Interesting to apply the concept of 'curator' - often associated with a museum - to content online. Given the proliferation of articles, resources and information available online at the click of a mouse, 'curating' and providing context is a sure way to make meaning for customers out of online chaos.
That notion is at the heart of Content Curation: Making Meaning Out of Chaos, a panel discussion taking place at Info360 in NYC on June 14 from 1:55pm to 2:40pm at Javits Center, in NYC. Joining me for this conversation are two content creation, curation and context experts:
Content Curation: Making Meaning Out of Chaos Description
Here's how I describe the Content Curation: Making Meaning Out of Chaos session:
Some say ‘content is king’. However, if customers ‘drown’ trying to find content and companies can’t be found because of content proliferation, the solution has more to do with content curation and making meaning out of existing content chaos rather than just creating more.
During this panel presentation, you will hear experts in content creation and content curation discuss how to bring meaning to content so end users/customers and businesses can actually connect.
- Learn why marketers use content curation and the resulting benefits
- Understand how content curation is evolving as content proliferates
- Explore best practices for content curation success
Info360 Background Information
Are you familiar with Info360? It is the "longest running enterprise content management software conference & expo in the industry. It’s about helping enterprise IT buyers find better ways to communicate and collaborate, make the right information available to the right people when and where they need it and making enterprise technology easier to buy and more productive to use. Topics and solution providers address Social Business, Enterprise Collaboration, Mobile Business, ECM, Big Data & Analytics, Cloud Infrastructure, Enterprise Apps, Web Content Management, SharePoint, Data Capture and Compliance/Information Governance."
The Info360 conference takes place June 12-14, 2012 and Expo June 13-14.
I'm excited about exploring with Pawan, Arnold and our audience what content curation is and how it benefits not just businesses, but also customers.
Special thanks to Sue McKittrick, whose fascinating presentation at Content World 2011 [see Content Curation: The Art of Creating a Buying Community Online] set the stage for this presentation.
Content Curation Questions for You:
What is your definition of 'content curation'?
Do you 'curate' content on a regular basis?
What benefits have you seen?
I'm always on the lookout for innovative business marketing ideas, ones that simplify or solve problems, that breakthrough humdrum routines. Columbia Business School's BRITE '12 Conference did that with Julie Cottineau's presentation titled 5 Strategies for Successful Entrepreneurial Branding.
Julie Cottineau, founder of BrandTwist, was immersed in breakthrough business marketing ideas as vice president, brand, Virgin USA. Her focus at BrandTwist is challenging perspectives to come up with unexpected solutions, juxtaposing two brands - for example - twisting their essence together to generate a fresh take.
As with the framework described during BRITE 09: Innovating During Downturns & Surviving the Worst, I found Julie's 5 successful strategies for entrepreneurial branding and the brand fan inspirational exercise thought-provoking...
Here follow my highlights:
How to take the desire to do things better and funnel that into entrepreneurial success stories?
1. Make it personal. Take something you care intensely about and figure out to to make it reality. The idea for Virgin came about because Richard Branson believed that people deserved better.
2. Take a fresh look. What would a McDonald's plane look like? What about a mashup of Delta and Starbucks? KLM announced social seating for flights. How might more "Apple-ness" be integrated into businesses?
3. Be useful rather than innovative. This places the customer as the center of the thought-process for breakthrough business marketing ideas. Think how useful Zappos, Pinterest, Starbucks, Trader Joe's are to customers. Innovations add value and usefulness.
4. Live in constant Beta. Never achieve perfection; be constantly innovating, improving, adding usefulness. [I find 'living in beta' takes away the stress associated with a project and turns it into an ongoing learning experience.]
5. Fail smarter. Learn from every experience so the next iteration is that much better.
Julie Cottineau then took us through a 'brand fan inspirational' exercise:
Step 1: Think of brands you admire intensely [no lukewarm brands here!]; ones that are intensely customer focused [Zappos], anticipate customer behaviors [Amazon], solve old problems in new ways [Apple]. Detail the following:
- What do you admire about this brand?
