“Covering the ongoing evolution of content curation & beyond; the impact & innovation http://xeeme.com/JanGordon”
Curated by
janlgordon
This piece was written by Evren Kiefer for Paper.li talking about a challenge we all face - information overload and how we streamline our diet. Or can we?
"Content doesn't have a season -- the feast is all year round" Overload or gluttony?
Here's what caught my attention:
“Information overload”, I hear you say, “we know that already”. Is it really the problem, though?
**As Clay Shirky argues in his talk “It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure”, information overload is our new environment of plenty and not a problem that needs solving.
****It lies upon us to create internal and external filters to manage our time and attention because they are our most precious resources.
My commentary: I think this is most important for all of us, continually refining our ability to select only what we need and leave the rest. Today everyone is a publisher and everyone has an opinion. Aren't we suffering from meaning overwhelm as well?
I think it's essential to establish some criteria when you select content?
**What are you looking to add to the original piece?
**Do you want to create clarity for others?
**Do you know the subject matter well enough to do this effectively?
**Do you want it to be thought-provoking?
**Do you want to add additional links and other resources who may have different points of view?.
As far as meaning overwhelm,
Everyone has an opinion, I think it's good to have a viewpoint but I think it's important to search for the simple thread in it that relates to your core message.
It's also good to include others in the conversation because two heads are better than one, it helps people see the bigger picture and decide for themselves. That's why I'm asking you:
What are your thoughts? How are you dealing with this? I'd love to hear your comments.
Selected by Howard Rhinegold and Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond
Read Full article here: [http://bit.ly/wkij56]
Via Kelly Hungerford, Howard Rheingold
Scooped on:
Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond
Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond
This piece was written by one of my favorite people, Scott Forshay for iMedia Connection. Great information for anyone who is using content marketing to do business can benefit from the great insights and suggestions from a man who really knows his stuff. This is why I rescooped this article from my other topic, Mobile Marketing and Beyond. Scott Forshay says "You can no longer market at them, you have to learn to market to context and, in turn, remain (or become) relevant". Here's are the highlights of this article: The variables associated with a successful mobile marketing campaign are: **the immediacy, mapping, interaction, and collective aspects **Each variable must be planned for to deliver a relevant experience between brand and customer, and to strengthen this mutual connection **Today's digital-native consumer is empowered with more information and access to brands than ever before **They are also hyper-connected to an influential social graph where tribal knowledge is constantly being shared **The margin for error in any connection is slight, so considerations must be made for each changeable element to ensure the experience is on brand and on point Here is one thing of the points that caught my attention: Immediacy **The mobile medium is in the moment. Unlike other communications vehicles that are stationary and heavily presentation-oriented, the mobile medium is: **actionable **time sensitive **on the **always on **Given the limited time intervals of engagement opportunity, brands must ensure that communications are: **crisp **call to action is clear, consise and quick to participate in Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Mobile Marketing and Beyond" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/xIATEz] ![The Mobile Social Audience is Evolving - Here's What's Happening [Infographic] | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/SG32BekP3ZgrNZaIqs4mOTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
This gorgeous infographic tells us how the mobile audience is evolving and what mobile users are doing on their smartphones. Here are some highlights: **Mobile Marketing: 86% of mobile users are watching TV while using a mobile phone **200+ million (1/3 of all users) access Facebook from a mobile device **91% of all mobile internet use is “social” related. ![How Inbound Marketing Works, From Start to Finish [INFOGRAPHIC] | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/gcSZOaAZ33KKHtZ-kkLNiDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
I selected this infographic pulled together by inbound marketing agency, IMPACT Branding & Design because I know we marketers can be overwhelmed and wondering what to tackle first. In this infographic you will see the inbound methodology, step by step that captures the process from start to finish beautifully!
** getting found online ** converting visitors into leads and customers **Measuring the entire funnel. Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Marketing, Social Media and Beyond" See article and Infographic here: [http://bit.ly/zgwfec] 
By Wix - http://bit.ly/A2t77B @Wix
Social brand awareness, social engagement, social advertising, social ROI – see the pattern? Social is the way to go.
The power of social networks is that your clients are already there. A frequently updated Twitter account or Facebook page is a way to engage with them where they already hang out.
Promoting your business on social networks has numerous advantages – virality, cost-effectiveness and massive visibility, to name just a few.
This Infographic visualizes the reasons why social media should be a critical component in every business’ strategy.
