We’ve talked for years about citizen journalism and self-publishing, but more important than the channels of distribution are the ways in which content and context are discoved via search engines and social recommendations, and the fact that theoretically this leads to any piece of content available online being indexable, findable and potentially popular.
[read full article http://j.mp/nr0FNv] Via Giuseppe Mauriello, Stephanie Diamond 
The Five Benefits of Social Customer Service from the thinkJar and Sword Ciboodle-Whitepaper We Are Social: The State of Social Customer Service - http://bit.ly/L0rdIx [PDF]
#1. Increased Customer Satisfaction
Other interesting findings that came from this report include: http://bit.ly/L0rzif ;
** 35% of organizations between 100 – 500 agents have not started to implement social customers service Via maxOz 
This piece was written by Aaron Dunn for Content Marketing Institute.
These steps apply to your overall content marketing strategy whether you're creating or curating content.
The challenge:
**Companies are now left trying to make sense of which ones they should be paying attention to, what they need to be doing in these channels to gain a competitive advantage, and how it all ties into their overall content marketing strategy.
The solution:
**In today’s rapidly shifting web, it’s essential that companies start to take a more holistic approach to content marketing and connect more effectively with their various stakeholders across a number of web and social channels.
Here are the four steps:
As we awaken to the new realities of content, here are four ways to rethink your content execution, and take advantage of the new content life cycle.
**Structure your content marketing strategy as a holistic system that allows you to connect more effectively with various stakeholders across a number of social channels, drive conversation, and influence customers.
**Open up content contribution to more users across the organization, providing more opportunities to connect with and engage customers in social channels, and extend your online reach.
**Be sure to remove any technology or process roadblocks that inhibit the expansion of your contributor pool — the more people who are able to contribute easily, the more content you will have to push across your channels.
**Deliver fresh, compelling and timely content that engages users and keeps visitors returning to your site, and then be sure to extend that content into your social channels.
**Be sure you are listening to the online conversations of your target audience, and optimize your content and content strategy based on the insights you gather from them.
Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Marketing, Social Media and Beyond"
"Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond" Read more: http://bit.ly/J69H56 Via Martin Gysler, janlgordon 
Content - Content curation is everywhere: 95% of surveyed marketers say they have curated content in the past six months (i.e., shared content from blogs, industry publications, or other online channels with ... Via Morten Myrstad 
One of the mandates bandied about lately is that B2B marketers need to become listeners. They should set up listening posts and they must listen first, before launching marketing programs.
Telling Marketers they need to listen is one thing. Helping them figure out how to do so in a way that produces an effective input to inform marketing programs is entirely another.
The Role of Personas in Listening Assuming you have a content strategy that was used to develop content related to answering your persona's questions, concerns, and informational needs related to solving a specific problem your product addresses, what inputs can be used for "listening?"
Marketers often forget that just because we design content for one persona, doesn't mean it won't find exposure with others. In other words, all feedback should not be weighted equally. You will never make everyone happy, so you must choose how and when to allow listening to shift your strategies and your response.
From Listener to Content Whisperer The trick to listening is to equate what you're "hearing" to creating higher engagement, interest, and momentum with your personas.
To become a content whisperer, Marketers must focus on listening to propect behaviors to help them become credible (safe) resources that buyers trust (secure) and want to do business with (union).
It's important to note that content whispering is not only related to your content, but to content produced by others that may get the reaction or dialogue you're looking to establish. Marketers need to consider not just what prospects say, but what they do.
Perhaps becoming a Content Whisperer is a skill worth developing...if you want to create a 2-way dialogue that builds momentum toward buying.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/K7Mq54 ; Via maxOz 
The company is "just getting started" with its mobile app, said Zuckerberg, who appeared on stage in a grey T-shirt and dark trousers at Palo Alto's Crowne Plaza, flanked by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and finance chief David Ebersman. With 900 million users, Facebook is the world's dominant social network. Zuckerberg was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2010 and was depicted in the fictionalized 2010 movie "The Social Network". "Over the next 10 years or so, every consumer category should be transformed to be built around people," Zuckerberg told fund managers and Silicon Valley glitterati such as Netscape co-founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. Via Gary Hayes 
You know you’re supposed to pin your posts on Facebook. You even know all of the ins and outs of Timeline. Heck, you may even know how to run a social campaign to boost sales. That’s good – as small businesses get familiar with Facebook marketing, the innovation starts kicking in. Jason Alvey, the founder of The Four Firkins in Minneapolis, has worked hard with the rest of his team to make sure the beer store’s Facebook Page stays on the map. They do all of the traditional Facebook marketing strategies … and then some. The staff posts photos and videos. They interact with fans on a daily basis and announce new beer shipments – sometimes exclusively through Facebook. The Four Firkins team also does five things to grow their Facebook Page that are a little less common. Here are five strategies any small business or organization can take away from a glimpse at the Four Firkins Facebook Page... Via contentmarketingdigest 
Whether you're marketing yourself or your company, your audience gets to know your personal brand, or personality. Here are some key ways you can maintain a consistent social media persona, no matter what the forum.