- How does it solve customer problems?
- What is the customer experience like?
- What makes the brand effective? Is it people, processes, products?
- How does the brand take part in the digital world? Does it help the customer experience?
- How does it behave compared to competitors?
Step 2: Think about your own business.
- What are customer 'pain points' that you wish to improve?
- How would you surprise and delight customers?
Step 3: Get inspired!
- What if your model brand had to solve your problems? How would it approach them? What would it do? What would it change?
- How would Apple deal with your problems? How would Whole Foods or Trader Joe's? How would a mashup of Citibank and Google reinvent your banking customer experience? What about a combination of Barnes & Noble and Starbucks for a local public library? [Which is the case in Bibliotheek Almere For an Unforgettable Retail Experience].
Pretty interesting, do you think?
You can hear Julie Cottineau speak about 5 Strategies for Successful Entrepreneurial Branding in this 7 minute video.
[Click on Five Strategies for Entrepreneurial Branding, Julie Cottineau, Founder, BrandTwist, former VP of Brand, Virgin USA to link directly to this video on YouTube.]
What are your reactions?
How do you plan to develop breakthrough business marketing ideas for your organization? Which brands inspire you the most and how do you see twisting them?
Yes, social media and social networks exist because of technology. However, what they enable is corner grocery style interaction. In other words, digital and social tools [such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+...] make possible rich relationship building. The kind we have based society on for eons.
Don't laugh.
I'm not talking totally inane interactions via social media tools. I'm really not interested in sharing favorite quotes or breakfast treats - unless there's more to the exchange based on the relationship context.
However, social media and social networks have allowed me to connect with kindred spirits from across the country or the globe - all because of social connections.
With LinkedIn, the connection is social professional.
With Facebook, the connection is social casual.
With Twitter, the connection is social affinity and that's where I've discovered some of the richest professional relationships yet based on shared interests and shared examples of deeper content [e.g., blog articles].
When I describe the benefits associated with social media and social networks for business professionals, I often sense surprise - even disbelief.
The assumption is that the tools are for youngsters.
[That's also part of the magic of these tools: users have redefined them! Different groups of users have developed different ways of using them. How my niece uses Facebook has nothing to do with how I use it.]
The other assumption is that because they cost nothing to set up, no effort is required to make them work effectively.
Furthermore, if these are communication tools, simply getting them set up is enough to guarantee success.
And, by blasting a sales pitch, people will line up and make a bee-line to your business regardless of what they were doing and whether they are even interested.
Right.
And, if that's how you develop and nurture business relationships, is your business thriving?That's not how the corner grocer built his business!
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn aren't mass communications vehicles. Rather, they reflect what made the corner grocery successful: a means for offering distinct value to specific customers. They are tools that enable responsiveness to customers, that demonstrate a business person's human side, his/her trustworthiness and deep interest in the business.
Embracing these tools means starting from zero and gradually building relationships over time through consistent and dependable interaction. Not too different from how a corner grocery builds relationships and credibilty over time. They require thoughtfulness, deliberate effort and an ongoing commitment to sharing value consistently over time [think informative, entertaining and useful content].
Social tools are about relationships and connecting with others who care as much about our topic as we do - and aren't effective when done lightly and inconsistently.
How, then, to get started?
Stay focused and grounded, never stop paying attention to customers and the digital and social clues and cues that relate to them. Take small steps forward and remember to always deliver value.
Would you agree?
---
Note: whenever I think of 'corner grocer' marketing, I think of my amazing friend Toby Bloomberg and author of Diva Marketing.
Image Credit: Mike's Corner Store on Flickr
Coverings 2012 introduced a fabulous educational, social and interactive concept to the show: Coverings Central which took place on the show floor.
Coverings Central included a section where you could get your photo taken to promote Coverings 2013.
Another section featured laptops for a quick Internet fix - which we commandeered for #KBTribeChat on 4/18.
A third section was great for daily Coverings Happy Hour socializing.
The fourth section, pictured above, made for intimate 15 minute educational sessions.
