Beth Kanter who is an author and consultant has worked in the non profits sector for over 32 years . Her blog Beth's Blog : how networked non profits are using social media to power change is in our view required reading for anyone interested in this area.
Amongst the myriad of great posts we recommend one from last year entitled Content Curation Primer . You can read the entire post here
We particularly like the way Beth breaks down the process of content curation into the three S's of Content Curation Seek Sense and Share illustrated in the two diagrams below.
Beth makes many good points in her post but perhaps the most important are that you should look at how the most experienced content curators do their work and follow them.
Through this post I discovered the video below from Mari Smith on seeking information
Content curation can help your organization or company become the go-to authority on an issue or specific topic area. This can be done as simply as writing a blog post with links or sharing annotated links on Twitter around your topic. Curation tools can also help enhance the process of Seek , Sense and Share and take your curation to new levels.
Increasingly, consumers are spending their money online. For many it’s about finding the best price, ordering an item not available locally, or shopping from the comfort of home. Above all it’s about convenience and immediacy. Is your product or service available online and able to be found when consumers are searching for it?
eCommerce is on the rise around the globe. “Global e-shoppers spend on average 22% (us average:23%) of their annual outgoings on goods and services online,” according to marketwatch.com. Mashable just published an article reporting that China is currently the leader in global eCommerce spending, and with its growing middle class and number of internet users, eCommerce sales are expected to triple in China by 2015. And NetBanx says, "Despite reports showing ecommerce growth in the future was primarily pegged for emerging marketplaces overseas, the latest comScore report found online payments surged 17 percent during the first quarter of 2012."
So where does your brand stand on the eCommerce front? If you have a product or service to sell, ensure it’s available and discoverable online for potential and existing customers. The key to being visible online is content. The more content you have published online, the higher your brand can rank in a search and the better chance of your services being found by new consumers. Content can be anything you publish online on your site, your blog, social media status updates, etc.
It’s a great idea to add content to your eCommerce site that's consistently updated. If you don’t have quite as much time as you’d like to devote to keeping content fresh, there’s curation software and tools (such as those offered by Lingospot) that you can use to ensure you’ve always got a fresh stream of content flowing on your site.
Here are some quick tips on maintaining content on your site:
- Consistently add and update content
- Consider using curation software to help maintain a consistent flow of content
- Use images and video constructively to create interest and invite new visitors
- Add value by showcasing your expertise and offering helpful information
- Organize your content so that it's visually pleasing and easy to follow
You might also find this article on gaining brand recognition through content helpful. If you'd like additional information on content curation software to help manage your site's content, please contact us to request a demo or free trial.
In a previous posts we asked if you are using content marketing to grow your business and showed how major brands like Coca Cola were embracing content marketing. In the video below produced by Isobar brilliantly contrasts the difference between 20th and 21st Century Marketing. What this video also does very well is set the context for content marketing one of the key components of 21st Century Marketing.
With content becoming such an important part of the marketing mix it is hardly surprising that a brand such as HP is thinking like a publisher and we argue here that by using content curation brands can enhance their investments in sponsorship.
Should your brand be using Facebook ads? Research shows, if used correctly, Facebook ads can be a highly effective tool to gain followers and increase sales. Social ads are quickly becoming highly favored by both advertisers and consumers. In the past year, ad budgets increased from 5% to 23% for Facebook and social ads. It can be easy to do if you are savvy and able to follow a few basic steps to optimize your marketing plan. Facebook Marketing Solutions provides some excellent resources to get you started.
Studies show that when used efficiently, Facebook ads yield excellent results. Nutella reported this year that their Facebook ads boost sales far more than their TV ads. Facebook ads can also be used to take advantage of peak sales events and holidays, such as how Zales and 1-800-Flowers utilized ads to engage customers and boost Mother’s Day sales this year. Computer company Acer’s Facebook fan base grew tenfold after creating an integrated marketing and social ad campaign. These are just a few examples of the countless brand success stories from using Facebook ads for pages.
Think you’d like to give it a shot? Here’s a video to get you started as well as Facebook’s Ad Optimization Guide and this in-depth guide to keep you on track. Perhaps your brand could become one of the next Facebook Ad success stories.