If your business isn’t yet social-friendly, you’d want to start making changes after viewing this: - http://bit.ly/wvO8lc
Click here to enlarge: http://bit.ly/w22A6x Via maxOz ![Social business and the growth of shared value [INFOGRAPHIC] | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/y6DxCYbKI8nfVlUrhFLm-Dl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
To explore this topic, Haydn Shaughnessy worked with Global Dawn, the social business platform, to create an infographic that traces the history of social business — but this is a crowdsourced project".
Shared value and social business is all about empowering people and creating a more collaborative human-centered business environment.
The technology stream
A strong tradition running through social business — dating back to the free software movement and then open source — is the idea of making a contribution to the ecosystem you work within. That tradition has also helped build the web into a giant, free, collaborative resource.
The marketing stream
Another strong tradition begins with multi-level marketing and loyalty programs. The web has enhanced the capacity of smart firms to build loyalty by engaging more deeply with customers and by interacting in more equal terms.
The social stream
Finally there is the tradition of social itself, beginning with the micro-finance initiatives that were designed to replace development aid in what used to be called the third world. That tradition has informed open innovation, the large mobile ecosystems that flourished first in Kenya, and then crowdsourcing.
Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
See infographic and article here: [http://bit.ly/xD1MlV] 
This article with infograph was written by by Tyrell Mara via maxOZ. The author has given us a beautiful visualization of a social business model.
What does a social business model look like, where each dept. of an organization is leveraging the social web, and social networks specific to their strategy?
The author has some questions for you and me:
**What makes sense about this social business model?
**What is missing, what should be added?
**Is there a specific area where you see value for yourself or your business?
**Where on this Social Business model does your organization currently operate?
Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
See full article here: [http://www.tyrellmara.com/social-business-social-media-perspective/ 
This article was written by Amber Naslund and curated by Robin Good. They have both done an excellent job. Curation is evolving and there are some things that we absolutely know to be true but the author has also left us with some great questions, definitely something to ponder. Robin Good: Amber Naslund, at Brass Tack Thinking blog, has a great article touching on the importance of curation and on the danger of easily selling personal self-expression and serendipitous re-sharing of other people's content with true content curation.
An she is so damn right about this.
Here a few key highlights from her article:
" 1) To me – and by definition – curation requires conscious thought with the purpose of adding value, context, or perspective to a collection of things.
It’s deliberate work, gathering things together for a reason and lending a keen editing eye to those assets, whether it be pieces of art or pieces of writing.
...
2) Turning your Twitter feed into a clockwork-scheduled stream of all the stuff you find in your RSS feed is not curation, it’s distribution.
And since collecting and redistributing content is arguably easier than creating it, everyone does it.
Which serves to create a great deal of noise, and as we’ve lamented for some time now, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff and home in on information resources that are consistently valuable, and favor mindful selection and sharing over optimizing a feed to populate a bunch of links and drive traffic or gain fans and followers.
3) Can curation be accomplished online? I think so.
But it’s rarely what we actually see happening when we immerse ourselves in social networks, and it’s not what we’re doing when we click the “share” button over and over again.
...
4) The business case for curating content has long been that you can become an expert resource for others, a trusted source of information or expertise that sets you apart.
But becoming a trusted source of information implies a willingness and ability to apply filters, to have exacting standards, to discern the good from the simply popular, the valuable from the gimmicked and hyped.
Which requires work. A lot of it.
Not just an app and the ability to put your collection and distribution on autopilot."
hank you Amber, you are so damn right.
(Jan) Here's what caught my attention - food for thought for all of us:
**How do we preserve the value of some content over other content?
**Is there value in having to work a bit to find the good stuff, or is greasing the skids for the flow of content always the best possible scenario?
**If everyone is a curator or a distributor, how must our tools and thinking continue to evolve to help us find the curators of the curators?
**How do we continue to evolve our valuation of resources and information?
Insightful. 9/10
(Image credit: http://Streetfilms.org) Via Robin Good 
This piece was written by Mia Pearson.for The Globe and Mail.
To say Pinterest is growing quickly is an understatement.
