 Your new post is loading...
A curated introduction to content curation, with several video clips from thought leaders and a few pointers to relevant tools. I found this on Robin Good's topic "Real Time News Curation" - it's originally from alistarcameron.com. He talks about curation and there is great information in the video from other thought leaders on the subject. Additional curation by JanlGordon on her topic "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond" on Scoopit below: What particularly caught my attention was: "Now, in 2011, curation is coming into its own precisely because various content syndication, management and filtering technologies have reached maturity and ubiquity, to the point where "Joe Average" netizen can use them freely and effectively to create a new kind of collaboration, and a new kind of intelligence: that of man and machine working together on a new, faster, more comprehensive and more enjoyable kind of curating experience that's called: "collaborative intelligence" - **Curation is evolving to "collabortive intelligence" - find those people who produce quality work, who have integrity and whom you can work with, curate a topic together, faster. All kinds of opportunities can come from this and you're making a major contribution to the community. http://www.alistercameron.com/2011/09/26/content-curation-computers-and-humans-creating-collaborative-intelligence/
Via Robin Good, janlgordon, Paul W. Swansen
Robin Good: To create an effective landing page you need to pay attention to a lot of critical factors. From the layout and positioning of the graphic and text elements on it, to the language and communication style to use. Frequent mistakes include wanting to include too much stuff, providing too many links going off into different directions and not paying enough attention to small details which can make or break your credibility and reputation on the web. Excerpted from the original article: "If you are searching for conversion-focused landing page best practices, then look no further than our latest infographic. We’ve highlighted twenty-five tips you can incorporate into your landing page optimization strategy immediately. From creating targeted, cohesive campaigns to testing strategies that get results - this infographic covers it all." Click here to view the full version: http://bit.ly/PKdPkv Thanks to Agostino Caniato for uncovering it. Landing pages are more critical than ever for non-profits who want to do a better job segmenting their messaging to their various constituencies. - Ken http://www.2080nonprofits.org
Via Xtreme Advisors, Agostino Caniato, Robin Good, Ken Dickens
Robin Good: I have just received an invitation to test the new content curation platform Zeen, and here I am with some early impressions on what I have seen. Zeen is a content curation tool designed to create good-looking magazines on a specific topic or theme. Setup and configuration is very easy and straightforward and it allows you to connect your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Once you are in, you can immediately set up a Zeen magazine, by selecting a title, a description and a cover image. From there on you are free to use the integrated search feature to find web articles, news, images, video clips or tweets relevant to your magazine. You just start a search after having selected what kind of content you are looking for and Zeen presents you with a set of relevant results. One-click on any of them and they are inserted instantly in your magazine. You can also create as many "tags" (Zeen calls them "labels") as you like and assign each content item to a specific label. The final magazine issue offers an automatic visual table of contents, in which you can organize by dragging and dropping the order of your selected contents. A Zeen magazine can be made of multiple issues, instead of being like Scoop.it, a continuously growing content holder. You select the content items and you produce an issue (which can be still edited after publication). N.B.: There is no way to edit or modify the content picked and added to your magazine, including the use of images. You can't create new content but only pick and organize existing resources. Here is an example of a Zeen magazine: http://zeen.com/read/ODgO94/toc and here is another one on barbeques: http://zeen.com/read/KuJoAW More info: http://zeen.com/ Sounds like a good adjunct to Sccop.it -Ken
Via Robin Good
Recently, NTEN, Common Knowledge, and Blackbaud presented their fourth annual report on social media trends among nonprofits for 2012 at the Nonprofit Technology Conference. From 3,522 respondents, they asked what the top three contributing factors were of those who were successful on social networks. They all responded that their formula for success was to get a plan, buy-in, and team members to implement and lead the initiative. Their top three success factors were: – Develop a social media strategy (41%)
– Prioritization by Executive Management (37%)
– Dedicated social media staff (28%)
Conversely, those who didn’t have a presence on social media said it was because of lack of strategy, staff, and budget. This is no surprise.