The Challenge All of the social media touch points we employ to create and sustain our brand online require ongoing maintenance. And the individuals maintaining them have personalities of their own.
How can brand marketers be sure that the updates made on behalf of their brand are consistent with the persona they’ve worked so hard to create?
#1. Create a Social Media Style Guide Meticulously outline everything related to the way your brand’s presented, from the required minimum clear space around your logo to your acceptable typeface. #2. Social Media Guidebook Very specific guidelines about your brand tenets as they relate to the production of online content, it should also focus on two things in particular: tone and imagery. i.) Brand Tone Distinguishes you from your peers and your brand’s most powerful tool requiring the most attention by those managing your social endeavors. ii.) Imagery Image filter warrants careful study when it’s going to be made public as part of a brand’s persona.
The branding opportunities provided by social media are beyond compare, but so is the importance of sustaining a brand persona when faced with the infinite production of online content.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/KnsIRk ; Via maxOz 
This piece came to my attention by Judy Gombita who shared it on Google+. It was written by Bob Geller and it's one of the best articles on content curation that I have seen in a long time.
Here are some highlights:
**Blow Out Content Marketing and Lead Social Conversations with Content Curation...
Great tips for Effective Content Curation
**Great content curation is part science and art.
**To do a good job, you need to have an understanding of your market space and how to make best use of the search and publishing tools.
**It requires a keen eye and instinct for topics that align with the expertise of executives, brand attributes and customer interests.
Tom Riddle, CEO of CIThread, a hosted content curation platform, says
"great content curation happens when three elements come together:
**SME - subject matter expertise
**a focused objective and a strong voice in response to an article
**tweet or post that happens to be at the nexus of your expertise and the objective. If this happens, you will find yourself writing the right words.
Takeaways:
**if you are in marketing, you should care about content curation because it just works!
**There are a range of tools, as you will see, that can help you transcend casual efforts to help boost organizational social media and content marketing efforts.
**Content curation gives marketing and social media teams the tools they need to turbo charge social media publishing and engagement efforts; it is an increasingly critical function, and an area that should be understood and mastered.
Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
Read full article here [http://bit.ly/GM2tmg]
Via janlgordon 
LinkedIn? Facebook? Which is better for B2B marketing? To help you make an informed decision, here are 10 resources making a case for each platform. http://bit.ly/Ln2PGS
Unbounce and Bop Design have created a new Infographic that shows the strengths of both social media sites. Facebook is the most popular site, but Linkedin is more focused on professional content.
If you’re looking for a place to do B2B, LinkedIn is the place to go. Not only can you create new connections, but in comparison to other social media sites, its four times better for B2B leads and almost three times more effective for generating new business leads.
Some stats:
»» 61% of LinkedIn users use it for industry networking; 55% use it for networking with co-workers »» 55 million. Number of LinkedIn users in the US; 22.5 million are aged 35-64 »» 326 million. Number of minutes spent on LinkedIn each month by US users »» 155 million. Number of Facebook users in the US; 51 million aged 35-64 »» 41% of people marketing on Facebook got a customer this way
Thought leadership is the top use for social media among B2B marketers
Ultimately there are benefits to having a presence on Facebook and other sites too.
Original Article: http://bit.ly/Ln2PGS ; Via maxOz 
Content Curation is so much more than compiling lists and dropping articles, blog posts, and images into pretty templates.
Content Curation is big time business Content Curators — or editors — find, sort, categorize, and distill the big data and vast amount of content that’s accessible to us.
It requires the human factor — someone with a pulse — to make sense of our collective informational chaos.