Brands have opportunity to capitalize on new sites that celebrate online content in a personal way and Pinterest leads content curation boom
Here are a few highlights:
**According to a report from Shareaholic, Pinterest now drives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined.
**It recently became the fastest website to attract more than 10 million unique monthly visitors.
**Time magazine named it one of the 50 best websites of 2011 and Techcrunch named it the best new startup of 2011.
Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond
Read full article here: [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/authors/mia-pearson/]
This piece is from Multichannelmerchant and it has some very valuable information brands need to know to keep and build a loyal audience and customer base. Excerpt: **This article is aimed at retailers but the information here is very important for anyone who is using content marketing to build a loyal following. Curating or creating content for the mobile audience is very different from the web. ****Being familiar with the landscape if the first step: A key challenge for retailers and content marketers will be keeping up with all the new devices, platforms and applications to engage with the mobile connected audience. **Neglect in any of these areas can mean a loss of customer loyalty and a major blow to your brand. To help you keep up with the ways mobile and social media will evolve in 2012, here is a list of the key trends to watch, and suggestions for how to respond to your customers’ continually changing shopping habits. Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Mobile Marketing Strategy and Beyond" and "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read more: [http://bit.ly/z3ZZzJ] This piece was written by Lee Oden for his blog Top Rank - I selected this today because information overload is a challenge we're all facing. The author has some great insights and shares with us how he filters out the noise and stays abreast of things in his world. Information filtering and finding meaning for others is the first step to being a great curator. Here's what caught my attention: **Value comes from identifying bigger picture patterns and synthesizing that information into practical business advice. **"I like what Christian Adams said in a G+ thread, “When you have information overload across multiple channels you start to pick up on common threads and trending topics”. **This is the essence of curation that creates value and there’s no substitute for human filtering. **As a professional, it’s essential for you to filter signal from a mass of noise to grow expertise in your core discipline as well as others. **The question is, where do you get the information to stay current? How do you filter out the noise? The author has some excellent suggestions on how he stays on top of this challenge that we all are facing. Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/AhC5tz] 
This piece was written by Samantha Murphy for Mashable. Intro: Want to see what the future could look like? Gorilla Glass manufacturer Corning has unveiled a follow-up YouTube video to its wildly successful “A Day Made of Glass,” providing another look into what the future could be like with the growth of glass touchscreen interfaces, from innovative chalkboards and activity tables in classrooms to uses for it in hospitals. Corning released two versions of “A Day Made of Glass 2″ — one with a narrator and another, abbreviated version without commentary — the video follows the life of young Amy and her family as they go through their day using various products made of glass. Amy does classwork on a glass tablet, controls the temperature of the car from the backseat and even attends a field trip at the Redwood Forrest with an interactive signage that brings learning to life. Her teacher also works with students on interactive touchscreen activity tables. Corning expects these activity tables to be rolled out in the near future. Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Exploring Change Through Ongoing Discussions" See Video and article here: [http://mashable.com/2012/02/03/day-of-glass/] 
This piece was written by Chris Brogan for his blog Gentlemint, the Pinterest site for men This is kind of like Esquire magazine without the meaty articles. By the way, you could just as easily have the articles. **It just requires people to write them and tack them to ‘Mint. Here's what caught my attention: Seth Godin said Small is the New Big eons ago. He said Tribes was the way to be. **Are you feeling it yet? You will. **Pinterest points to something interesting: absolutely bite-sized curation is a trend to consider. **Gentlemint points to the next trend: targeted use of curation technology to build interesting content in a group setting is hot. **It’s much more interesting to build an environment where people with similar passions can curate and share together. Here's something to consider: **What would you design, if you were building your own “Pinterest for _____?” **Who would you target? Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" See full article here: [http://bit.ly/xaiRPH]
Blogging: 3 Secrets To An A-List Blog
Every blogger wants their blog to break through the ever-growing number of blogs to be top in their category. It’s the pot of gold at the end of our blogging rainbow that continues to elude almost everyone of us. This is in spite of how hard we work and out best intentions.
The reality is many of us know the necessary components for breaking through, but we don’t know how to put them all together in the most effective way.
To take your blog to the next level, here are the three secrets to creating an A-List blog: [Hint:Connections, Content and Conversions!]
Here are details explaining the Infographic.
