Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter. Though it is still considered a “buzz word” by many in the content world, content curation is now becoming a marketing staple for many companies with a successful online presence.

Unlike content marketing, content curation does include generating content, but instead, amassing content from a variety of sources, and delivering it in an organized fashion. For instance, a content curator is not necessarily responsible for creating new content, but instead, for finding relevant content pertaining to a specific category and funneling this information to readers in a mash-up style.

Who Are the Content Curators?

Content curation is all around us. It can take the form of an RSS feed, links posted on blogs, social media feeds, or an online news mashup like the ECDaily. There are no limits when it comes to the types of content either. Videos, articles, pictures, songs, or any piece of online digital content that can be shared can be curated.

Many of us have been participating in content curation for years without even knowing it. Anyone with a Facebook feed or Twitter stream has seen content curation first hand. Other examples include popular online destinations like Delicious and Digg, both social bookmarking sites that allow users to share content and vote on whether it is interesting or not, Alltop.com, a site which collects headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs by topic, or even your local news site, which more often than not, pulls stories from other sources and displays them in a “Top News” fashion.

What are the Secrets of Successful Content Curation?

It is no secret that there is a lot of information on the internet. Therefore, to be successful with content curation in a business setting, it is important to display only the best, most relevant content possible. The process of content curation is similar to making a mixed tape for your highschool sweetheart, where you want to choose only the best songs to share. Not all content is created equal. Most readers are turning to content curation to help them sift through the information overload, and are only looking for the top pieces of content surrounding a particular subject, and will side step additional, erroneous information if it doesn’t stack up.

For most companies, content curation is being used to drive Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A company that links multiple pieces of content about a specific subject increases its exposure when that topic is searched. In his article “Winning The SEO Battle Through Content Curation,” Eric Savitz, Forbes staff writer, notes that “many are turning to content curation tools that help find, organize and share content online to ensure that their site is constantly delivering updated, highly topical, keyword-rich content — making it a natural winner in the battle of Search Engine Optimization.” Sites that use content curation usually update rather frequently, and search engines tend to reward these up-to-date sites by indexing them more often. In addition, “The content you curate for your chosen topic will automatically include the most popular search terms within your area of interest,” writes Savitz, which can boost search result rankings.

To get the most out of content curation, tools such as Paper.li, Redux, and BagTheWeb, among many others, all assist in helping businesses sort through the abundance of online content to find the most pertinent information that fits their needs. In addition, some of these tools will even allow for creating original content and curating content at the same time.

What are Some Helpful Content Curation Tips?

While content curation may seem like an information free-for-all, there are some key rules that a content curator must follow to be successful. RightMixMarketing notes that not giving credit or linking to the source, using automated curation, or content aggregation, which sometimes leads to poor quality curating, and similarly focusing on quantity over quality, can lead to content curation failure.

There is also a danger in relying only on content curation instead of mixing this marketing tool with creating new content. As Eric Savitz writes, “Content curation tools that allow for both curation and original content, however, are imperative for the SEO success formula.” Forbes.comrecommends mixing original content with curated content to have the most success when using content curation to drive SEO.

Most organizations use Microsoft SharePoint as a social intranet.  The next closest, most prevalent intranet 2.0 technologies are Facebook (used as a private ‘intranet’ group), WordPress, and Blogger. Commercial software vendors have very little market penetration in enterprise social software. The closest, commercial competitor to SharePoint is Lotus Connections (IBM). The social intranet platform is also on the come-up.

I happen to like Google Docs, and there are many who support the Cloud, but whichever road you choose, embark on the journey as a team, work collaboratively where processes are more flexible, and information is more readily shared.  Anecdotal evidence underscores the importance of fostering creativity, dialogue and innovation. Whether it’s sharing internal sales data to generate new leads or creatively meeting expansion challenges in foreign markets, successful communication is everything.

Posterous published a greate quotation:“Providing the tools is one big step to demonstrating a new level of trust in our employees. But tools themselves are never the solution. Providing the tools is going to be the easy part. Inspiring and sustaining their use is something else entirely. Call it the Law of Corporate Cultural Inertia: an organizational culture at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by a force.”