My Coverings Central educational session took place on Wednesday 4/18/12 at 1pm. The presentation was titled What Makes for an Effective Online Presence and offered a short overview of my Friday two hour session. [I also inaugurated my very nifty 2Screens iPad app and successfully used miPhone as remote control device. Lovely!]
Here's the presentation, in case you are curious:
If you go to the end of the presentation, you'll notice a link [and QR code] which will take you to a
Coverings 2012 landing page where you can download [after entering your email address] resources, including my
Digital Visibility Tip sheet, that I referred to in my short and long presentations.
Let me know what you think. My Coverings Central presentation attendees told me that I had helped them make sense of online marketing.
I hope it's the same for you!
Do you manage a LinkedIn Group? Or are you considering one for your business? You may enjoy these four tips shared by Bart Bettiga, executive director, National Tile Contractors Association, during the Coverings 2012 panel presentation about The Web is Your Best Marketing Tool.
Bart created a LinkedIn group for his members in 2011. Based on that experience, he decided on January 1st, 2012 to publish and enforce rules for this LinkedIn group.
The results, in his opinion, have remarkable with more tile related value being exchanged between members of the LinkedIn group and more robust conversation strings taking place.
The value exchanged has even meant new members for the National Tile Contractors Association!
Here are Bart's tips on how to manage LinkedIn for business groups, based on the National Tile Contractors Association LinkedIn Group.
1. Post Rules. Ideally from the moment you launch your LinkedIn group. Group rules set the stage for interaction, which topics are acceptable, whether self-promotion is encouraged or not. Rules also allow the group manager to effectively moderate discussions.
2. Enforce the LinkedIn group rules equally and consistently. Bart had to get tough on those who didn't respect the rules. In order for those rules to be followed [and respected], they need to be real for everyone in the group.
3. Actively moderate requests to join your LinkedIn group as well as conversation contributions. Bart does this at least once a day and usually twice per day.
4. Nurture LinkedIn group discussion topics. Participate with your own comments, encourage others, add to the conversation. You may find you need to do some of this offline as you build up momentum for the online conversations.
For reference, here are the NCTA LinkedIn Group Rules:
Effective January 1st, 2012, the National Tile Contractors Association Linked In Group will be limited to members of the Association. During the past several months, there have been too many instances where people are in the business of selling products and services rather than having open dialogue on issues. In addition, we have experienced at times hostile and unprofessional conduct on certain threads. The NTCA is an association dedicated to the professional installation of tile and stone. We represent over 600 tile contracting companies in the U.S. and beyond. We are not adequately staffed to manage a forum in which these situations occur. We recommend those individuals who do not wish to be members of the NTCA to participate in the John Bridge Forum. This is a quality tile forum equipped with moderators to filter out the unprofessional conduct and the solicitation of the forum users. Look for a new NTCA member only group to be established soon.
If you'd like other references for LinkedIn for business group rules, check out LinkedIn Group Guidelines or Rules of Engagement
Before creating your LinkedIn group, I recommend doing some research to determine what exists already and whether those groups are well managed or not. See 9 Steps to Find the Right LinkedIn Groups to Join.
What has your experience been with LinkedIn groups? What would you add to these tips?
An often overlooked aspect of seach engine optimization and getting found online has to do with the documents - PDF and Word - that we share with visitors online. Have you optimized yours?
Given that I'm often guilty of forgetting, I thought - to remind myself - I would share with you my document search engine optimization tips...
Optimizing Word Documents for Search
1. Remember to use unique and descriptive keywords in your document's file name. If that's all a visitor has to go on, does that filename carry enough context to get someone to open the document?
2. View your document's "properties" by clicking on File/Properties. Fill in the title with keyword first, the subject, relevant keywords and some comments.
Sadly, the data you've added to your Word document properties may not transfer to the PDF version of your document...
Optimizing PDF Documents for Search
1. As with your Word document, remember to use descriptive keywords in the filename of your PDF document. These should be words that visitors would recognize and use in a search.
