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Murray Newlands is a blogger and marketer working both sides of the big pond
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About Face: Social Media Content Curation

Written on
Jul 26, 2010 
Author
Murray Newlands  |
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About Face: Social Media Content Curation

curation_smallADOTAS – With Facebook passing 500 million registered users last week, it has become impossible to ignore the reach of social networking. For those of us who work in the field, it’s nothing new to say that social media and social networking are changing the way that people interact with each other and with brands.

But statistics make the things we all feel to be true already more stark and apparent, and Facebook’s announcement that they have passed the 500 million member mark is cause for even the skeptics to stand up and take notice.

We know that it is changing the way brands approach marketing, and it’s beginning to change the way they create advertising campaigns. I think it also marks a milestone in the changing of the way we think about content curation relating to social media.

If you’re not familiar with the term “content curation,” it is the conscious act of choosing what you put on a blog, a webiste, and it is poised to become even more important in how we create our social media streams.

People are signing up and becoming more engaged — that we know. When people over-share, they become part of the noise and are ignored, but if they don’t participate they truly are missing out on something at this point — people are feeling their way through this etiquette.

There is so much information out there that people are becoming more and more careful what they share- and that extends their influence and makes each person a curator, whether they know it or not, of content.

Why Social Media Content Curation Is Becoming More Critical:

1. Reach: The average Facebook user has 130 friends and, apart from the super-users who have friended everyone they can find, most of those people are actually friends. That means anything that is shared has the weight of an in-person recommendation.

2. Longevity: People are beginning to see that their online lives stick with them. The New York Times recently ran an article about a teacher who was denied a certificate because of a picture she had posted four years earlier. At the same time, I know people who are getting jobs because they have years of consistent posts and comments around a particular industry.

In the online environment, what you do stays with you, and people are realizing that- and that means content curation in their social media stream.

3. Accessibility: Yes, Facebook has changed their privacy settings and it is possible to control who sees what is on your stream. At the same time, what you do on the web is public information and everyone from users to marketers are becoming aware of this.

Your posts on Facebook may be private, but the ads that show up know what you put in your profile. Even Foursquare is talking to search engines about making place-based data available in an anonymous format. What you do online will influence the future.





Reader Comments.

Content curation is the new world of social media. We can’t just ‘spray and pray’ when it comes to promoting your blog or your clients. They will not always come to find you so you have to go out and find them and take them where you want them to be.
However, sometimes that is the easy part. You then need to know how to keep them interested in your company Facebook or blog with content that is shareable and conversational.
There are two things I have seen recently that I think people looking at content curation should read through.
One is a recent article on iMedia by Eric Anderson called the 10 commandments of content curation. It talks about what you need your content to make it user friendly. You can read it here: http://bit.ly/bZKxj1
The other is a webinar by Eric for White Horse called, “3 Ways to Extend Your Lead Gen into Social Media.” It talks about how to blog better with the idea of content curation and content management.
You can download it here: http://bit.ly/bSUF3q
I should say I do work for White Horse but I thought you might be interested in the pieces.
So, let me know if you have any questions.

Posted by Courtney | 12:14 pm on July 28, 2010.

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