Can't get enough of curation? Then do I have good news for YOU!
James Mathewson (Editor-in-Chief of ibm.com and the co-author of Audience, Relevance, and Search) graciously invited me to do a four-part podcast series on the topic of curation best practices. Interviewer Mike Moran (author of Do It Wrong Quickly and Search Engine Marketing, Inc) did a great job shaping each ten-minute conversation, and I enjoyed chatting with both of them.
Listen in as we talk about the opportunities obstacles associated with content curation online. Each podcast is ten minutes long and available to download for free on iTunes (links can be found in the embedded player).
Part 1: Companies around the Web are struggling to present the content their users seek from the social sphere. Is content curation the answer?
Part 2: What are some of the approaches companies are taking to aggregating social content? Which ones are most effective?
Part 3: How can we preserve a great user experience when delivering curated content?
Part 4: Are there instances in which content curation is really the only viable solution?
And hey, if you're interested in content curation, you really need to be following Erin Kissane's five-part series on content curation. I'm fairly sure there will be no need to ever write anything about content curation again once she's finished with it. Which may inspire in you a sigh of relief. Perhaps.
Many of our clients request our help writing video scripts or incorporating interactive tools into their website. We’re all for enhancing the user experience with non-text content, but only if it makes strategic sense. And only if there’s a solid maintenance plan in place. Because publishing non-text content comes with a set of unique challenges.
Be proactive about non-text content maintenance.
In an ideal world, all website maintenance decisions happen as a result of your own company’s preferences, and on a reasonable timeline. But even if you’re not living in that ideal world you can still protect yourself. Here’s how:
Retain source and working files from content partners
Consider hosting options carefully, and make a contingency plan
Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows
Retain source and working files from content partners.
Anyone with a computer can edit a text file, regardless of its source. By contrast, editing audio, video, and Flash-based elements requires access to the original files and the sophisticated software used to create them.
It’s harder to guarantee that access if you’ve outsourced the content. Unless you make sure to get a complete handoff of all original source files you can get stuck editing these elements in other programs, to the detriment of file quality. (For example, video and graphics are best edited at the highest resolution, then rendered/exported/converted to the resolution at which people will ultimately use it.)
Consider hosting options carefully and make a contingency plan.
To complicate matters, content producers often choose to host their content on third-party platforms. Third-party video hosting services (e.g., YouTube) attract content producers by offering APIs, advanced embedding features, HD quality, and free bandwidth.
Using such providers may streamline your process initially, but also requires handing over a certain amount of control. (Companies get acquired, business plans evolve, etc.) If a change is made to the initial agreement, the API, or even the display/delivery of your content, you may be forced to take your content elsewhere.
Disruptions resulting from external partners take time and resources away from your day-to-day business functions. They also affect the user experience. (Think of a video-centric page missing its videos. Yikes!)
Concerns about hosting problems can be easily mitigated by retaining those high-resolution versions and their attendant metadata. With those in hand, upload to other suitable hosting services will be a snap.
Build a third-party content revision path into your content workflows.
Content workflows need to take into account the complexities of editing non-text content. This flowchart illustrates the steps involved in successfully making both pre- and post-publishing changes to non-text content:
(click to enlarge)
Incorporating these guidelines into your site maintenance plan will help ensure your non-text content is working as hard as it can to keep users engaged and coming back for more.
The Bear Center in Ely, Minn., has posted daily updates about Hope, an orphaned black bear, every day since she was abandoned by her mother Lily in May. Their audience has come to expect these updates, and the Bear Center delivers. Consistently.
I doubt the Bear Center has a name for what they are doing. But, what they actually have is … you guessed it, a content strategy. It’s simple: Give Hope fans what they want, then ask them to give money to help bears.
It’s working. Donations have increased exponentially. Even better, loyal readers are out there rustling up fundraising opportunities for the Bear Center. On their own. Without being asked. I’ve never seen such a captive and engaged online audience.
Why their content strategy works
For starters, they’ve got the cute, cuddly bear thing going for them. But there’s more to it than that. The Bear Center:
♦ Stands for something people can get excited about- Their mission is to protect bears in the wild through research and education.
♦ Takes a stand- They aren’t afraid to justify their decision to intervene in Hope’s life. Rather, they welcome conversation on the topic.