Here are some tips on how to achieve the above success factors with minimal time, money, and resources. -Ken
Via steve heye
Soundcloud explores the four effects sound has on us – physiological, psychological, cognitive, and behavioral – in a concrete complement to their wonderful abstract short film, Sound. So cool! Think of audio branding to get the maximum out of this video. In our business storytelling it is too easy to get caught up in the visuals. But what about sound? This is a great primer on how sound affects us and will get you thinking about the necessity for adding sound to your visual storytelling for high-impact and memorable pieces. Enjoy! Original link: http://exp.lore.com/post/21208635527/soundcloud-explores-the-four-effects-sound-has-on ; This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it ;
Via Karen Dietz
We've said it before: we love Pixar. Their stories are original, funny, and appeal to all audiences. They're masters. That's why Jess and I got excited when we saw Pixar's 22 rules to storytelling. Non-Profits: If there is only one thing you can do to improve your organization, it is getting your story told in a compelling way. Without a compelling story, all the Pinning, Facebooking, Tweeting etc. you do is wasted. And, who better to learn from than the Pixar. Love this! -Ken
Via The Digital Rocking Chair, Ken Dickens
Robin Good: If curation is all about finding and sharing great content, what's the difference with what so many bloggers have been doing until now?
The difference, according to Deanna Dahlsad at Kitsch-Slapped, is in the focus. While bloggers often cover just about anything that intercepts their online wanderings, curators are characterized by a strong focus on a specific topic. Here is a key passage from her article: "Many bloggers spend their time selecting what they consider the best of what other people have created on the web and post it at their own sites, just like a magazine or newspaper. Or they provide a mix of this along with writing or otherwise creating their own content. Not to split hairs, but curation involves less creation and more searching and sifting; curation’s more a matter of focused filtering than it is writing.
Because content curation is expected to be based on such focused filtering, it begins far more based on topic selection. This is much different from blogging, where bloggers are often advised to “just begin” and let their voice and interests accumulate over time to eventually reveal a primary theme. ... Some collectors just collect what they like as they stumble into it. …Sometimes, collectors just keep piling up stuff, no matter what it is. Even if this isn’t hoarding, it’s not-so-much of a purposeful pursuit. But professional curators, those who manage collections for museums or other organizations, and serious collectors, they maintain a specific focus. And rather than stumbling into items, they continually seek for specific items. The definition dictates the curation — and everything from funding to their continued employment is based on how well their collection meets the collection’s definition. While blogging success may be thought of in many different ways, the success of content curation lies in how well you define, search/research, and stick to your subject." Rightful. 8/10 Full article: http://www.kitsch-slapped.com/2012/06/facts-questions-on-blogging-curating-collecting/ ;
Via Robin Good
"Services like Scoop.it depend on a community of millions of hardworking experts who wonder what to do with the wealth of knowledge and wisdom they have accumulated in life and are happy to share it." Written by blogger Shred Pillai on the Huffington Post, this vibrant praise of Social Curation in general and Scoop.it in particular, points out the changes we're seeing in the way we look for information. From basic search, we now look more and more for meaning and context from human experts. Beyond information, we want knowledge. And this is what Curation is all about. As he concludes: "At the end of the day, Scoop.it, which is free, is the right answer for information seekers and providers as well as the experts who like to show off their expertise."
Via gdecugis, Robin Good
Companies and foundations are seeking to transform how they work with charities, no longer simply writing checks to good causes, said philanthropy leaders at Friday’s Fundraising Day in New York. For example, Bank of America now seeks out organizations that help demonstrate it is a sound and caring business, said Andrew Plepler, the bank’s head of global corporate social responsibility in a keynote speech.
This is an excellent article about new thinking from large Foundations. - Ken
From Journalism.co.uk: "The content curation website Bundlr has just announced a new version of its service which allows for embedding of content from a wide range of sources.
By partnering with Embedly the site now supports over 200 sources of content, including Storify, Pinterest and Amazon, for users to add to their bundles. Embedly is the service that the new version of Twitter uses to embed photographs and articles in your Twitter stream and is used by a host of other sites such as Reddit and Bitly and comes as a WordPress plugin.
While Bundlr was originally seen as an alternative to sites like Storify, which can be used to create stories from curated links and content, Bundlr's focus is now on creating a top-level resource for curated content around a story or topic." (Source: Journalism.co.uk) Try it out: http://bundlr.com/
Via Robin Good
The rise of social media has significantly changed how our supporters digest our messages online. Website and e-newsletter design has evolved dramatically. The “Donate Now” process of many nonprofits, however, still seems to be stuck in 2005. Here are five common mistakes that nonprofits are making in their online fundraising campaigns.
Via Kimberly Flaherty
Robin Good: The School Library Association of New Zealand Aotearoa (SLANZA) publishes "Collected", a professionally-designed and written digital magazine. This issue is dedicated to content curation and it includes several articles on how to reuse content with confidence, a great checklist for curation and a really nifty piece on a newbie's experience with Scoop.it. Informative. Highly recommended. 8/10 Web edition: http://www.slanza.org.nz/collected.html ;
Downloadable PDF: http://www.slanza.org.nz/magazine/May2012.pdf ; (thanks to Alison Harrison for first discovering it)
Via Robin Good
|
|
Scooped by
Ken Dickens
|
"One of the best use cases of Scoop.it in the nonprofit space is by Ashoka, an organization supporting changemakers all over the world. Their content director, Maggie Lemere, uses Scoop.it because Ashoka wanted her to lead the effort in using visual storytelling to create impact through content. The organization used to have a marketing team but shifted their strategy."
Robin Good: If you are looking for one of the most effective ways to create a YouTube video playlist, while retaining full control of what to include and what to leave out, here is the tool you need: YTPlaylist. Ken- This is cool, and really useful! You input a search query. YTPlaylist provides a list of relevant results. You check the ones you want to include. You review, shuffle, delete, move over your picks until you are happy.
You click save and the job is done.
You take the embed code or link URL and off you go. Free to use. Try it out now: http://ytplaylist.com/ Added to the Content Curation Tools supermap: http://bit.ly/ContentCurationUniverse
Via Robin Good
Robin Good: Excellent guide to digital curation resources by Charles W. Bailey, Jr.. It includes alphabetically organized lists of digital-curation related resources from academic programs to file formats, guidelines, organizations, blogs, and a very rich list of digital curation software tools. From the site: "This resource guide presents selected English-language websites and documents that are useful in understanding and conducting digital curation. It is also available as an EPUB file (see How to Read EPUB Files)." Excellent. 9/10 Full guide: http://digital-scholarship.org/dcrg/dcrg.htm (Image credit: GroupPartners)
Via Robin Good
Robin Good: Though I had seen and scooped this article before, I must have not done a very good job of really reading it from back to back. Paul Kedroski, who wrote this over a year and half ago, really captured the historical essence of content curation on the web. This is an absolutely must-read article for anyone wanting to grasp what is happening with content curation on the web, hwile seeing things in proper perspective. He wrote: "What has happened is that Google's ranking algorithm, like any trading algorithm, has lost its alpha. It no longer has lists to draw and, on its own, it no longer generates the same outperformance -- in part because it is, for practical purposes, reverse-engineered, well-understood and operating in an adaptive content landscape. Search results ...so polluted by spam that you often started looking at results only on the second or third page... ... There are two things that can happen now. a) We could get better algorithms, which is happening to some degree, with search engines like Blekko and others. b) Or, we could head back to curation, which is what I see happening, and watch new algos emerge on top of that next-gen curation again. Think of Twitter as a new stab at curation, but there are plenty of other examples. Yes, that sounds mad. If we couldn't index 100,000 websites in 1996 by hand, how do we propose to do 234-million by hand today? The answer, of course, is that we won't -- do them all by hand, that is. Instead, the re-rise of curation is partly about crowd curation -- not one people, but lots of people, whether consciously (lists, etc.) or unconsciously (tweets, etc) -- and partly about hand curation (JetSetter, etc.). We are going to increasingly see nichey services that sell curation as a primary feature, with the primary advantage of being mostly unsullied by content farms, SEO spam, and nonsensical Q&A sites intended to create low-rent versions of Borges' Library of Babylon. The result will be a subset of curated sites that will re-seed a new generation of algorithmic search sites, and the cycle will continue, over and over. In short, curation is the new search. It's also the old search." Must read. 9/10 Full article: http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-search-algorithm-is-spinning-out-of-control-2011-1
Via Robin Good, IdeaEncore
|
|
Scooped by
Ken Dickens
|
If you are just thinking about content curation, this blog post might scare you, but stick with it. It has lots of helpful links and information. Grab a cup of coffee and work your way through it, well worth the time. -Ken
My Take: I used to joke that content curators used to be called journalists. But if nonprofits truly want to reap the benefits of content curation (increased staff expertise and reduced information overload) - not to mention the value of curation as part of your content strategy - than following the practices outlined in the article are very very very important.
Of course, the push back is "It takes so much time." But by slowing down, reading and putting it into content will also make one more efficient because they are more informed.