“When you add a human editorial layer, a curational perspective that organizes gathered content and community participation, you get real results.” [Steven Rosenbaum]
Savvy companies understand that content pulled from a plethora of sources should be categorized by curators who: http://bit.ly/JwDz0s ;
»»Know their audience, readers, and brands
Setting the record straight: Curators vs. Aggregators Aggregation is automated and gathers records based on metadata or keywords. Aggregators can’t evaluate individual pieces of content and make editorial decisions. This is where talented Curators shine.
All of these elements, separately and together, gradually build rapport, credibility, and loyalty between the Brand [Curator] and the Reader
That’s when the editor becomes the ‘go-to-guy.’ Having the information that other people need and want for their own success. Via maxOz In this new RSA Animate, Manuel Lima, senior UX design lead at Microsoft Bing, explores the power of network visualisation to help navigate our complex modern world. Taken from a lecture given by Manuel Lima as part of the RSA's free public events programme. Listen to the full talk: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/the-power-of-networks... Via Smaragda Papadopoulou, ABroaderView 
The State of Social Media 2012 by The SEO Company... What was once considered a trend has become a way of life - and now the way we do business. Download / Embed: http://bit.ly/KjsJZ6 Via maxOz |
Hard to believe. But 95% of all marketers are now curating third-party content.
Content curation, the practice of finding and sharing online content, is now being used by almost all marketers, according to a survey by Curata (formerly HiveFire).
Of 400 firms surveyed, 95% had curated content in the last six months. And 100% of the non-curators had, in fact, shared articles or blog posts with prospects in the same period. Of the active curators, 45% share content daily, 33% weekly and 21% monthly. Agencies are more active than non-agencies.
Why go to the trouble of pushing third-party content? The main reason is thought leadership—that answer was given by 85%, compared with 79% last year. Next are branding (80%) and SEO (65%).
But it’s not easy. Companies struggle to find the time to do it and create original content. And there was an 8% increase in the percentage having trouble finding high-quality content.
The main content marketing challenges: ** Having the time to do it—75% Via maxOz, Ken Horst 
This Go-Gulf Infographic compares the latest user statistics on popular social networking sites - Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, Pinterest and what they have to offer as far as user activity.
As we all might have guessed, Facebook is the top leader of the bunch, but the second spot is actually grabbed by the newcomer Pinterest. Facebook users average about 405 minutes on the service each month, while Pinterest actually ties that with an equal 405 minutes.
Check out more comprehensive statistics here: Via maxOz 
An Eloqua content marketing expert asks if social media marketing is as complex as it seems... The Social LUMAscape - http://slidesha.re/K80XOj , the image is the latest entrant in Luma’s series of visualizations that depict the labyrinthine interrelationships among major players in various tech sectors. Although the investment bank has published equally elaborate LUMAscapes for the mobile, digital capital, video, search, and display industries, for some reason this version struck a nerve. Business Insider, one of the world’s top business blogs, reported on the graphic, calling social media “ludicrously complicated,” “confusing” and “an absolute mess.” Original Article - http://bit.ly/K817Fp Via maxOz 
Chas Begley: PinView is a Facebook app that alters the Timeline to replicate Pinterest. This may be useful for marketers who want to stand out and offer something different on their Facebook page. Via The Write Connection 
We used RJMetrics was used to conduct user loyalty analysis and cohort analysis on publicly available Google+ data.
Here are some of our most interesting findings:
** The average post has less than one +1, less than one reply, and less than one re-share.
** 30% of users who make a public post never make a second one. Even after making five public posts, there is a 15% chance that a user will not post publicly again.
** Among users who make publicly-viewable posts, there is an average of 12 days between each post
** A cohort analysis reveals that, after a member makes a public post, the average number of public posts they make in each subsequent month declines steadily. This trend is not improving in newer cohorts. Via Level343 
Excerpted from article: "Timeline presents brand-new challenges (and opportunities!) for staying top-of-mind.
Since page admins can no longer designate a default landing tab (also referred to as the “default welcome tab”), businesses need to get more creative and use custom apps to direct Facebook page visitors to take action.
One way to make up for the loss of engagement with a default landing tab is to drive visitors to your custom apps instead. Custom apps are prime real estate when optimized.