Connections. The phrase “It’s not what you know but who you know” holds true for blogging. Since most bloggers don’t start with rock stars following them on social media, you have to create your own opportunities to engage with your category’s A-Listers. Here are five suggestions to build your connections. Via maxOz |
![22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You're Stuck [Infographic] | | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/iZGbcJAEkhHo8RBW_XhwWTl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
This is the first infographic from Copyblogger based on an earlier piece he did entitled 21 Ways to Create Content When You Don't Have a Clue. It's an excellent presentation, consistent with all of his wonderful content many of us have been reading for a long time and he even gives us one more . Here are some highlights from the original article: "If you're coming up flat and you can't think of what to do try some of these ideas": **Curate content. Find your ten favorite websites, and then find your favorite post on each of them. **Publish a post listing these top ten posts, and explain why you like them. You don’t even have to think about being creative, and everyone you feature there will appreciate it. **This is what we do with our Best of the Web feature, and there are lots of other examples. **Ask friends for ideas. If you’re tapped for ideas, then reach out to your friends and colleagues, and ask them what they’d like you to write about. **You can do this with offline friends, or with like-minded online entrepreneurs. **If you’re not already part of a mastermind group, then reach out to a few bloggers that are about as big as you are, and suggest starting one. Selected and curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business & Beyond" See infographic here: [http://www.copyblogger.com/create-content-infographic/] See article here: [http://www.copyblogger.com/create-content-ideas/] 
This post was written by Romain Goday for Darwin Ecosystem. Managing information overload is hard! Search and discovery are very different. This post summarizes the advantages of content discovery engines over search. Here are some highlights that caught my attention: **Search provides an answer Discovery provides awareness. Search vs Discovery: Advantages of Interenet Content Discovery Tools **Awareness instead of specific answers A content discovery engine helps users ensure that they are not missing important information related to their topic of interest. **Provide ongoing content **The frequency with which the user decides to monitor new developments depends primarily on time frame related for their need for awareness as well as speed of information flow **Whether new content is monitored every hour, every day or every week, discovery remains a continuing process. **Focus on fresh content **the common trait of discovery engines is their emphasis in newly published information **Facilitate content selection by the user **With discovery engines, users receive topic-relevant content and are the judges of what is relevant to them, in the moment, based on their own experience, expertise and context Takeaways: **Rely on search when you know what you are looking for (you need an answer and want to find the best resources) and this information is not very time sensitive **Use content discovery tools when you need to know what is going on (what is new, what are people discussing right now) and want to find out what you don’t know Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read article here: [http://bit.ly/zKCgjN] Robin Good: Critical thinking is a key strategic skill needed by any serious professional curator.
"Critical thinking provides the keys for our own intellectual independence..." and it helps to move away from "rashy conclusions, mystification and reluctance to question received wisdom, authority and tradition" while learning how to adopt "intellectual discipline" and a way to express clearly ideas while taking personal responsibility for them.
Key takeaways from this video:
Highly recommended for all curators. 9/10
Via Robin Good 
This article was written by Josh Sternberg for digiday. I selected this piece because it definitely addressed this question and provided some very good insights and strategies that brands need to know. Excerpt: It's very difficult for brands to amass sizeable audiences on their own nowadays says Neil Chase, SVP of editing and publishing at Federated Media. **If a brand is an expert in a certain topic, their reputation might make them a credible source of information,” Here are some of the takeaways: **The best way to do it is to identify a high-interest topic that you want to be perceived as an expert in,” he said. **“Curate that topic and provide some context around it. If you’re curating a lot of content in a topic area, over time that leads to expertise and credibility.” **brands have to know each of their customers and have the credibility in their field to get consumers to trust the content they spread **“Brands have a content story to tell,” said Colleen DeCourcy, CEO of Socialistic, a social media agency. ****“Some brands have data and research they have gathered in the creation of their products that can be contextualized and turned into content — which can give them both real authority on the topic and some real ROI for their effort.” **Brands need to be careful in not only what, but how much they curate. **Brands need to make sure they’re not just regurgitating content, but instead offering readers/followers valuable information **Steve Rubel, Edelman’s evp of global strategy and insights, suggests brands start by having an editorial point of view and deciding where the content will live — the brand’s site or aggregation sites like Tumblr or Pinterest. **The plus side is that once you do figure out how you want to curate and it becomes part of your broader communications strategy — it’s pretty easy to establish a voice. Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/xn8Ahn] ![The Social Media Lifecycle [Infographic] | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/r3xF-8G4EHITsJ8koqTuvzl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
I selected this article, posted by Pam Dyer on socialmediatoday for its comprehensive Infographic and because it gives you great criteria for implementing a strategy that you can measure, tweak and get the best ROI.
Summary:
We all know the purpose of any data is supposed to help us make business decisions faster while getting better results.
**When implemented correctly, social media campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks enable brands of all sizes to track sentiment, spot trends, filter and analyze data, collaborate with fans, and improve ROI.
**These tools empower companies to start and maintain conversations, deliver first-class customer service, and drive sales — immediately, at the click of a button.
