Social media culture

I selected this article from conversationagent today not only does it have some great tips for creating compelling content but it gives you examples of people who are doing a good job with each suggestion.

These ideas can be used for content curators as well - to create buzz and build an audience, providing "context" is what sets you apart from others - these tips are ways to accomplish that.

"Connecting ideas and people -- how talk can change our lives".

Here are a few things that caught my attention:

**. Make digestible bits of advice in micro-interactions gain big impact. Kellye Crane built a community for #soloPR practitioners off a Twitter chat filled with useful advice.

** Create a new list. People like to see where things stack against each other. By far, the most popular list is still the one Todd And created and AdAge took over.

** Give away secrets and tips to help others become more effective. Adam Singer is very generous in that regard.

** Teach something new or from a new perspective. Kathy Sierra has been able to do that on a topic that for many was considered not quite appealing

.

** Inspire people to take action and change the world. Entrepreneur Chris Guilleabeau is a good example of that.

** Be opinionated about future trends. That's a trait that is best exemplified by Robert Scoble.

** Track and review future trends from behind the scenes. A good guide is Louis Gray.

**Create a conversation around a social object. That's what Hugh MacLeod does.

** Become the expert hub on a subject matter. The consistent "go to" person for branding is the team at Branding Strategy Insider.

Selected by Jan Gordon covering "Content Marketing, Social Media and Beyond"

Read full article here: [http://www.conversationagent.com/]

I selected this post written by Elad Gil because not only was it interesting and timely, but the comments from his readers were equally as valuable. So many different social curation platforms emerging, Pinterest is one to watch.......

Excerpt:

Social Content Curation As The Next Big Thing

The most interesting wave hitting the social web in 2012 is social curation. This was kicked off in 2011 as Pinterest's growth was noticed by Silicon Valley and a number of companies quickly followed suit -

**Snip.It launched as a social information curation platform, Quora adopted boards for a similar purpose, and Fab.com launched a structured social commerce feed.

There's so much information in this post, here's the takeaway. I would love to hear your comments about this next wave......

Takeaway:

2012 Will Be The Year of Curated Sets

**2012 will likely see an acceleration of structured, push button, social curation across the web. Why? Because most users don't want to take much effort to produce content, and consuming content in a structured manner (especially photos) is also much faster.

**Just as the first wave of social media has transformed the consumption of information, this next wave of social curation will fundamentally change how users find and interact with content over time.

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond

Read full article here: [http://bit.ly/lK0ZHi]

Yesterday I selected a post by Elad Gil who talked about Pinterest changing the way we share and consume information on the web.  Today I have selected another article by Don Reisinger  for Cnet News - digital home, who says, "let's not jump to conclusions here and has more to say about this.

I do admit I'm participating on many betas because I feel the need to stay informed. I'm not usually drawn to every new thing that comes along but somehow, Pinterest has caught my eye.

Let's take a look at why Pinterest is becoming one of the most popular social networks, what's really happening here?

Here's what caught my attention:

**Pinterest so far has been the only company to distinguish itself. Late last month, Experian Hitwise, a company that monitors consumer behavior on the Web, reported that Pinterest had 11 million visits during the week ended December 17, jumping 4,000 percent compared with six months earlier.

**The massive bump catapulted Pinterest to the 10th spot in Experian's listing of the most popular social networks, just behind Yelp. Experian also discovered that Pinterest has found a loyal following in women.

**In the past three months, women have accounted for 58 percent of its userbase, and nearly 60 percent of those women are between the ages of 25 and 44.

**Opinions are mixed over why Pinterest has been able to attract such a large audience.

**Is it the service's solid design? Is it the attention it has received from media outlets shocked by its growth?

**Is it, perhaps, the fact that it recently raised $26 million from venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, giving it bundles of cash to play with? It could be all that.

**But Gil thinks it might also have something to do with its ease-of-use.

**"Pinterest was one of the first sites to take push button content generation (via bookmarklets and 're-pinning') and structure it into sets of curated content called 'boards

**This allowed users to collect content from across the Web, as well as from other users on the site.

Reisinger ends his article with a word of caution:

**"Pinterest has yet to offer its service publicly. And once it finally moves beyond its invite-only phase, the company will be truly tested."

Followed by the question: 

**"will the mainstream Web user who typically joins the social game after early adopters pick up their invites, find value in it?"

** Chances are, we'll get the answers to those questions later this year.

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Media and Beyond"

Read full article here [http://cnet.co/xilVUk]