Millions of different types of digital content are being uploaded on the internet every second. According to Spectralplex, six websites are published every second. Bloggers are posting 116 blogs per second. The popular social media app, Instagram, has 1,099 posts per second. As you can see, content is not limited, and it's highly competitive. As a new year comes upon us, new content ideas, trends, and even more competition will come. So, it's more important than ever to incorporate imagination in your content in 2022.
Why imagination? Well, imagination by definition is the action of forming new ideas, images, or concepts of external objects that are not present to the senses. Imagination opens a whole new world of ideas, and content needs new ideas. As some of the same strategies get repetitive, internet users and browsers are attracted to new and imaginative content. With imagination, your ideas can be endless, and whether they pan out or not, it's putting you a step ahead of the competition, not using this tactic for creating new ideas. Let's look at the difference being unique with content can make, how to tap into your imagination, and what trends will require it in 2022.
Being Unique Matters
Having unique content on your website or social media is crucial in more ways than one. Of course, an audience loves never-seen-before content. But did you know it also helps you rank higher on search engines? On the initial crawling high-quality content is the only factor on your website that a search engine would rank. If anything on your website has plagiarism or replications, the search engine won't index it. As more and more websites come alive each day and more content is pushed out, this is where that imagination can kick in to help you rank high. Here's what new ideas for your content can do:
● Grow website sales/conversions
● Gain more organic traffic
● Improve share of your website
● Increase user-engagement levels
How to Tap into your Imagination
Now, there is no magic answer to explain how to tap into one's imagination. It's a personal and internal process. However, there are some tips to get the juices flowing up there and hopefully can help generate some new content strategies.
Follow creative marketing leaders.
While you can't steal their ideas, following leaders in the industry you like can help with perspective and applying the latest trends to your projects. Whether that be TED Talks, your favorite brand, Reddit, whichever you may choose to research and analyze what they do and try applying your favorite methods, or ask yourself what you would do differently, let your imagination run wild.
Use visuals.
Visual cues can spark imagination and help bring new ideas to your content. A favorite place for people is Pinterest. You can create boards that help inspire you with new content ideas. Or try watching YouTube videos. Again, get your brain flowing with your imagination, see what you'd do differently, and then try applying it.
Again, there is no secret answer to tapping into one’s imagination. But, if you can get your brain to focus, write down ideas, and research what you’ve come up with, you're on your way to applying imagination to content.
New Trends that will Require Your Imagination
With the new year will come new trends, and the majority of them will require your imagination. What you can expect to be popular in 2022 doesn't take away essential things like blogs, refreshing website content, sharing photos and videos. But, the new trends will require a little more of a thought process. For example, Augmented Reality (AR) will be huge in 2022. If you don't know, AR uses visuals and places them in the real world.
A great example of this is IKEA furniture and Pokemon Go. Both use AR in very imaginative ways that are different from each other. So when you start utilizing AR in your content strategy next year, it'll be crucial to tap into that imagination to figure out how you will stand out amongst the crowd.
Another excellent example of a future trend needing imagination is Podcasts. The popularity is growing. In 2021, the number of monthly US podcast listeners will increase by 10.1% year-over-year to 117.8 million. If you use this content strategy, you will have to make it different and unique to gain an audience, and the only way to do that is by using your imagination.
Start Thinking
Now that you are fully aware of the importance of imagination, it's time to start thinking about it and then applying it. 2022 is nearly here, and this year will be the biggest with content. As new apps and new trends appear every day, be smart and a step ahead by utilizing your or your team's imagination. It can go a lot farther than you may think.