To get the most out of this real estate, you need to create a custom app strategy for your page. Here’s a simple 3-step action plan to help you get momentum quickly with your new Timeline layout:
#1: Define Your Custom App Strategy: Do you want to create lead generation opportunities? Or create a welcome page? Or perhaps you want to turn your app into a mini-storefront? There are endless strategies for your custom apps. - Video within custom apps is a smart strategy to connect with your fans on a more personal level. - Another custom app strategy is to use them to display your best content. - Another useful strategy for custom apps is to create an e-commerce opportunity.
#2: Use a Third-Party Tool to Create Your Custom App: The good news is that you have many third-party tool options. Some options are free, others charge a fee. For some of my custom apps, I’ve used Lujure.
#3: Promote and Drive Traffic to Your Custom App: To grab your fans’ attention, make sure to use strong calls to action in both the custom app name and the app thumbnail image. The thumbnail image specs are 111 x 74 pixels. Quick Tip! Here’s a free tool (http://www.timelineimagetool.com/) that will help you create your custom app thumbnails without ever having to hire a designer...."
Via Giuseppe Mauriello 
With the digital revolution and various social media platforms, data equals intelligence and intelligence is wisdom.
Social business intelligence is all about wisdom—the wisdom to listen, interpret and act authentically, tapping into the wants and needs of the billion-plus consumers who openly express their opinions online.
As consumers offer opinions, expose their likes and dislikes, and express raw emotions, they produce a treasure trove of intelligence for brands. Socializing the feedback process offers instant advantages: You gain real feedback in real time and can make data-driven decisions on a dime, translating feedback into informed action at lightning speed.
Classic business intelligence yields data from the inside out. Social business intelligence works in real time and leverages powerful technology to offer you the outside-in view. Now there is no more excuse for navel-gazing. The outside world is at the tip of your fingers! Original Post: http://onforb.es/KjlUa3 ; Via maxOz 
Excerpted from article: "It looks like Flipboard; aggregates and posts content like Reddit; and presents news visually, like Newsmap. And it's from Intel. Intel iQ is a social-publishing platform and the tech giant's latest content-marketing experiment.
IQ resembles a digital magazine but is curated by Intel employees. A story gets to the iQ front page when a certain number of people recommend it. The goal is to "connect with a younger audience and tell them the bigger story of who we are as a brand," said Editor-in-Chief Bryan Rhoads. "Many of them don't know, so we need to tell them the story of Intel that is beyond PCs and beyond processors."
Mr. Rhoads will sometimes place staff-written or important stories on the page, but most articles will appear democratically and make it on their own merits.
On page, each story box appears with a photo and a tag: "IQ Original" for staff-written and freelance-commissioned articles, "iQ Network" for content written by partner companies such as Discovery or Vice, or "Via" for pieces from an outside source. The last tag is followed by the name of the publication, for instance, "via Mashable."
Bryan Rhoads, editor in chief of Intel iQ
Read full original article here: http://adage.com/article/digital/intel-launches-digital-magazine-curated-employees/234777/
Check out iQ by Intel: http://iq.intel.com
Via Giuseppe Mauriello 
Foursquare users can now check-in to Olympics venues around the world -- and potentially win a trip to the 2012 London Games. Via Efraim Silver 
This piece was written by Eric Brown for social media explorer.
I selected this article because it reaffirms what many of us already know but it's still good to see this in writing: Content curation and Media Curation (a mix of machine aggregation and Human Curation) are starting to pick up steam.
Here are some highlights:
Curation comes up when search stops working,” says author and NYU Professor Clay Shirky. But it’s more than a human-powered filter.
**“Curation comes up when people realize that it isn’t just about information seeking, it’s also about synchronizing a community.”
The author says and I agree with him:
**"The value will be in the expertise of the curator, people will not read junk, and the best of the best curators will create digital domination with vibrant communities".
There is also a great quote from Fred Wilson's AVB blog in which he details what he would do if he were starting the Village Voice now:
**I would not print anything. I would not hire a ton of writers. I would build a website and a mobile app (or two or three). I would hire a Publisher and a few salespeople.
**I would hire an editor and a few journalists. And then I’d go out and find every blog, twitter, facebook, flickr, youtube, and other social media feed out there that is related to downtown NYC
**and I would pull it all into an aggregation system where my editor and journalists could cull through the posts coming in, curate them, and then publish them
Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"
Read full article: [http://bit.ly/kmZvJg]
Via janlgordon |
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