♦ Has a clear call to action- “Donate to the Bear Center” comes through loud and clear.
♦ Makes content a priority- Their researchers write daily updates. Even on weekends. After spending all day in the field studying bears.
♦ Inspires people to join a community- More than a million people “like” their Facebook page and hundreds visit it daily to talk to each other.
♦ Re-uses content- The same updates are posted to their website and their Facebook page, helping to increase their reach.
How content strategy can work for you
So what if you don’t have a cuddly orphaned bear to attract and retain an audience? That’s okay. You have stuff to say. And there are people who want to hear it.
Now for that content strategy thingamajig. Here are four things you can do now, on a limited budget, without an army of staff to find your very own orphaned baby bear:
♦ Start small- Pick one piece of your website. The section that gets the most visitors. Your blog. The home page. Whatever. Then, do the following three things:
♦ Identify your point of view- Content marketing guru Joe Pulizzi said at Web Content 2010, “It’s not what you sell. It’s what you stand for.” That one remark was tweeted about a bajillionty times. Cuz it’s true. Figure out what you stand for, make sure it’s different from what everyone else stands for, and then tell people who care.
♦ Define your core purpose- Before you go creating content, spend some time outlining the purpose of the content to make sure everything you publish is on-target. One way to do this is to answer a few questions, such as:
Who is the content for?
Does your audience care about your message?
Does it make sense for you to talk about it?
What are you trying to accomplish?
What do you want people to do after they read or experience it?
♦ Be bossy- Okay, you’ve got your point of view and you’ve got your purpose. Now you need the content. Set a publishing schedule—something you can realistically adhere to—and assign roles and responsibilities for creators, reviewers, editors, and publishers.
Now, go forth and create content people care about.
Recently, Kristina (our fearless leader) and Joe Pulizzi (author, content marketing evangelist, and self-described “poster boy for content marketing”) met up to discuss some similarities and differences between content marketing and content strategy.
Not only will you be captivated by their insights and insults (ok, no insults), you'll learn how to identify the One Thing that really sets your company apart from the competition. Bonus: find out how content strategists and content marketers can join arm-in-arm to sing "Hands Across America."
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About JoePulizzi
Joe co-authored "Get Content, Get Customers" with Newt Barrett. He is the CEO of Junta 42, where he maintains his blog of the same name. Joe evangelizes content marketing worldwide and maintains the popular content marketing blog Junta42. Follow Joe on Twitter: @juntajoe
Yesterday around lunchtime, I decided I was in the mood for some green curry. There’s a Thai restaurant called Ginger Hop that’s just down the street from our office. I keep forgetting it’s there. But yesterday, I remembered. Deliciousness.
I went to the Google, searched for, and immediately found Ginger Hop. Went to their website, and wow! Is it beautiful!
The graphic captures the spirit of our neighborhood perfectly. Love the colors. Love the rickshaw and the dude in the boat. Love the photoshopped Grain Belt sign. The whole thing made me happy.
Now. Because there isn’t any real navigation system—only a few icons—I intuitively didn’t expect additional content pages on the site. So when I clicked on “Menu,” the PDF file that appeared didn’t surprise me. I read the menu, I ordered the food. And then I was done. It was fast, it was easy, and I enjoyed the experience.
In the moment, I also thought it was sort of funny that I’d had such a great experience on site with no copy. So I tweeted about it.
I didn’t think much of it. But half an hour later, when I went to check my Twitter replies, there were a LOT. Many were surprised—even disappointed—that I liked the site.
I couldn’t argue with any of these points. What’s worse is that the site actually is missing some really important, valuable content…for example, their live music schedule (which they post on Twitter, which how would I know that unless I clicked on their Twitter icon):
Conclusion? This site, while lovely and simple, is actually a bit of a train wreck when it comes to content. So why did I tell my entire Twitter audience—the majority of whom look to me for content strategy guidance and insights—that this was a standout restaurant website?
Because I assumed everyone else’s needs were exactly the same as mine.
Don’t do that.
Do user research (even if it's just talking to a few of your friends who like to eat out). Be diligent about conducting stakeholder interviews. Tool around on competitor websites. Don't just go straight to the exciting pow! of your visual design.
