Content is no longer the issue for organizations. Not in this 24/7 news cycle world. Not in an era where the average consumer takes in as many as 3,000 marketing messages per day, according to Fast Company.
No, the real issue is filtering through all the garbage to get to the nuggets. The information that will help you get smarter or be more efficient.
For years, the mainstream media (MSM) has served this role well. CNN, USA Today, CBS News, your local newspaper. They’re all responsible for filtering through the junk and relaying to you the relevant stories that impact your lives. And, from a PR perspective, they’ve been valuable conduits and tools for us to share our messages with key audiences.
Fast forward to today. Content has moved online. It’s also mobile with the advent of the smart phone. And, nearly everyone has access to the tools to create their own content. As we all know, it’s been quite the shift.
OK, cut to the chase: What does digital content curation mean for your organization?
The old rules no longer apply–well, at least not as much as they did a few years ago. MSM are still relevant gatekeepers. More than 2 million people still subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. More than 1.9 million still read the USA Today. And more than 14 million visit the NY Times Web site each month (hat tip to Rachel Kay for the info). But, the key point here is the flattening that’s happened the last few years. Organizations now have an opportunity to filter and curate digital content for their customers.
Bottom line: Your company has a chance to BE the media. Relevant to your own corner of the world, of course.
For example, you’re an accounting firm. You make your living counting other organization’s money. Consulting. And knowing your client’s business inside out. Wouldn’t you have an outstanding opportunity to be a relevant source of industry and financial stories for your clients?
Instead of just focusing on your ideas, you’d also pull in stories from industry blogs, trade publications and other relevant Web sources. You could even separate it out by industry niche. Have one “channel” on your site devoted to health care. Another to construction/real estate. Yet another to not-for-profits. You’d be the Web destination for your clients for all things tax, accounting and consulting. Eventually, wouldn’t they see you as an expert? A thought leader? An organization that’s given them so much free and insightful digital content over the months that they actually felt compelled to do business with you?
That’s the idea anyway. The challenge for organizations initially is finding the right mix. As we know, the MSM aren’t going anywhere. They’re still very relevant gatekeepers of important information–and fantastic storytelling portals for your brand. However, the mix is shifting. What’s the right balance? I think companies are still trying to figure that out.
There’s also the talent and staffing piece of the equation. Organizations will not only have to figure out how much time to devote to digital content creation and curation, they will also have to find the type of skill set and people who would flourish in a role like this. You don’t even see that job description floating around too widely yet. It’s a whole new job category just waiting to expand.
What are your thoughts? Where do you see this going in the next 2-5 years? How will organizations embrace it? What are the staffing/talent challenges ahead?
I find the best curation on topics is done by people who are truly passionate about a topic. I also agree the curate-to-create-value trend can successfully position companies as knowledge matter experts and through PR increase profit. Perhaps not MSM, but certainly niche-niche-niche media.
If I could add one thing to the dialog it would be for the businesses to embrace personal brand building among their employees and show the world the passionate people within their organization doing the curation. To position the company not only as a group of knowledge matter experts, but also as progressive employers who embrace personal brand building. Bring the passionate people forward!
I think the problem we will run into is ownership of content. I agree that content curators should focus on pulling in the most relevant information and becoming the landing space for news of their niche, but there will be a backlash from the content creators.
Bloggers are usually satisfied with attribution for now, but I don’t see companies viewing it the same way. As more organizations create a content curator role, they will do their best to keep their content on their site to pull people in.
Good thoughts, Arik.
Let me answer your question with a separate question: do you want to be the end destination for everything?
Or is it better to specialize in a few things? Is it better to give broad knowledge over a wide array of issues, or in-depth expertise in a small niche issues?
Either way, your touched on the key issue – being a “destination” for your clients.
This discussion reminds me of the early days of media consolidation, when people first realized that Rolling Stone and MTV were on a collision course with each other.
The advent of the web was just the first round in disintermediating the middleman. Twitter gives us Round 2, by disintermediating people. Why work with the hotel concierge to get dinner reservations when you and the best restaurant in town already follow each other? Or consider the example of Portland’s #INPDX, providing concierge-type service for all visitors to Portland. When visitors want something, they are going to gravitate to the source that provides them with the best connections to the places they want to be.
In the next 2-5 years, I see megabrands like @NYTimes and @Oprah starting to leverage their ubiquity in the media zeitgeist. They will take a page from Wal-Mart’s playbook on negotiating with suppliers. These megabrands will use their ability to influence the consumption habits of bazillions of people to negotiate better deals for their followers.
The Latin root of “curation” means care. We talk so much about social media as a means of showing you care about your customers. Creating, harvesting and sharing content that fills a need is another way of caring for your audience.
I’m curious to see how brands and individuals work together as co-curators. How far do you go in letting your audience decide what content you publish and how much attention it deserves?
Ed: The personal branding issue is certainly a hot topic among employers and employees. And, I think that will continue. I tend to think organizations that sell ideas (professional services firms) can benefit by employing this strategy. Companies rarely take advantage of the network of relationships their employees have.
Scott: That’s a valid point, but I tend to think companies have access to more than enough “neutral” content right now to fill the void.
Kasey: I don’t think organizations want to be the destination for everything, but I do think they want to help customers sift through the masses of information available online now and get to the information that *really* matters. That’s the point I’m getting at.
Scott: That’s an interesting point about “co-curators.” I never really thought about it from that perspective. My impression is that it will continue to be a blend. Your audience (customers) are important and you need to keep your finger on the pulse of what they want, but you also need to be searching and finding content and ideas that YOU think are relevant and important.
@arikhanson
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