Why There Is A Curatti In Your Future
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The Curatti Exception
Last week several fascinating and important conversations about the future of Internet marketing, websites, truth, justice and the American way happened (linked below). Great thinkers like blogger Mark Schaefer, Scoop.it’s CEO Guillaume Decugis, Curatti’s founder Jan Gordon and others discussed “content shocks” and asked if content curation can save us.
These conversations helped form several conclusions:
- The best content on your websites is THEIRS not YOURS.
- Internet marketing moves to 90% curation, 10% creation.
- There will be content & User Generated Content (UGC) “Shocks”.
- Websites who tell, share & curate the best stories win.
- Websites who value & gamify UGC will attract great storytellers.
- The Curatti.com multi-author, multi-thread content marketing model works.
Best Content THEIRS Not YOURS
In a response to Mark Schaefer’s Content Shock blog post (linked below) Scoop.it’s CEO Guillaume Decugis pointed to the success of “Internet Based Content Curation”. Guillaume’s noted how critical content curation is to new media companies such as Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Upworthy.
“New Content Curators” such as HuffPost share important features:
- Multi-author & multi-thread held together by content curation.
- Algorithms do most of the “editing” and content “merchandising”.
- Algorithms are based on new currencies such as views, shares, links and likes.
- “New media” sites pioneer predictive analytics so millions of pages can be relevant to millions of visitors.
When THEIR content is on YOUR website you gain thousands of advocate/friends. Friends willing to WORK for you because you share their content. Your new friends share your webpages to their social nets. Their friends share to friends of friends. Friends of friends are people you don’t know, but who can get to know and interact with your content.
Not all content is equally valuable. When a website creates self-referential content such as a typical “services” page they sacrifice social shares. Self referential pages matter more to publishers than readers. When a page inside of a website’s modeled system receives few shares those “below mean” pages become a SEO anchor dragging other pages down.
If this sounds like accountants, lawyers, web design agencies and other B2B and B2C companies need to rethink their “services” page you are getting it. Every page should create and support community. We must rethink what we say and how we say it.
Imagine a “services” page with interactive testimonials or infographics. Engagement goes up and business leaders included share, link to and talk about pages that features them. What we say, the claims we make, must be confirmed by the mob’s social shares, links and likes. Building in and around these new CSFs (Critical Success Factors) is a must!
The “new SEO” means Internet marketers must rethink everything.
90% Curation / 10% Creation
If “services” pages must be re-imagined then the purpose, design and mapping of any webpage must change too.
The Huffington Post has almost 2M pages, 219,558 inbound links and a PageRank of 8. Google ranks all websites from 0 to 10 with 10 the most “valued”. PR is based on many factors , but the core “voting booth” inside Google’s algorithm is the inbound link especially from high authority sites. Confirming social shares (links, likes and shares) are very important now too.
The Huffington Post isn’t a single thing.
They “employ” an army of writers. Huffington curates content with math, editors and brilliance. One thing HuffPost doesn’t try is creating all content needed. Better to mash, mix, and mesh what they need to get inside the curl of the cultural zeitgeist.
The news wave unfolds FAST. Surfers (content curator/creator) get inside the barrel of the wave, the place where a surfer is surrounded by water, with experience, expertise, courage and luck.
Curatti’s mission is to “edit the chaos”.
Mashable, HuffPost and Curatti must take in an increasing amount of “chaos” to create the “magic math” needed to find quality create order and provide assistance. You may need and look for different content than me. Once a system is scaled and “intelligent” relevance is easier. Guillaume is correct about how we will create individual relevance visitors require – curation.
Content & UGC Shocks
and What Really Matters
Attention is a finite thing. We can’t make more “attention”. We can’t make more time. Since so many Internet marketers are creating content marketing we may be killing the golden egg laying goose as Mark Schaefer’s “Content Shock” suggests.
Email marketing works and was profitable. Internet marketers piled on just as mobile was crushing open rates. When email is filled with SALE, SALE, SALE no marketer wins.
We continue to believe in the silver bullet theory of Internet marketing (and life).
We believe we can make millions, lose weight and be loved by firing the magic silver bullet. We know life and Internet marketing doesn’t work like that. We know our work, efforts, ability to listen, learn and love form the success we seek.
Why do we continue to seek silver bullets?