Doing content-focused research (considering product, process, and people) early in any design process—or as an ongoing activity to support iterative content improvements—will keep you from becoming fascinated by your own navel. Because at some point, we all mistake subjective opinions for objective analysis. And, inevitably, you’ll end up alienating some portion of your audience whose needs and preferences are much different from your own.
In closing, I will say that the green curry was quite good.
Content strategists, you’re likely already talking about curation. If you’re not, here’s the general premise:
1. There’s too much content out there.
2. Aggregating everything in one place—the “more content = more information = more value” formula—has been an unmitigated disaster.
3. Somebody—or something—needs to filter results to ensure that the content that’s being delivered to an individual or audience is relevant, useful, and satisfying.
4. Enter curation.
Great. We get that. This is a much better formula: curation = something or someone reviews a bunch of content (or apps) and finds the good stuff so I don’t have to.
Late 14c., from O.Fr. curacion from L. curationem , noun of action from curare "to cure" (see cure)
Oh. Well. That’s not very helpful. Let’s try Oxford Dictionary for the verb, “curate”:
To select, organize, and look after the items in (a collection or exhibition).
Ah. I like where this is headed.
Lots of people have lots of ideas about content curation. Here are a few ideas I've curated (or something) from around the interwebs:
Curation works differently than simple search aggregation. Through advanced data tracking or human intervention, or both, content can be refined so as to be more pertinent to a given search. Rather than returning all the results, curation helps to build a collection of the most valuable results. – Mike Dilberto, Curation: It’s Not Just for Museums Anymore
If you think, as I do, that the mere act of editing adds value, does Google’s new test of human selection vs. algorithmic feed pass from the realm of “mere” aggregation into curation territory? How much value do we have to add before we call ourselves curators? – Ian Greenleigh, Am I Curating Yet?
The curator is an information chemist. He or she mixes atoms together in a way to build an info-molecule. Then adds value to that molecule. – Robert Scoble, The Seven Needs of Real-Time Curators
(I have no idea what Scoble is talking about, but as I’ve never had the opportunity to quote him in this blog before, I thought I’d jump on it here.)
If you're into curation and you want to make it a regular thing, there are some really interesting platforms in place (and more popping up) to support everything from individual to social media to enterprise content curation. And I understand why: if we’re going to invest time and energy in culling through all this content, we might as well invest money in smart tools to help us do it.
“Curation” and “curator” are the new buzzwords the dying dinosaurs of oldthink print publishing are clinging to just like overboarded Titanic passengers clung to skimpy lifebuoys in the freezing waters of the North Atlantic.
You are, at best, a filter. You may make a name for yourself by excelling at some kind of selection process, but you are not a curator. “Curator” does not mean “I have good taste”. That just makes you some kind of fleshy gauze for the rest of us. The good come to us whilst all the pus and snot that came through your information media streams stay on your side. You are a makeshift step before a more advanced algorithm is invented.
Dude.
As usual, our position here at Brain Traffic is this: we don’t care what you call it. If it’s needed, just do the work. And I think this activity of content curation is much needed.
As content strategists, it is in fact our job to sort through the wasteland of content—both online and within the organizations we serve—to find the really valuable assets, to organize them in meaningful ways, and to ensure they’re properly cared for over time.
That’s my take on this whole curation situation. What’s yours?
Follow Kristina on Twitter:@halvorson
You know that saying about the cobbler’s kids having no shoes? Yeah. We’re the cobbler, this blog is our shoes. Sorry for the long absence. There are no excuses. However, we’d like to blame it on spring.
One of the things we’ve been lucky enough to do this spring is speak at various conferences around the country. We’ve talked to a TON of great people—from content strategy newbies to CS experts alike. You guys are awesome. And you’re doing great work. Really great.
Many of you have asked us for our list of go-to content strategy resources. So to thank you all for coming out to see us speak, and to facilitate more awesome content strategy work, we’ve compiled this handy list. Enjoy!
At Brain Traffic, we’re all about asking tough (yet perfectly sensible) questions of our clients. “It’s great that you want to post a news feed on your home page!” we might say. “You’ve got someone assigned to making sure it stays up to date and accurate, right?” And so on.
There’s a reason why we ask these questions. Because it’s not just irritating for web users to find stale content online. Sometimes it can mean the difference between a successful family vacation and a wasted afternoon …
Recently, my husband and I headed to Iowa with my parents for a cousin’s wedding. My Dad proposed we stop at a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the way back.