What you will find in this piece:
**How to use the Social Media Lifecycle: The key steps that get you from monitoring to decision, action, and results
**Best practices for monitoring, analytics, engagement, reporting and collaboration, modeled after the most successful brands in social media
**What Social Media ROI is, how to think about it, and ways to measure it
Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/xaIteD] ![How to Be Successful in a Connected World [Infographic] | Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond | Scoop.it](http://img.scoop.it/4JDJIdW8EVUfFzf-fHz5qDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVaiQDB_Rd1H6kmuBWtceBJ)
This infographic has been put together by Ross Dawson, it's very straightforward and definitely makes its point.
Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" 
By Todd Wasserman - http://bit.ly/yuVgSx Social networks attempting to execute commerce on their sites might face some resistance, according to a new survey. ... Despite the prevalence of social networks, consumers are still queasy about oversharing when it comes to credit card info. That, at least, is the crux of an online survey executed by digital marketing firm Digitas and conducted by Harris Interactive in early January. Canvassing 2,247 would-be online shoppers, showed a slight majority weren’t ready to use Facebook et al. as a buying platform. Predictably, older and richer consumers were even less apt to share such data.
Other factoids that emerged in the survey: People are spending almost as much time accessing social networks via their mobile devices as they do via their PCs. (Perhaps that’s not so astonishing, since other surveys have showed time on mobile devices eclipsing PC time.)
Another data point may be more surprising: Baby Boomers aged 45-54 — especially males — use their mobile device to access social networks more than 18-44 year-olds. Via maxOz 
This piece is from the Infoengineering blog I selected this article because it is a constant challenge for me as a content curator and I know all of you are dealing with this, some better than others. More to come on this subject in weeks to come. Excerpt: We're all experiencing this problem, there are some great suggestions to help you navigate all the noise. "Information Overload is an increasing problem both in the workplace, and in life in general". The Information Overload Age - This is when your mind is bombarded with images, sounds and sensations that overload the brain. The root of the problem is that, although computer processing and memory is increasing all the time, the humans that must use the information are not getting any faster. Effectively, the human mind acts as a bottleneck in the process. There are some great suggestions on how to work with information overload effectively: There are no simple solutions but here are some things you can do right now that will help you: **Spending less time on gaining information that is nice to know and more time on things that we need to know now. **Focusing on quality of information, rather than quantity. **A short concise e-mail is more valuable than a long e-mail.Learning how to create better information (this is what Infogineering is about). **Be direct in what you ask people, so that they can provide short precise answers. **Single-tasking, and keeping the mind focused on one issue at a time. ****Spending parts of the day disconnected from interruptions (e.g. switch off e-mail, telephones, Web, etc.) so you can fully concentrate for a significant period of time on one thing. My fellow curator and colleague, Beth Kanter has done a lot of work in this area, recently, she did a blog post and a review on a great book "The Information Diet" http://www.bethkanter.org/info-diet/ Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/wqy7Qh] Via janlgordon 
Robin Good: Jim Love, writes on his blog "Change the Game", a long article about curation and its reason d'etre.
Interesting thoughts overall, but the most valuable part, is in a few paragraphs, that distill clearly three important characterizing traits for quality curation.
An intelligent agent goes through the volume and the clutter and brings us a distilled version, reduced to it’s essence.
Great curation does three things. I call them the “3 Rs” - short for reduced, relevant and reliable.
Curation reduces the volume information from a particular domain to make it more manageable. It distills things to their essence.
It ensures that the information is relevant. Does it fit our interests and our needs? This is more difficult than it seems. Especially where the topic is new or unfamiliar we don’t always know what is valuable or how to describe it. It can also be intensely personal. We all have slightly different levels of need and the nuances of those needs are sometimes subtle.
Lastly, information must be reliable. Accuracy is critical and in the current world, difficult to establish. Is the story correct? Is the source reliable?"
Rightful. 8/10
Full article: http://changethegame.ca/2012/02/05/cutting-through-the-clutter-curation-and-the-new-3-rs-of-content/ Via Robin Good 
If you're still on the fence about the signifigance of content curation and how it can propel your business, this piece from Search Engine People addresses the 7 most common B2B content curation myths and offers bulletproof answers to them. Intro: B2B content curation is not a fad! It's a fact. According to a recent study conducted by MarketingSherpa: **84% of the surveyed B2B buyers indicated that they are very likely to click through industry news and articles from vendor sources. ****Still, many B2B businesses fall prey to some ethical and SEO related myths that force some of them to avoid content curation altogether! Here is one myth and the real truth that caught my attention: B2B Content Curation Myth 2: Content Curation Is Unethical ****There is a huge difference between curating content and "pirating" content! ****Here are some ethical guidelines to help you out: **Give tribute to the original content owners by mentioning their names linking to their content sources **Do not republish an entire third party story and make it your own. Simply quote few paragraphs or summarize parts of the content, making a clear reference to the content owners ****ALWAYS create DO FOLLOW links to their content and rest assured that your SEO will remain intact ****Intelligently building on curated content makes your final output authentically yours. I love that thought! Key Takeaways: ****More B2B businesses are starting to realize the questionable significance of content curation to their overall marketing strategy. ****If done right, content curation can create massive branding and SEO rewards for your business. Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/rrE3VO] 
This piece was written by Jason Heath for Socialfresh "The latest Pinterest referral traffic data reveals that Pinterest drives more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined". That is pretty significant for a social network that most marketers still do not even know exists. And yes, they are still an invite only community. This data does not include EVERY referral source out there on the web. But it does put Pinterest into context compared to other major social sites. And it can give anyone doing business online a good sense of where strong referral opportunities might exist for their business. The Highlights of the Data Here are a few key takeaways from the Shareaholic findings: Selected and curated by maxOZ covering "Pinterest Watch" Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/AssEyf] 
This piece was written by Jeff Turner, it makes you STOP and think. Pinterest is the latest new shiny thing but as Jeff says, buyer beware. His insights are right on the money. He asks us to know the enviornment before we start posting and promoting. Here's an excerpt: The Pinterest Stream And Fools Gold Avoid Self Promotion: "Pinterest is designed to curate and share things you love. If there is a photo or project you’re proud of, pin away! However, try not to use Pinterest purely as a tool for self-promotion". Here are the takeaways: My advice here is going to be the same advice I give people in any new social network... go have some fun first. **Be social. Get to know the community, the lay of the land. The rest will sort itself out. **The first thing that happens when the real estate community for example, "discovers" a new social media site is they focus on the media, not the social. This is a mistake. It leads to mining in the wrong streams. Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Pinterest Watch" Read full article here: [http://www.jeffturner.info/pinterest/] |
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For me, it all begins with managing my attention and establishing criteria for selecting content that aligns with my brand message and my purpose for being online. This is my compass. My focus for the day that fits this framework and everything flows from there. I love Howard Rhinegold’s work and the mindmap is brilliant. I’m finding these to be excellent resources in helping me to refine this process and I feel I'm definitely on the right track.
I have some quiet time before I ever go to the computer and focus on my agenda for the day. It’s like going into a library. Everything you could ever want is there but if you don’t have a hypothesis, you can drown in the sea of knowledge and information.
I cover lots of topics but there’s a recurring theme that connects them and it revolves around the evolving world of curation and the many forms it takes; how we have to learn to curate our selection not only of content and information but activity such as social networking as well. It's learning to manage my time and evaluate how I spend it. I ask myself if I do this, will it take me towards or away from my overall plan, the answer always gets me back to where I need to be.
As you know, we can schedule priorities and life comes charging in and sometimes I have to shift to do something that needs to be taken care of. Even if this happens, I can get back to my theme for the day at some point. I don't hold the reigns too tightly on this, it's just there to keep me grounded. If I find something as you say serendipitously and it’s off my daily plan, if it’s really a "wow", (again, here I've established some criteria for this, otherwise, I'd find many wows throughout the day), I stop and pay attention to it to see if it’s something I should work on. For me, there’s a certain rhythm to all of this and intuition plays a part. It takes practice and trusting yourself and not over-thinking things.
As for meaning overload, there are two things I will do If a piece is particularly heady or difficult to read, I will search for the simple thread that relates to the message I am seeking to put out to my audience. The other aspect is more simple. If I feel that my head is just too full, I have to step away for a few minutes, take a few deep breaths, maybe grab a drink of water. Sometimes meaning overload is just brain overload, and I really need to know when to step away and find my way back.
It is the act of going back and forth between scanning quickly - and then going in for a deep dive and reflection. I watch the stream. I check things out and if I find something that is like "wow" - my audience would love this - or "wow" slightly different take or framing on the topic - then I add in my collection,think about it, and share.
The thing I'm trying to fight - in part because I curate many different topics. I tend to focus on different streams of keywords or sources for particular topics. But I might find something through serendipity that is on another topic I curate and it is good, but I'm not focusing on that topic now. So, sometimes I grab and have in a holding place until I look at it in more depth.
All this to ask you about:
What is your practice for curating multiple topics?
What do YOU do to avoid meaning overload?