6 billion connected things will be requesting support.

The implications of our increasingly smart world are both inspiring and frightening (as a copywriter, hearing that machines are making their way into the content realm is particularly scary!). As I started thinking about 2016 trends, it quickly became apparent that many of these same digital themes are making their way into the content marketing and social media spaces — and have been for some time.

Let’s take a look at some of the key trends we can expect to see over the next year. How will content and social — both already digital in so many ways — become increasingly digital in 2016?...