Three hours out of the way later, we arrived to a closed gate. The sign read: “Will open Memorial Day weekend.”
This had to be a mistake! The Iowa Department of Natural Resources website told us tours start May 1. We called the house. Sure enough, opening hours had been changed, but the website had not been updated.
We got back in the car, turned around and headed home. This little mishap meant I spent SIX (6) EXTRA HOURS IN THE CAR WITH MY PARENTS.
Website owners, please make sure your content is accurate. Take the time to think about where it’s coming from, who will update it (and how often), whether you have the resources available to support it, why it’s being included in the first place, and how it will help your users accomplish their goals.
You might not hear or see your users, but we’re out there, trusting you’ve put some smart thinking behind the words we see on our screen. Don’t let us down.
Source: iowadnr.gov
The house I never got to see – Cedar Rock, the Walter residence, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
We're infographic junkies here at Brain Traffic, and it's not hard to figure out why: Successful infographics are the marriage of great design and useful information. In other words, infographics are visually appealing content.
Converting your information to an infographic benefits your users by communicating your message in a visually compelling form. Whether they show up in internal deliverables or online, infographics seem to get everyone excited. Whenever I'm ready to create a new graphic, I use these resources for ideas and inspiration.
Great Lists from other sites
1. Smashing Magazine They've done several infographic round-up posts, but this is the one I keep going back to.
2. Six Revisions There's a strong consumption theme running through this collection. I've sent the coffee and beer graphics around to family and friends on more than one occasion.
3. Blog of Francesco Mugnai 50 great infographics. Nothing else.
Sites dedicated to Infographics
4. Flowing Data Great graphics and advice about how to create them. Props to Nathan Yau .
5. Chart Porn There's a humor category. (swoon)
6. Cool Infographics Lots of resources for creating graphics as well as examples. Check out the tips for designing infographics
7. We love Datavis The browsing on this one is not my favorite (the thumbnails are tough to decipher without clicking), but the graphics they pick are really strong.
8. How Toons Cartoons are not infographics in the traditional sense, but these are so entertaining I had to include this example.
Print Infographics
9. Feltron Annual Report Nicholas Felton does a report every year. It’s pretty amazing.
10. Good Magazine You know about Good, right? No? Just go there. Go there NOW.
Bonus – Interactive graphics!
I know I've already named 10, but I have to end with my all-time favorite interactive infographic. It's the New York Times Olympic Medal count – there's one for the Summer and Winter. They’re both so amazing, I love to go back to them even when it's not an Olympic year.
So, I had a super great post written for you with all these detailed, inspired thoughts about the traveling I've done and the people I've met, but when I tried to do a final save, WordPress ate it. No, my dog did. No, WordPress did. Wait, what?
(You type it in Notes/Word/Notepad, the formatting is wonky when you cut/paste. You type it in WordPress, it eats it. Blogging is dumb.)
Anyhow. Let me get to the point. But before I do, please ignore everything you just read. Because YOU NEED TO BLOG.
Everywhere I go, I'm hammering on people to go after public speaking gigs. Now I'm hammering on you to start writing (or, writing more) about content strategy.
You don't need to have all the answers. You don't even need to have a single answer. Here's a list of what you need:
An interest in content strategy
(That's it. There is no "2".)
So that I may straightaway crush all of your brilliantly-crafted excuses, here's a long list of questions to get you started. I collected these from my Content Strategy Forum workshop participants. The questions range from the tactical to the philosophical. Pick one, and get busy.
I'll do the same.
• How do you see the relationship between a creative director and a content strategist?
• "Content strategy" is such a broad term. Do you think we would be better served by breaking it down further, e.g. "editorial strategy" and so on?
• What's my elevator speech when someone asks me what a content strategist is?
• How can we partner with global colleagues to create consistent content?
• Is editorial strategy a subset of content strategy? Or are they the same thing? If not, what's the difference?
• What are some talking points when building a business case for taking a more strategic approach to content planning?
• What should we be thinking about when working to implement a content strategy in a multilingual environment?
• What are some of the most important methods, tools, and templates to know about when developing and executing a content strategy?
• How can we convince stakeholders to invest in the audit and analysis phases?
• How can content strategy begin to resolve ownership issues between print content creators and web content editors?
• How can we sell content strategy as an integral part of the project planning process?