Why do we believe in lotteries when evidence says life is work and love? Our work means we are capable of loving. Our love means our work is better, special, different. Pillars don’t change. We don’t have to run pillar to post after “the next big thing”. When we work, love, trust and honor ourselves, our partners and customers we succeed. Pillars don’t change.
Stories and Games
How does the native American proverb go:
Tell me a fact and I’ll learn. Tell me a truth
and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it
will live in my heart forever.
Can our Internet marketing battle for hearts and minds be described better? We learn best when heroes, dragons and fables are involved. As the great storyteller teacher, storyteller and fellow “Editor of Chaos” Karen Dietz says, “He who tells the best story wins”. Karen just finished a great book about how to tell stories online in a business context (that link is to Amazon).
“The most valuable content on your website and content networks is THEIRS not yours”.
Certainly we MUST tell great stories since asking for something we are unwilling to do ourselves is a nonstarter. In the end, we must CURATE and care for stories others want to tell US and our TRIBE. Our content & websites must value, incorporate, listen to and curate User Generated Content at an ever faster rate.
Video game creators understand stimulus and response. Look at an “achievement” based reward platform such as Kiip.com or the subtle but highly effective gamificaiton used on Scoop.it to understand your “how do we inspire people to share, curate and talk about our stories” future.
“How To Gamify” is an important post for another time.
Today’s message is simple – you must curate an increasing amount of THEIR content into your process or you won’t have the social validation needed to thrive. People love to play games and compete.
People love to HELP and Do The Right Thing too. Read Pink’s very important book DRIVE:The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us to understand why your gamification can’t be based on material rewards alone.
The Curatti Model Works
The inescapable conclusion is crowds matter. Curatti.com’s first step is gather influential artists/writers and ask them to create together and on a schedule. Curatti.com is instantly multi-author and multi-thread so a solid “HuffPost-like” foundation is created. PageRank is beginning to form as people link to, like and share Curatti’s Editor of Chaos content.
Curatti’s Next Steps Could Include:
- Increasing number of “Trusted Source” authors (gets easier as site’s awareness goes up).
- Build the tagging, parsing, curating and aggregating systems needed to “edit chaos”.
- Use algorithms, predictive analytics, personas and segments to increase site’s individual relevance even as content base grows 100x.
How do I know the Curatti model will generate return?
While the price of entry in the multi-author HuffPost-like platform has gone up, the market is not FULL or a red ocean of competition. Creating a “website” is dead. Websites that speak to themselves about themselves can’t afford their overhead. Curatti.com is on the right path. Are you? Is your company?
Will we reach a point when the Curatti.com or HufffPost-like multi-author, multi-thread model held together by curation doesn’t work? Yes thus creating another reason to adopt the Curatti model NOW. Why does the content, UGC and HuffPost-like “shock” not worry me?
Between now and when those shocks hit the market for tools to understand, curate, analyze and create great content and games is a BULL MARKET. A bull market like the one that made Gates and Zuckerberg leave Harvard, and that is why there is a Curatti in your future. Game On!
Curate IN
This post sparked a great conversation with GPlus guru Mark Traphagen (linked below) about Hubs vs. Standout Content.
Links To Helpful Resources and Important Reads
Content Shock: Why Content Marketing Is Not A Sustainable Strategy by Mark Schaefer
Internet Based Content Curation The Cure For Content Shock by Guillaume Decugis
Content Shock vs. Curation on ScentTrail Marketing (discusses Guillaume’s and Mark’s posts).
Blowing Up beatsbydre.com With Crowdfunding (via CrowdFunde as it makes the social content = most valuable content point).
Whoever Tells The Best Story Wins by fellow “Editor of Chaos” Karen Dietz for my friends at Paper.li
Is Content Shock Just Another Scare? by Jan Gordon, founder Cuatti.com
Other friends and contributors to this post include: Phil Buckley (@1918 and on Curatti), Mark Traphagen (@MarkTraphagen and on G+), Nikol Murphy (@1talkingmooose and on Curatti), Michael Nelson (@cogentcoach and on Curatti) and Andy Capaloff (@andycapaloff and on Curatti)
Curatti Exception graphic uses the great cover art developed by Random House for the Borne Ultimatum and yes that was an attempt to make this post read like a Robert Ludlum novel (lol).
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