As part of New York’s Social Media Week, marketing and content experts addressed emerging content trends for the panel, “What’s The Future?,” on Wednesday at MSL Group.

Brian Solis, principal analyst for Altimeter Group, was performing double duty, appearing as a panelist and launching his new book What’s the Future of Business? Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences.

Curran, Snow, Solis, and Walter at the MSL Group panel.

The panel was composed of several thought leaders in the content, marketing, and PR industries, including Solis; Shane Snow, CCO of Contently; Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist at Intel; Alex Bruell, reporter at Ad Age; and Joel Curran, managing director of MSL New York.

The discussion focused on the evolving nature of content strategy and the challenges of operating in real-time.

Curran said that successful content marketers will increasingly be ”people who can craft a story around a brand narrative quickly.”

Solis echoed this notion, saying, “We need to become real-time marketers,” citing the Oreo example from this year’s Super Bowl, illustrating how effective timely content marketing can be.

But, it goes beyond a one-time success story. The impetus for marketers to produce consistent content based on what matters at any given moment is often at odds with the legal hurdles of creating brand content, especially when it comes to trying to publish anything within a matter of minutes.

Still, Curran said, the most important aspect of content creation remains ”great storytelling,” and Solis added that it’s important to “let the audience take a journey.”

Snow, urging a more diverse notion of storytelling, said, “There’s more than one good way to tell a story.” Whether it’s text, a photograph, a video, or any other medium, content must be in whatever form most appropriate for the particular story to have an impact.

And, the panel agreed, it’s not just about producing quality content — it must be delivered to the right place at the right time. People operate in the “now,” and if marketers want to be relevant to their audience, they must function there, too.

As Solis said in the pre-panel talk introducing his book, “Context is king. Content in the right context is what matters.”

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Although it started with the 2009 movie Avatar, television is expected to play a bigger role in the 3D revolution: by the end of 2014, “the global 3D TV market size is expected to exceed $100 Billion,” according to James Stewart, director at Geneva Film Co, who wrote about the industry changes on Brian Solis’ blog. Three-dimensional mobile devices already exist, such as the LG Optimus 3D Max, and the Gadmei 8″ 3D tablet, which allow users to play games, take pictures, and see advertising in 3D. YouTube has a channel for 3D videos that “not only allows stereoscopic 3D footage to be uploaded online, but also offers users a chance to convert their 2D HD footage to 3D with a click of a button online.”

Stewart argues that content is 3D is more engaging than in 2D. He points to a study by Texas Instruments that “showed that viewers presented with 3D advertising content were as much as 20% more likely to retain that information than those who saw a 2D counterpart” and that when put into a classroom, 92% of a class paid attention to 3D content, while only 46% focused on the information in 2D.

“As more and more content enters the market, giving a greater number of consumers a reason to introduce the growing list of 3D devices into their daily routine, 3D will quickly become a primary format for content across all media platforms,” writes Stewart. With that in mind, marketers should budget for 3D content, whether it’s in the form of mobile advertising, television or movie spots, or online videos.

A growing number of advertisers are using 3D in their commercials to attract viewers and consumers. Marketers should be paying attention.

Image courtesy of Kuzmik/shutterstock

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Here, we narrow it down to 10 blogs that will give you the ideas, advice, and inspiration you need to keep producing content that will grow your company’s bottom line.

1. Hubspot Blog — Not only are the folks at Hubspot experts on helping their customers drive leads to their businesses through content, they are expert practitioners too. On Hubspot Inbound Internet Marketing Blog, you’ll find tips on how to use Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn to promote your content, along with advice on link building and SEO.
2. Mashable Business & Marketing  — The business section of the popular blog Mashable offers stories on what big companies are doing in online media. You can always learn something from the big guys.
3. Seth Godin’s Blog — When it comes to marketing, Seth Godin is a prolific writer and influential thinker among the digerati. His characteristically pithy posts will get you thinking about an aspect of marketing you might not have considered.
4. Copyblogger — Brian Clark and his team of editors and guest posters have set the standard for great online content. They also offer free e-courses and e-books that will get you started on content marketing, email marketing, and SEO.
5. WebInkNow — David Meerman Scott wrote The New Rules of Marketing and PR, now in its third edition. Whether providing commentary on real-world events or outlining a new concept, his blog always provides actionable advice for the reader.
6. Presentation Zen — The book of the same name began a paradigm shift in how we think about presentations. Author Garr Reynolds’ thought-provoking analysis of presentation slides and videos will motivate you to never deliver a boring PowerPoint again.
7. Brian Solis — You need to understand how to promote all that great content you’re creating, and Brian Solis, author of Engage, is just the guy to help. On his blog you’ll find how-to advice, along with research and commentary on current developments in social media.
8. Top Rank Online Marketing Blog — Lee Odden is the co-founder of digital marketing agency Top Rank Online Marketing. His direct experience working with marketers gives him the chops to offer a plethora of tips and advice on content marketing strategies.
9. Content Marketing Institute Blog — The blog is one of the many resources offered by the Content Marketing Institute. Nearly every post provides a numbered list of tips, steps or ideas. While you’re there, check out founder Joe Pulizzi’s blog at Junta42, where you can find even more useful advice.
10. Post Advertising — Named for the post-advertising age of content marketing, this blog, a project of brand marketing firm Story Worldwide, offers advice on content through the lens of storytelling. We all need to be reminded that, in the end, content marketing is all about telling a story.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently