What’s Your Curagami Score?
Our Startup Factory funded startup Curagami is developing a new cool metric – a Curagami Score. Knowing a website’s Curagami Score helps digital marketing teams know if their marketing is talking to themselves about themselves or winning hearts, minds and loyalty online. 
We thought it would be fun to share 5 tips on Curatti and 5 tips on Curagami. Tips 6 – 10 are below. Find Stop Solipsistic Marketing Tips 1 – 5 on Curagami.
Stop Solipsism Tip #6:
Build Community
Trying to become Facebook is a nonstarter. Being more sensitive to building an online community is smart and getting smarter. We are beginning to realize a few important “new marketing” truths including:
- YES, our customers want to speak with us via social media.
- Those social media conversations need to take place in close to real time.
- The more our marketing is about THEM (our customers) the more community we build.
- Community is the only sustainable competitive advantage.
- Community building is HARD and easy to destroy.
Conversations are the new links. Where links with anchor text was today’s social / mobile and content marketing needs “people optimization” instead of caring mostly about search engine robots. Great if you can kill 2 birds, user engagement and SEO, but if you are forced to make a choice engagement should win.
Users who contribute UGC, advocate and share your content on their social nets and discuss your content, products and brands on blogs are SHERPAS needed to climb our new online marketing Everest.
Stop Solipsism Tip #7:
Curate 90%, Create 10%
I shocked one of our Curagami co-founder’s meetup last year. “90% curation to 10% creation is the content marketing goal I see,” I said during a panel on “Contest Is The New SEO” at Phil’s Raleigh SEO Meetup.
There was an audible gasp.
The 100 or so people in attendance gasped because they assumed “content marketing” meant you needed to create MORE content FASTER. Not so much as it turns out. Content marketing means you need to create the RIGHT content for the RIGHT person at the RIGHT time.
Content needs segmentation. Blending in some User Generated Content (UGC) shows your site LISTENS and, in many cases, UGC is the most trusted content.
We discovered “sell via proxy” challenge when I was a Director of Ecommerce. When we pitched products conversions went DOWN. When THEY, our “Buzz Team” and reviewers, pitched conversions went UP. Doesn’t take a genius to figure our roles changed.
We moved from SELLING to content curators. Instead of PITCHING we were in the “whose doing a great job of pitching for us” content curation role. Once your VOICE is authoritative and trust is established you need to hand your website’s keys over to the kids. The more your customers contribute to and “drive” your website the move valuable and community focused it becomes.
Stop Solipsism Tip #8:
Create An Ask
One thing having the Big C teaches is 99% of the time when you ASK for help you get more than you asked for. We have a THING about asking for help. We are Americans and should be able to figure it out, build the thing and do the thing on our own.
Not so much anymore.
Everything requires TEAMS and COLLABORATION. We can’t achieve SCALE without help. Structure an ASKs such as:
- A crowdfunding ask for money in exchange for inclusion.
- Asking someone to join your email list.
- Asking for social media advocacy and support.
- Asking for money or “add to cart”.
Asking for help cements a different bond, a bond formed from collaboration. If you don’t already have a “buzz team” or an “Ambassadors” program create one. As we mention in Tip #3 on Curagami find your evangelists and then give them JOBS & pay with LOVE not money.
Have a hard time asking for help? I’ve been a member of that club (before the Big C). Read Curagami co-founder Phil Buckley’s post Fear, Shame & Asking For Help on our Curagami blog for great tips and insight.
Stop Solipsism Tip #9:
Use New Channels Like Crowdfunding
We started as CrowdFunde, but the name created too much confusion. People thought we were trying to be another Kickstarter. We know how valuable crowdfunding content is.
Confunding content comes with built in social marketing engines – the entrepreneurs trying to raise funds. Many would be crowdfunders don’t understand how crowdfunding works.
75% of funding, a study by Ethan Mollick of Kickstarter showed, comes from the entrepreneur’s network in MOST cases. About half of crowdfunding campaigns are successful, but most of the money is coming from mom, dad, sister, brother and friends.
We realized something important when we were called CrowdFunde. If 75% of the funding is coming from an entrepreneur’s social network then crowdfunding is a moveable feast. Its possible, and we mean to prove this, to put “Enterprise Crowdfunding” on a website near you and NOT called Kickstarter.
Benefits from “Enterprise Crowdfunding” are substantial and they include:
- Less merchandising risk via the Threadless.com only “print” what you know will win model.
- More collaboration and relationship building with your 1% Contributors.
- More “jobs” for your advocates.
- More involvement by PWAY (People Who Aren’t YOU).
That last bullet is only half in jest. The social / mobile web is changing. Creating, asking for and receiving User Generated Content from PWAY (People Who Aren’t You) is BEYOND CRITICAL i
Stop Solipsism Tip #10:
Use New Tools Such As Curagami
Our Startup Factory Funded startup Curagami is a new kind of “social tool” needed by content marketers and merchants to win as the social / mobile web continues to change and evolve our jobs and websites.
Curagami isn’t the only “new tool” we suggest. Here are other “cool tools” capable of creating What’s Next marketing:
New Tools For A New Marketing (Via List.ly)
[listly id=”MyX” layout=”full” show_header=”true” show_author=”true” show_sharing=”true” show_tools=”true” per_page=”25″]
Latest posts by Martin (Marty) Smith (see all)
- The New Ecommerce: Current Best Practices - August 18, 2014
- Can Subscriptions Smite The SEO Giant? - August 11, 2014
- Invisible Giant: Why Its Hard To See the New SEO - August 4, 2014