Intranet  & Enterprise 2.0 Strategy

1. Clearly identify your current communications process, document it.
2. Identify problems, for example, show number of hours wasted, (Nucleus Research)headcount redundancy, content redundancy, phone calls, etc. Use pretty diagrams and charts (try http://www.gliffy.com/).
3. Determine the right team or division to pilot the Enterprise 2.0 solution.
4. Seek objective & independent advice Source vendors, send out RFP’s (online RFP template). Talk to vendor references. (ReadWriteEnterprise, Collaboration 2.0, Future Changes, ERP.com)
5. Call meeting with your managers and I.T. team, outline the issues.
6. Propose Enterprise 2.0 solutions. Estimate the cost of the current process and the  cost and ROI of an E2.0 solution. Scorecard the results in order to best choose. (i.e. Enterprise 2.0 scorecard)
7. Select Vendor. Work with vendor and pilot team, implement the solution.
8. Evaluate: track the success of the project.  Be prepared to present the results.
9. COMMUNICATE results. Ensure all internal stakeholders understand the success of the program.
10. EXPAND. Once the pilot is successful, go enterprise wide.

Carmine Porco  of Prescient Digital nicely illustrates her Intranet 2.0 Tools Matrix that compares Intranet 2.0 tools or software. She lists web 2.0 applications such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, instant messaging, and cross references each tool with an application (partial list below)

Basically, on March 1st, Google wants to get to know us a LOT better and plans to connect all of the data we have given them from using 60 or so Google products including Gmail, YouTube, Google search engine, Chrome web browser and social networking sites. The result is that Google will soon know more about who users are and what they do on the web, allowing it to target search results and advertising.

To be honest, I don’t think anyone is actually surprised at this new development, I know I’m not! Nothing is ever really free in life, and everyone in the world who wants to make some money is interested in finding a way to get you and I to give our money to them.  Google knew the online economy would be the future, and they have been slowly infiltrating our virtual space one email, one search and one + at a time.

Said Google privacy director Alma Whitten: “if you’re signed in, we may combine information you’ve provided from one service with information from other services. In short, we’ll treat you as a single user across all our products, which will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”

Under the plan, information collected about individuals will be integrated across 60 Google products including Gmail, YouTube and web search. Users will have to agree to a new privacy policy that will encompass data including location measurements collected on mobile devices. Oh yeah, we can’t actually opt out. You can imagine there are a lot of red flags being waved right now.

“Privacy advocates say Google’s changes betray users who are not accustomed to having their information shared across different websites,” wrote Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post. “A user of Gmail, for instance, may send messages about a private meeting with a colleague and may not want the location of that meeting to be thrown into Google’s massive cauldron of data or used for Google’s maps application.”

Google’s response: “We can provide reminders that you’re going to be late for a meeting based on your location, your calendar and an understanding of what the traffic is like that day. Or ensure that our spelling suggestions, even for your friends’ names, are accurate because you’ve typed them before,” wrote Whitten. “People still have to do way too much heavy lifting, and we want to do a better job of helping them out.”

Google, Facebook and other popular internet services try to glean as much information as possible about their users so they can sell more advertising at higher rates to marketers looking to target people interested in specific products. Google says users who opt to see personalized ads are 37 per cent more likely to respond to an ad than people who opt out of targeting.

The company said the new system will give users more relevant search results and information, while helping advertisers find customers, especially on mobile devices. For example, if you spend an hour on Google searching the web for skateboards, the next time you log into YouTube, you might get recommendations for videos featuring Tony Hawk, along with ads for his merchandise and the nearest place to buy them.

“If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries — or tailor your search results — based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google (Plus), Gmail and YouTube,” the company said on a new overview page for its policies. “We’ll better understand [what] you’re searching for and get you those esults faster.”

Google has since made Plus the focal point of its challenge to Facebook’s social network. In the first seven months since its debut, Plus has attracted more than 90 million users, according to Google. To promote Plus, Google recently began including recommendations about people and companies with Plus accounts in its search results.

google-founders-larry-eric-sergey

Google and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement last year that forbids Google from misrepresenting how it uses personal information and from sharing an individual’s data without prior approval. Google also agreed to biennial privacy audits for the next two decades. Google said it talked to regulators about the upcoming privacy changes, which it will apply worldwide.

