When the word ‘digital’ comes up in communications, it may be met by everything from leaping enthusiasm to sighs of frustration to the melodic tapping away of a thousand computer keyboards. When examining the applications all these emotions produce in communications, it’s important to remember one thing: digital is part of everything in communications nowadays.

33 Digital and Hotwire PR have, for the past five years, been predicting the trends, issues and changes to digital communications in their Digital Trends Report. This year’s report makes a number of forecasts all pointing to content.

Content, as a buzzword, has been overused to the point of irrelevance, but in practice, it is as important as ever. It has likely become more prominent because of the growing relevance of digital in comms. Digital relies on content. Thus it’s a bit of a cycle.

In any case, 33 Digital has dubbed 2014 “The year of digital maturity.” It points to such landmark events as Oreo’s now-famed Super Bowl tweet as an indication of direction in both community management and data usage. Retail is set to become more digitised and the traditional media (or what is left of it) will regain traction as it has finally worked out how to make digital work for it.

MD of 33 Digital Peter Sigrist says, “This year, we expect our clients to be impacted less by new service launches, and more by the opportunities presented by those that exist. This technology has now passed the fascination period of ‘how it works,’ and instead brands and communicators will simply ask ‘What can we do with it?’

All signs point to content. Communicators have their work cut out for them, though many have already begun to manage content well on their digital platforms. 2014 may be the year of digital maturity, but it will also be the year communicators should begin to see results from digital, rather than simply enthusiasm, frustration and lots and lots of typing.