Creative Mornings: Maria Popova on Content Curation

This is an interesting recap of how content curation helps brand development and what is needed in a curation tool.

This was meant as a spec for Groupiest, a tool that unfortunately shut down on June 30 after it's initial lack of traction. But regardless of what happened to this tool, the premises on which it was built still stand And are what you should look for in a content curation tool. 

These requirements can actually be grouped in 3 main areas:

1. Content discovery: at Scoop.it, we've built a semantic search algorithm that helps you discover content from an infinite number of sources (not just the RSS feeds of the sites you know) by simply entering keywords. We also strongly believe that no algorithm is perfect. So we not only improve these results by taking the actions of other Scoop.it users on that content into account but we ultimately let users decide what to publish. Discovery is automated but not publishing as it's the opportunity to add value and exercise judgement and this is what will create a bond with your audience. 

2. Content publishing: this step is not just about hitting publish, it's also about editing your post. Beyond simple formatting, it's about adding your own message to your own voice: your insight as we call it. Bringing context to your audience adds value and helps establish yourself as a thought leader. 

3. Analytics: getting a feedback loop is extremely important to anything you do that you'd like to improve over time. Understanding how your audience responded not just through views but also reactions and conversions is extremely important for us. 

Making this content loop - discover, publish, analyze - easier and faster for themselves is what efficient professionals and marketers should look when trying to streamline heir content curation process. 

@Jay Cross gives a detailed and clear use case of how collaborative content curation can save millions to large organizations as it saves employee time while involving them in the process.

He also explains his content curation routine that he sees as a mandatory skill to be trained by modern employers.

He makes a great job at connecting two sides of content curation:

- the fact it's saving people's time to look for meaning in information overload themselves,

- the fact it's rewarding for content curators as it helps them build their professional brands. 

A win-win no-brainer for smart organizations. 

Where's the Web taking us in terms of content length? What's the ideal length for your own content?

Tom Demers has some answers for you in this post, one of which is to "link liberally to meatier resources and let your readers chose their own adventure”.

Some more observation on my end:

1. We live in a short-attention span world.

2. Long form only adds value if it's really really good.

3. Content curation is a great way to create short blog posts that have impact. 

In the age of information overload, content has little value without context. It became a commodity which we're seeing a huge amount of flowing on our news feeds. This is a problem but also a great opportunity to show expertise: to explain, connect the dots, add value by positioning content in the context of a relationship with au audience. 

As this post's author Tom Martin highlights in this post, the logical conclusion is that this presents a challenge:

How can you add context and value in 140 characters on Twitter? How can your 200-word explanations compete with LOL cats on Facebook? 

By using a content curation hub.

What do we mean by that? 

Instead of sharing links and limiting your context to whatever fits in your tweet or focusing on grabbing attentions on Facebook, you can publish your curated content as a post on your blog (or if you don't have one, a Scoop.it topic page) which gives you plenty of opportunity to elaborate. 

There are several benefits with doing that:

1. By sending your social media audience to a page where they can show your curated content with added context and value, you can build that trust with your readers and show your expertise. And therefore what Tom Martin calls the content curation challenge. 

2. Readers can easily see related content which will engage them more and reinforces your importance to them. 

3. Your curated content can now be rediscovered in the future, in particular through search engines. 

4. You can add conversion hooks and call to actions to get in touch with your company, buy your products, etc...

So if you're just tweeting links, you're missing out.  

It's interesting to see that content curation is evolving from an opportunity to a necessity as communication shifts from traditional methods (PR, advertising, old-style SEO...) to new ones (content marketing, inbound marketing, social media...). In this new world of communication many things have changed and professionals or companies who want to get heard need to consider this question:

Do people listen to you because they have to or because they want to?

As my friend Steve Rosenbaum, author of Curation Nation, puts it in his latest book, Curate This, we can't rely anymore on captive audiences. Consumers filter out spammy messages which is why, to be heard, we have to curate or die.

The above scenario is one we've seen many times. And few of us can actually say they've never been guilty of the "share-without-reading" crime.

In this post on CMS Wire (to which he asked me tro contribute), Dennis Shiao gives a refreshing analysis on what the value of sharing content actually is and how genuine content curation enhances it to deliver much more value. 

Let's admit it: social media puts pressure on us to try to be everywhere and fill all the newsfeeds we can. With a bit of organization and the right tools, it can be done and we can alleviate that pressure. But if we apply rules mechanically, we run the risk of losing sight of the big picture. The more content is created and shared, the more we have an opportunity to be selective, apply judgement and add value.

That opportunity is called content curation.

Where some initially saw plagiarism and an easy way out, @Rohit Bhargava - Speaker | Author | Blogger | Professor was one of the first to see in content curation a noble, necessary and value-creating activity. In this post, he describes 5 traits of highly effective curators. 

Inspiring!