So here are my thoughts on all of this: advertising is not going away, it is only getting smarter and more customized, which means I need to get smarter and more disciplined. If I am actually interested in buying what you’re selling, I don’t mind you taking a short cut to find me, I find blanket advertising tactics annoying and lazy. I know I need to keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t get too greedy though, there  are boundaries that need to be respected and I still need the illusion of privacy – even if its only a small closet-sized room in your huge global village.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) released a report last week from data released during the Davos, Switzerland financial summit stating:

• the online economy of G20 nations is expected to grow to be worth $4.2 trillion US by 2016. (That’s almost double the $2.3 trillion US it was worth in 2010.)
• That’s about three times the value of Canada’s economy, at a little over $1.5 trillion US in 2010.
• The number of people with internet access around the world was 1.9 billion in 2010, but that’s expected to grow to 3 billion in 2016 (about 45% of the world’s population.)
• China  is expected to have 800 million people online by 2016, (same number as France, Germany, India, Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. combined).
• Goods totalling 1.3 trillion were researched online before being purchased offline — representing 2.7% of GDP among G20 nations, or more than $3,000 per household.
• In addition to a larger pool of consumers, the wider adoption of smartphones and social media is increasing the amount of money changing hands online.
• mobile devices are expected to make up 80 per cent of all broadband connections in the developed world by 2016.

There are substantial differences in work productively in each organizational setting, and it is no surprise that there are great variations in human. But I stand my belief that gone are the days when employees had to be ”on the job” to build success over time, brick by brick.

My generation is connected to everything and everybody. We spend our lives making connections and learning new experiences with the touch of an icon. We enter our first jobs with a savvy understanding of the business, high emotional intelligence, and strong aptitude for continued learning. This intense desire to be connected leads to a demand for greater flexibility

The makeup of the global workforce is undergoing a seismic shift: In four years Millennials—the people born between 1977 and 1997—will account for nearly half the employees in the world. In some companies, they already constitute a majority.

Millennials want a constant stream of feedback and we’re in a hurry for success. Millennials view work as a key part of life, not a separate activity that needs to be “balanced” by it. For that reason, they place a strong emphasis on finding work that’s personally fulfilling. They want work to afford them the opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills, and connect to a larger purpose. That sense of purpose is a key factor in  job satisfaction.

The one-to-one mode of interacting that older managers favour is quickly giving way to a one-to-many mind-set preferred by the company’s future leaders.  Employees expect instantaneous input and feedback. Workers will insist on having a voice in shaping the company’s vision and strategy.

With knowledge flowing more freely throughout the organization and decisions being made more quickly, managers need to react more nimbly to the ever-increasing pace of change.

I had a heart-to-heart conversation with a respected executive the other day and I was told point blank that the way to increase productivity is to keep employees on edge. I was told it is not important for employees to like their manager or to even be engaged per say, what matters most is “respecting the structure of the established system. You young people just don’t know how to work.”

Hmmmmmm… I disagree with every atom in my being sir, I simply cannot abide by this philosophy.  What you view as a millennials’ supposed “lax work ethic” is actually a difference of how work ethic is defined from generation to generation. In fact, millennials, many of whom are constantly producing content and who remain connected to work, colleagues and information sources 24/7, are always working.

I absolutely will not adhere to rules simply because the rules are there “for rule’s sake” I don’t owe those rules my happiness, if those rules are no longer relevant, then get rid of them. I’m sorry that my parents and grandparents had to tote the line but you did it for us and now we are here in the front  and ready to embark on whatever destinations you were waiting for and you’re antiquated work philophies are trying to keep us nailed in place in that line.

Baby Boomers have been firmly in charge for the past few decades, and as a rule they have been willing to operate by a well-understood set of corporate practices and policies related to compensation, hierarchy, and expectations for the way work “works.” Generation Xers and Millenials, born from 1961 through 1981, have different ideas. They’re more apt to reject status-quo definitions of success and seek their own paths.

The differences can be traced to the times during which each group came of age and formed its attitudes toward work and society. Although it’s impossible to draw neat boundaries along generational lines and unproductive to overgeneralize, we are each, in part, a product of our time. The formative years of Millenials very different from those of Boomers.