2. Check your document's "properties" again by clicking on File/Properties. Fill in the information. Remember to place your more critical and relevant keyword first in the title.
Other Search Engine Optimization Tips
Don't forget to give your images some search engine optimization TLC! Create memorable, keyword rich filenames and <alt> tags that similarly describe the image. Do use industry jargon - unless that's what your customer base recognizes and searches on.
You might find this article helpul, too: How to Optimize PDF Documents for Search. Note the recommendation to add your company name in the author field.
Have you optimized the Word and PDF documents you offer on your site? What have you found works best? What system have you implemented to remember to do so? What success stories do you have based on having optimized a document for search engines?
In his
BRITE '12 presentation titled
A New Path to Purchase, Moving at the Speed of Digital,
Marc Speichert, Chief Marketing Officer, L'Oreal USA, used the 'loyalty loop' to demonstrate how Dermablend, a L'Oreal brand, raised awareness with customers using digital tools.
- Consideration
- Evaluation
- Buy
- Advocacy
I was particularly taken with the example Marc shared to illustrate the
consideration phase of the loyalty loop:
Dermablend, a product used for skin coverage. As described in
Dermablend's About Us: "
For the past 30 years Dermablend has been recognized as an expert given the exceptional performance of Dermablend products in terms of coverage, wearability and skincare benefits. High performance wear and coverage has ensured its well-known and renowned recognition by the medical community and professional makeup artists."
In other words, this is a serious skincare product.
It's also a brand with a very low advertising budget, yet which needed to generate more awareness for itself.
Not only did this approach generate awareness, but it also created a powerfully visual and talkworthy story shared online through video. Read through the comments on Go Beyond the Cover; you'll notice conversation about societal perceptions, norms, individuality... This reminds me of
Dove - What Is Real Beauty?The Zombie Boy transformation is dramatic. The resulting story creates a powerful testimonial for those who have been disfigured and want/need to look 'normal'. Imagine the strength of this product's loyalty loop. It won't take much to transform buyers into long term brand advocates!
Results: Go Beyond the Cover with Zombie Boy generated 5.7 million views and 576k shares on Facebook in 10 days.
Marc concluded with the following takeaways:
- Know who is your shopper
- Understand the consumer journey
- Spend where it matters to connect with customers
- Measure, evaluate and experiment
What's your reaction to the loyalty loop? Do you find it helps put into perspective the changes you've noticed in your marketplace?
How might you create your own 'go beyond the cover with Zombie Boy' story?
So, you've made the decision to launch a blog for your business, but you're not quite sure what kind of results to expect when starting a blog. Will you be an overnight sensation? Will you take your industry immediately by storm? Or will you languish...
The truth is that, when starting a blog, you'll be lucky if anyone reads your first blog articles [except for maybe your mom or best friend]!
That's right, you start out at zero and slowly build up momentum for your blog by virtue of:
1. Creating and publishing remarkable and delicious blog content that educates or entertains
2. Doing so on a consistent and regular basis
3. Being relevant to your audience in how you address issues and concerns on your business blog
4. Reaching out and connecting to other sources of valued information in your blog articles - because you don't know it all and including other perspectives acknowledges your openness to ideas...
The beauty about starting a blog from scratch, with few people paying attention, is that you get to banish fear and trepidation. Those first blog articles allow you to:
- Experiment with this new digital publishing medium and figure out what works best for you and your business.
- Figure out your blogging 'voice'.
- Build publishing momentum.
- Get articles about your business created and published!
[If you don't believe me about the 'voice', go check out some of my very early 2006 blog articles on
Flooring The Consumer!]
As you get more practice, your stories become more compelling, you discover that visitors find you and, depending on the quality of your content, will engage with you as subscribers, return visitors, commenters, etc...
Most important when starting a blog is focusing on developing a body of relevant blog article content which signals [to readers and search engines]:
1. Your commitment to the blog and blog topic.
2. Your credibility as a publisher of content
3. Your ability to deliver fresh content consistently.
From my observations, momentum begins at about the twenty-four blog article mark. It truly kicks into gear at about the fifty blog article mark. If you publish twice per week, that means that by six months of publishing regularly and consistently you notice respectable signs of success!