Beth Kanter http://www.bethkanter.org Original Curation of this piece: Robin Good: I agree and I have said it before: Curation has nothing to do with personal expression or sharing nor with collecting links, tweets or blog posts that you may find interesting. Curation is all about "taking care" of something in the sense of helping someone "else" be able to dive in and make sense of a specific topic, issue, event or news story. It is about collecting, but it is also about explaining, illustrating, bringing in different points of view and updating the view as it changes. Adam Schweigert captures the essence of it elegantly: "...[curation] it almost certainly involves broader responsibility than just tracking a big story and putting together a Storify of how it unfolded. It’s more than blogging a daily roundup of the stories our audience cares about but our publication is not going to do original reporting on. It’s more than becoming the Twitter account that people look to because we’re not afraid to retweet our competitors if they have a story that matters to our followers before we can report it ourselves. Naturally we should continue to do all of those things as well, but I would argue that it is important that would-be curators of news go at least one step further.
Part guide and collector, part interpreter, part researcher, part archivist, the curator of news does all of the above: a) collects and organizes information, b) places it in a broader context, c) mines the archives to surface bits of historical information, advances our understanding of the story and the driving forces behind it and, perhaps most importantly, d) takes care to ensure that a story is properly maintained and told in the best possible way for our audience to take it in.
...
Curation is not really about reducing costs and operating more efficiently (although aggregation certainly is). Curation is about taking care to ensure that our audience has the best possible information, context and presentation for that information." Rightful. 8/10 Full article: http://adamschweigert.com/towards-a-better-definition-of-curation-in-journalism/ ; (Image credit: heyjude.wordpress.com)
Via Robin Good, Beth Kanter
At one point or another, many content creators and writers suffer from a lack of ideas (aka writer's block). Here are 29 writer, blogger, curator ideas to help. -Ken
Via Kyra Millich
Scott's comment: We are all time starved. So this research helps us quantify it. The key seems to be to find a set of tools that reduce the time needed to accomplish the specific goals you have in mind. General purpose or non-specialized or non-content sector/subject specific tools seem to take me longer than tools tuned to my specific industry or needs. Hat tip to Decugis for finding this data HT to Beth Kanter: Interesting data on how marketers see curation as a way to drive thought leadership, develop brand visibility and boost SEO. The Study also touches upon what marketers see as challenges blocking them from doing more Content Marketing. Time is clearly an issue high on the list together with the ability to create original content. Interesting results (also measuring progress between 2011 and 2012).
Via gdecugis, Beth Kanter, IdeaEncore
Numbers. You want them. I want them. We all want them. But there is a big problem with all these social media numbers that are soooo important to the success of your business—many don’t mean squat.
Via Beth Kanter
|
|
Scooped by
Ken Dickens
|
Scoop.it is the tool I use for content curation, and to feed other social media and to start conversations. You are reading Scoop.it now. Traffic on Scoop.it comes from three different types of sources: SEO, internal Scoop.it community and a most important part from social media. Consider Scoop.it as a hub that helps you feed your social media presence, but in a more impacting way, using a format that catches attention and that is great at driving SEO/SMO traffic. -Ken
If you are looking for a cost-effective solution to offload any amount of tedious, time-consuming tasks to a qualified, on-demand human workforce, this is a great guide to start. Want to promote an event or video worldwide? This may be the way to go. -Ken Thanks, Beth for pointing this out.
Via Beth Kanter
Robin Good curated this resource and it is exactly the curation tool I've been dreaming of - a visual way to curate content for learning. Here's what Robin wrote about this: Heiko Idensen reports in his curated newsradar "Online Curating & Social Learning Tools and Applications": "Learnist is a new pinboard where users can organize their learning materials. It resembles Pinterest except that Learnist is just for sharing learning resources. The website is still in beta but looks really very promising for both teachers and students. Here is a set of the main features that Learnist offers to its users : It is free Itis easy to use It has a user friendly interface It lets users create pinboards around a certain topic Users can create different boards and invite others to collaborate on them It lets you pin images,videos, and text to your boards with a single click from Learnist bookmarklet Users can also upload resources to their boards using URLs Free to use. Try it out: http://learni.st
Via Robin Good, Beth Kanter
|
![Landing Pages: A Selection of 25 Best Practices [Infographic] | Content Curation for NonProfits | Scoop.it](/resources/img/white.gif)