For one thing, Baby Boomers grew up in a world that was fundamentally too small for them. The infrastructure couldn’t expand fast enough to accommodate the sudden growth of this cohort. Some Boomers went to high school in trailers behind the actual schools because there weren’t enough rooms to hold them all. They’ve competed for everything throughout their lives—from spots on high school sports teams to college admissions, jobs, and promotions. Winning, for Boomers, is a very big deal.

Millenials were broadly shaped by economic uncertainty and domestic social change. Their teens were a time of major corporate restructuring, as the psychological contracts between employers and employees were ripped apart in then-unprecedented ways.  It’s not surprising that younger managers are warier of corporate commitments and shy away from the demands of rigid tradition and militant “bums in seat” views, we simply opt out of the hierarchy. Unlike the generation before us, we know we have options, and we know that eventually, the world will catch up.

•  Your Website (Homepage)
• Your Blog (Free tool, WiseStamp, creates a dynamic email signature that includes an RSS feed, which shows the title of your most recent blog article and automatically updates as new articles get published.)
• Social Media: link to your personal accounts on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+, etc., or you can include links to your company’s accounts.

Harvard Business Review blogger James Wilson published five pointers to frame and guide the conversation about the use of auto-analytics in businesses:

Auto-analytics can be understood within the tradition of scientific management.  Auto-analytics offers a way for knowledge workers themselvesto test approaches to productivity improvement without managerial intervention. Here are a few examples:

• Experiments to minimize “wasted time.” By using tracking tools like RescueTime, practitioners are able to collect data on how they spend time on various websites and apps. As a result, they can take a more fact-based view toward decisions on where and how to change work routines. For instance, users can choose to compare one productivity-boosting intervention, like blocking access to their favorite online gossip site, with another, like spending 30% more time on a work-related app. (Click here to see what one entrepreneur learned.)
• “Knowledge Workload” forecasting. While business processes use advanced analytics to predict customer demand and production, knowledge workers must guesstimate whether or when they’ll have bandwidth for a new project. However, using personal data (emails, calendars, etc) and spreadsheets, some practitioners are developing personal yield management tools. For instance, this worker tried out several experimental models until he found one that effectively predicted his actual workload, as well as the underlying work required on each of his many projects.
• “Physiological systems” experiments. How do changes in nutrition, fitness, or sleep affect your job performance and productivity? Given the sheer number of tools being developed, this might be the rich area for business experimentation. Using a device like Jawbone, workers can develop a more analytical view on sleep quantity and quality. Using this data they can then examine correlations between sleep patterns and personal output (deals closed or lines of code written), and test new alternatives (afternoon naps or waking earlier).

Auto-analytics could increase self-awareness on the front lines of an organization. Thanks to work by Daniel Goleman and others, leaders understand and appreciate the crucial links between leadership performance and self-awareness. Yet, since increasing self-awareness often requires expensive coaching and frequent assessment, it’s been a C-suite luxury to develop these links. Auto-analytics can democratize interventions that increase self-awareness. Today, there are scores of technologies that help practitioners automatically (or “passively”) collect data to determine how well they are progressing toward their objectives. Many of these technologies build awareness of underlying factors that influence job performance (time use, social behaviors, health, nutrition), while others are designed explicitly for business use. For instance, Rypple is a self-tracking app designed to help employees set goals and monitor progress through quick feedback like peer recognition and a “continuous coaching” function.

Auto-analytics builds on the momentum and current directionality of business IT.

I would add business analytics as another source of momentum for auto-analytics. Workers are learning to become more analytical in making decisions that affect enterprise-wide performance.

Auto-analytics can help foster personal CSR and sustainability measurement. Many employees are motivated by the fact that their organization aspires not only to create economic value, but also to cause social or environmental impact. Auto-analytics can be used to “scale down” CSR or sustainability metrics to the individual level. Wattzon can track, analyze, and reduce  energy use while working at home or commuting.

Auto-analytics can be a platform for growth and innovation. Auto-analytics is itself a potential source of revenue growth and entrepreneurial innovation. Many of the auto-analytic tools being developed for large consumer markets, like the $4.5 trillion healthcare market or the $10.5 billion self-help market, started out as prototypes that workers developed for personal use.