It still amazes us that there are people out there who question the importance of social media in terms of audience share but also the impact it is having on content curation and distribution.
If you meet some of these people we urge you to point them in the direction of the video bleow - the facts speak for themsleves.
To say social media is the future of content curation and distribution is overstating it's influence and potential but surely no one can really question it's importance.
Last week Citi launched a new group on LinkedIn, Connect: Professional Women’s Network, which according to the group profile, will be, “The go-to resource for current news discussions that will help women be better at what they do, and what they want to do.”
The interesting thing about this group is that Citi will use LinkedIn as a platform for curating content, particularly news curation from over 300,000 publishers: “It is the first ever LinkedIn Group that will have a LinkedIn Today Special Edition designed for its membership. The LinkedIn Today Special Edition will be updated daily with topical trending news from the more than 300,000 publishers who feed into LinkedIn Today.” News curation is being used increasingly across the web on sites such as TechMeme and The Huffington Post, but this is a much more targeted and interactive approach, curating the news for members of a focused group on the LinkedIn platform and further refining that news based on user discussions and behavior.
To keep content fresh on an ongoing basis, LinkedIn will survey group members and look at user behavior to gather data that will help determine the type of content that it curates for the group, and refine the topics of group discussions. All this content serves the purpose to help women reach their goals. Each month there will be featured video content of successful women sharing their stories. Daniel Roth, Executive Editor at LinkedIn and manager of the group, had this to say about the curation purposes for the group: "This is an incredible opportunity to combine the best of LinkedIn -- on-the-job insights from members, highly relevant articles and videos from publishers around the world, polls, profiles and more -- and use the content to help professional women become better at what they do and what they want to do. Having the experienced team at Women & Co. contributing their valuable lessons will make every professional more knowledgeable."
Content curation is generally defined as the act of finding, grouping, organizing or sharing the best and most relevant content on a specific issue.” Both Citi and LinkedIn will further promote the group’s content across the web via social media platforms, email and more. This is a wonderful example of content curation at work.
Lexus is the luxury division of Japanese car manufacturer Toyota Motor Corp and the Lexus range is marketed in 70 countries . If you own a Lexus the chances are you will use your vehicle for all or some of your holiday , drive to a restaurant go shopping and so on.
Lexus sponsor numerous food and wine events in high end resorts and destinations around the US and they have taken this further by co branding a section in JustLuxe , LuxeEpicure ,a site that is filled with content targeted at affluent consumers with associated marketing opportunities for luxury brands. There are also a number of stories covering Lexus appearing throughout the site. This marketing activity is classic sponsorship that includes , association with content , Lexus does not actually produce or commission the editorial.
It is clear that Lexus does see content as a key part of their marketing mix however are they missing a trick or two ? There is a huge amount of Lexus related content on the web, much of it is very valuable. This content ranges from ; user generated (common on various forums or from owners clubs) , Lexus produced or commisioned multimedia content, to product placement in major TV or Movie productions. Furthermore there is a huge amount of editorial from the online automotive press and sites like Autotrader .
Lexus related content is fragmented, and like many brands Lexus has an opportunity to aggregate and curate this content blending it with original source material to provide their audience a very valuable destination. This could be added to individual country sites or by creating new sites segmented by subject matter or topic.
Imagine finding a great video like the one below of Alex Wurz, former F1 driver and double Le Mans winner, testing the Lexus LFA at Estoril , Portugal in January 2012 and also
pictures and specifications from the manufacturer as shown on their global web site here coupled with reviews and further information from Car and Driver.
This simple example gives a flavour of what could be done and brands like Lexus are obvioulsly in pole position to be the initiator of this type of content curation , if they don't, others will surely step up to the plate.
American Express is widely known as one of the best marketed brands out there. Taking a quick look at how they’re marketing their brand online can be overwhelming as they have so much content all over the web. This would explain why their marketing is so successful: content. Content is king and key to successful marketing. One could write countless blog posts on their best practices. In this blog post we’ll focus on 7 effective practices that you can implement for your brand.
