In an increasingly noisy world of content creation or “inbound marketing” content without curation is a rabble, a jumble of impossible to decipher DATA. Examples of content curation are easy to find:
- Navigation on any website.
- Finding related images.
- Adding related links and perspective from gurus and thought leaders.
- Responding to comments.
- Sharing content on social media.
- Deciding what to write about next.
- Determining who to follow and read.
If you are an Internet marketer you are already a content curator.
You may not think of creating an email calendar, merchandising new products into groups or deciding what to buy and add to your website as “content curation”. Adding context is curating.
Internet marketers need to be a great content curators. Best way to learn how to become a great content curator is to learn from great curators. Here are 5 content curation tips learned from great curators.
Gamify From Marc, Guillaume, Alley & team at Scoop.it
Scoop.it uses gamification to inspire and engage. Their gamification is subtle but highly effective. Scoop.it’s gamification takes several forms:
- Leaderboard Comparison with other curators called MyCommunity.
- People Sharing My Interest shows who to compare / compete with.
- Inclusion in weekly summaries, blog posts, newsletters and content about Scoop.it.
- Sliver and Gold “Level Up” badges.
Note how the Scoop.it team included my friend Brian Yanish’s Marketing Hits customization example. Great idea to “curate in” your customers content. Scoop.it uses Brian’s Marketing Hits example in their “create a new topic” screen:
Using Marketing Hits in such a prominent place sends a powerful social signal to other curators – be like Marketing Hits. Brian modified his Scoop.it header and uses Scoop.it as his marketing company’s content hub so “being like Brian” isn’t a bad idea.
Another gamification example is Scoop.it’s MyCommunity Leaderboard. Curators see how they are doing vs. other curators with slightly more or less views:
Scoop.it’s MyCommunity shows if my content is slow today or its a slow day for all curators in my group (happens especially when there is a big event). Scoop.it’s MyCommunity shows curators whose content is exploding. Always a good idea to investigate curation explosions. MyCommunity is a motivational tool too. Seeing my Scoop.it’s “views” exceed 100,000 recently was exciting.
Seeing curator numbers for those around me keeps me motivated too.
At first Scoop.it showed everyone. Knowing Robin Good has 891 views today could be demotivating, so Scoop.it changed the chart. Now they show curators immediately above and below. Scoop.it is very careful about who sees what and when. Their subtle gamification keeps curators curating and visitors coming back for more.
Example of Scoop.it’s level up badges awarded by recommendations from visitors and fellow curators:
Me (Martin Marty Smith) on Scoop.it.
Customizing tools and social nets from Brian Yanish
Brian’s Marketing Hits is one of my favorite Scoop.it feeds. Brian is a great content curator. Marketing Hits shows what use of Scoop.it’s API (Application Program Interface) and customization tools can do. Customization makes Brian’s Scoop.it look like branded content:
Visit Marketing Hits to see how well Brian’s Scoops blend into his branding. Note the Call-To-Action and subscription form on Brian’s Scoop.it page. Brian knows how to move value from a social net to “owned” digital assets!
Create Owned Sites Like Jan Gordon’s Curatti.com
Jan’s creation of Curatti is another important content curation tip. Content curators must use a group of tools and social networks. Social networks create “commons”. Commons such as Facebook want and need User Generated Content (UGC). Most platforms trade user generated content, content that helps them scale, instead of charging fees.
Facebook is “free”, but information provided becomes Facebook’s currency. Scoop.it is free to use up to a point. “Business” users of Scoop.it gain more features and agree to pay a monthly fee. Jan’s helpful curation in Scoop.it and other social nets built a strong following.
Creating Curatti.com moves value Jan built in Scoop.it and other social networks to something she owns. As long as YOUR content lives on THEIR network they make most (if not all) of the money! Content curators should do what Jan is doing – move value from social nets and tools to owned and cool digital properties such as Curatti.com.
Content Curation Lesson 4:
Curate What You Love from Robin Good and Ana Cristina Pratas
Robin Good loves new cool tools. Ana Cristina Pratas loves education. Both Robin and Ana Cristina have over 1M views on Scoop.it. A million views means hundreds of people make it a point to discover Robin’s latest cool tool reviews (not the only thing Robin curates) and Ana Cristina’s thoughts on education daily. How can YOUR curation achieve so much?
Curate what you LOVE.
You don’t have to be an expert. Curation can be a great way to LEARN too. As you learn visitors and followers will enjoy taking the journey with you. Love is contagious online. When you love something it’s easy to put in time needed to learn more about two things simultaneously – the subject you love and how to curate.
Content Curation Lesson 5:
Curate across platforms Cendrine Marrouat
Cendrine is a great and prolific journalist, blogger and curator. She demonstrates the importance of curating content consistently across tools, social networks, blogs and websites:
2nd Blog / website SocialMediaSlant.com
Cendrine’s Daily Paper.li
Cendrine on Scoop.it
Cendrine’s ebook on Amazon
Cendrine on SlideShare
Cendrine on Tumblr
Cendrine’s guest posts on Examiner.com
Summary
If you are an Internet marketer you need to be a great content curator. Become a great curator by:
- Stealing gamification from the team at Scoop.it
- Customizing like Brain Yanish’s Marketing Hits
- Borrow our host Jan Gordon’s intelligent build of “owned content”.
- Curate what you love like Robin and Ana-Cristina.
- Curate across the tapestry of tools, social nets and platforms we need to make content curation work like Cendrine Marrouat.
Oh, and remember best way to learn anything is to study the leaders, artists and curators who excel such as Marc, Guillaume, Alley, Brian, Jan, Robin, Ana-Cristina, and Cendrine.
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