In the chart above, note the traffic stats for the
SimpleMarketingNow.com site and the result of having launched a new blog in June 2011,
Content Talks Business Blog. I marked the 50th blog article mark.
About the 3rd blog shown below. It is personal blog. Articles are published on weekends and inconsistently [I do my best ;-)]. Note how jagged the growth curve looks.
What has been your experience when starting a blog? What results have you seen? What patterns have you noticed? What words of wisdom would you offer to someone ready to start a blog for business?
If you're ready to get started, I recommend reading 10 Tips for Starting a Blog for Business.
If you're looking for an overview of the Best of 2011 Digital Visibility Advice, I recommend that you visit Webbiquity's Best Web Presence Optimization Guides and Tips of 2011.
Not only does it include valuable references on a topic that affects business people and marketers from multiple perspectives - i.e., how to get found online, but I was thrilled to pieces to discover it also includes reference to an article I wrote for Content Marketing Institute!
Webbiquity's article includes valuable commentary of each of guides and tips listed. Pay attention, too, to the article's opening comments about 'web presence optimization' [which coincides with the blog's premise:
"Webbiquity: 1) The fusion of SEO, search marketing, social media, reputation management, content marketing and social PR. 2) Being omnipresent on the web for the search phrase that uniquely describes you or your organization. 3) The place to find help with all of this. Webbiquity – be everywhere online."]
Here are the resources included which I plan to check out...
Web Presence Optimization (WPO) Guides and Insights
Yes, we talk a great deal about search engines, and how to get found online. What we don't do as much is discuss how to make use of social networking sites to search for discovery.
Social networking sites represent a gold mine of content related insights and perspectives. After all, think how much effort we put into creating blog articles and sharing links to valuable content on LinkedIn and Twitter...
Instead of thinking of them only as places for pushing and sharing information, consider them also places for pulling and discovering ideas - or intercepting them! - to react to and incorporate in deeper thinking about your business.
I share with you 8 social networking sites worth exploring via search for discovery... many of which don't require an account for searching!
1. Google Search - I can't imagine searching without Google which has also morphed into a social network. You'll notice search results highlighted based on social connections. Be aware when you search that you can change your geographic location and also log out [assuming you have a gmail account] for a less social experience. [I don't spend as much time with Bing, but I have noticed traffic coming from it to my site. Would you include it in this list?]
2. Twitter Search - a wonderful resource for filtering through the firehose of information called Twitter. Note the Advanced Search parameters and the Search Operators. If you have an account, you are able to save your search as a feed. For someone still trying to figure out whether Twitter is about more that what a person had for breakfast, this is a powerful way to find out the truth!
3. LinkedIn Signal Search - requires that you log into your LinkedIn account. Once there, you can search the status updates of your network and beyond across many parameters. For example, for specific mentions of terms, by company, location, industry, even time, and more.
4. YouTube Search - otherwise known as the #2 search engine and a treasure trove of amazing content. No account required to search. A gmail account means that you can subscribe to channels or videos you consider remarkable.
5. Pinterest Search - the new visual discovery darling! Pinterest is worth exploring, particularly if you are in a visual medium [think fashion, home related, crafts,...]. As more get involved pinning, the range of boards is expanding to include less obviously visual topics [e.g., marketing]. No account required.
6. Quora Search - requires being logged in [you can do so via Twitter or Facebook] to search. Quora is all about questions and responses to questions.
7. Facebook Friend Search - my least favorite search tool. This link allows you to search for friends, without a Facebook account. For a somewhat better search experience, log into your Facebook account. Just realize that Facebook is literal in its search algorithm [and inconsistent in my opinion particularly for finding companies].
8. Houzz.com - another treasure trove of visual ideas focused on the home and interiors.
What do you think? Which other social networking sites would you add to this list? What has been the most surprising discovery you've made while searching via these sites?
You may enjoy this previous post titled Search Tips To Find and Get Found Online.