- Prominent Account Links. The first thing that you’ll notice when visiting any of their hubs online (website, social media sites) is that on each of their pages you will easily find links to all their other account profiles across the web. On their YouTube page, for example, they have linked icons to their website and all their other social media channels. On other pages without the capacity for icon links (such as LinkedIn and Facebook) they have all their links clearly listed in their profile.
- Brand Recognition. The American Express logo and brand-related images are clearly and consistently displayed across all channels and pages, easily identifying their brand and creating brand recognition on the web.
- Effective Navigation. Any desired links and information can easily be found on each of their pages. The entire home page of their website is available in one glance with the most popular links featured at the top and on the body of the page, and then a full menu at the bottom. The body of the main page is not very complex or long, so you can find exactly what you need in one glance.
- Maximized Personalization. Each page is visually maximized to the capacity of the platform. Their YouTube channel is perhaps the best example—it’s fully personalized complete with background, navigation and links, including additional brand channels listed at the top and right side navigation. For platforms without the option of much design personalization, they fill that void with thoroughly informative text and URLs.
- Individualized Attention. They have a twitter account, @AskAmex, where customers can tweet to them and ask questions and they put a face on their help with the faces of 5 employees in their profile picture along with the names of these customer service representatives in the @AskAmex Twitter profile. One need only scroll down a little bit to see that most tweets are very recent and you’d have to scroll down quite a bit to get to the previous day.
On Facebook when customers comment on their posts, they respond there too, and promptly. This question was answered only 15 minutes after it was asked.
On the @AmericanExpress Twitter account, they retweet people who mention them as well as directly respond to any mentions or questions. As you can see, American Express is available and ready to meet their customers’ needs.
- Mass Appeal and Documented Events. American Express sponsors many popular events spreading their brand even further. Popular rock concerts like Jack White at Webster Hall. Museum events such as at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Participation in events at the Tribecca Film Festival Theater. Fashion shows and shopping events for Platinum card holders. Photos and videos from all their events are prominently displayed and shared on Foursquare, Twitter, YouTube—all of their social media platforms.
Participants are mentioned by Twitter handle or name and events are labeled with hashtags such as this Foursquare post that was also Tweeted.
American Express leaves helpful Foursquare tips at local venues that they are involved with. 
- Customer Engagement. On Facebook, they post interesting quotations, polls, fill in the blanks, questions of their customers inviting their customers to engage and participate in the conversation.
On Twitter they ask customers to tweet certain hashtags for rewards.
As you can see, American Express has many different modes of content marketing online across many platforms. The examples given here are just the tip of the iceberg. Start following American Express online today for more inspiration on how to
market your brand.
In a recent post we discussed research on how media is being consumed in North America which showed that 30% of those surveyed where getting their news form online publishers and news curators/aggregators.
At Lingospot we speak to many people involved in the the business of publishing news be it a large newspaper publisher , broadcaster , online news publisher or niche news centric content curators of all sizes.
We found the video below on the future of news and wanted to share it with you , it speaks for itself and we think it's worth 2 minutes of your valuable time. The video was prepared for a competition held to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Joan Shorestein Centre for Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The competition posed the question "What is the future of news ?"
Like any other industry, the world of content marketing is not static. It can be difficult to stay current. Here are 5 quick tips you can apply every day to get inspired, keep your content fresh and stay on top of the best content marketing practices.
1. Perhaps the #1 rule of good content marketing (and also the best way to get new customers) is to be helpful and giving. People don’t want to be marketed to. Be human: engage with your customers and target audience—alleviate their concerns and offer solutions. People turn to family, friends and trusted sources for advice. Become a trusted source.
2. Regularly read industry-related blogs for ideas, inspiration and know-how. Some of the best content marketing sites include: HubSpot, Content Marketing Institute, Alltop.com's content marketing section.
3. Follow successful content marketers on twitter: @TheSalesLion, @bhalligan, @chrisbrogan, @mvolpe. A simple Google search can return many lists of top marketers such as this one.
4. Follow successful brands and see what they are doing with content. Some of the best marketed brands include: American Express, NBA, Apple, Volvo, Ikea.
5. Be where your target customers are, know what they’re talking about and join the conversation: on Facebook, Twitter, blogs related to your customers’ industries and anywhere your target audience hangs out online.
