Are Content Curators the power behind social media influence?

Mar 24th

By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist

Are you overlooking some of the most powerful influencers on the social web? Let’s find out.

Traditionally, there has been a 1-9-90 rule when it come to creating and consuming content:

There’s a new element in this equation, though: Content Curators — people who make a practice of finding content relevant to their friends and followers, and then sharing links to that content. I am making a distinction between a curator and an aggregator who pulls content from around the web, usually related to a specific topic, to display on websites generally to enhance search engine optimization.

Of course, we’re all curators to some extent, consuming content and, on occasion, sharing what we find interesting or entertaining. However, there is an elite subset of people who proactively seek out and share content. I know, because I’m one of them. I comb through blogs and articles on an almost daily basis, and share what I consider to be the best and most relevant mobile, social media, and online marketing news to my followers on Twitter.

ExactTarget calls these people “megaphones” and says:

“Megaphones want to connect, educate, and share resources and information online with others. These consumers clearly fall into the ‘influencer’ category—meaning they can impact a brand’s bottom line—but Megaphones represent an especially elite group that takes their online interactions very seriously.“

ExactTarget’s research shows that only 7% of online users are megaphones. It’s unclear where exactly these Curators are drawn from in the traditional triangle, but according to ExactTarget, 65% percent of them are creators. I expect the remainder span some part of the commenters.

Why are these folks important? Because they are influencers. There has been tremendous focus lately on defining, identifying, and connecting with social media “influencers.” It’s a natural pursuit for marketers trying to get their message out. I’ve yet to see a robust approach to this objective, but doesn’t it make sense that an elite group of people who loves to share great content would be natural and important influencers?

Let’s look at the dynamics that make content curators so powerful. Based on some of ExactTarget’s social profiles, a brand might connect with individual consumers through several paths:

It may be difficult to connect through all the possible user-types, but one user “channel” stands out – the Curator or megaphone. Look at ExactTarget’s chart showing social consumption and social contribution (creating, commenting, sharing, and posting):

Graphic from ExactTarget (http://www.exacttarget.com/uploadedfiles/resources/SFF_SocialProfile_singles.pdf). Red circle added.

The Curators are the greatest consumers of content AND the greatest contributors—including sharing. That makes Curators a hub and the easiest users for marketers to reach. Curators, like me, are actively looking for information to share with others, and actively spreading the word. Content Curators are the best online friend a marketer could have!

This means there are significant changes ahead in the social media information ecosystems. Before there was search, there was a world of information available on the web, and a world of people who were interested in it.

The problem was that people couldn’t easily find the websites they wanted. Enter Google, which connected people with the websites (and businesses) they wanted, via keywords. Happily for Google, they were able to use the same method to let advertisers reach consumers with ads, piggybacking on the keywords to target specific types of users.

Within social media, there is no well-established Search. That connection with websites is made through individuals, usually via shared content. What’s clear is that Content Curators are the equivalent of Google in the social world. Curators are the individuals doing the searching and sharing:

Of course, there are a lot of Curators, versus one Google. So, each Curator is the equivalent of a Google who is focused on specific keywords.

If the Curator is the new Google, we can expect businesses to optimize for the Curator just as they optimized for Search on the web. In this new world, Curators become a commodity and they have value that will be sought after. Marketers will seek curators in specific topic areas and with specific traits. Marketers will want to know:

The topics this person curates. Curators specialize.
The networks and communities he/she curates to. Curators who are plugged into niche communities and forums may be even more valuable.
The number of connections on those networks. The volume or following always counts.
The types of connections the curator has. What’s the quantity of different types of social users following this curator: gamers, social butterflies, shoppers, deal seekers?
Reshare value. How many of this curator’s followers reshare the content, and how wide a net do they cast?
The click-through-rate for this curator’s content. How often do people open the items this curator shares?
The conversion rate resulting from this curator’s content. How often does a recommendation from this person generate sales? How often does a click through on a piece of content from this curator result in a sale?

That’s right. I said marketers will want to know CTRs and conversion rates for Curators, similar to the data they want on ads and publishers.

As this kind of information becomes more readily available through tools, the question is what happens when marketers seek and court Curators? Do Curators find a way to monetize their services, as Google did? Would that lessen thier impact? How do Curators change what they do as they become a valuable and sought-after resource? What kind of markets, businesses, and products revolve around the new commodity of Curators?

This is a new view of influence on the social web — what do you think? Make sense?

Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or on Twitter where she is @neicolec.

content curation, content marketing, social influence, social scoring

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http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

You have about 3 different articles in here so I’m at a loss where/how to respond, so let me start with a simple question about these megaphones: Why are they influencers?

When you refer to a Twitter user as a megaphone, I think of the person who pushes, pushes, pushes content through retweets alone. There are countless users who never share their own content nor ever reply to others, but only tweet others’ stuff. Are they who you refer? And how are they, a la @CNN on Twitter, influential again?
http://twitter.com/anniefiddle Annie Macfarlane

Thought-provoking article. Just as content creators have their own voice, the curators I choose to follow create their unique voice through the content they choose to share.
http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

To what extent do you think a B2B act as a curator? And do you think it’s possible for a b2b blog / twitter account be both content creator AND curator? My thought is that the being both waters down the other.
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http://twitter.com/Natasha_D_G Natasha Gabriel

If they create RTs and cause a message to travel then they are influential. If their followers grab on to what they say and run with that message even if they are simply RTs and they are not creating their own content then that megaphone is influential. Just my opinion.
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http://twitter.com/nvknow1 Jeff Reed

Thank you for delivering a thought-provoking topic. I believe the long-term impact of curators will be determined by their intent. Are they megaphones for hire or amplifiers for content they truly embrace? If the former is true most of their audience will eventually catch on and tune out. When TV Infomercials were new they caught my eye and would hold me on that channel for awhile. Over time the opposite occurred. I would quickly surf to a channel not trying to overtly sell me something. If the megaphone walks the fine line between integrity in content and payola the audience may hang around. I wonder how the content creators will respond to having their “product” pimped to the masses without renumeration?
http://rebeccaadenison.com Rebecca Denison

I would agree with Natasha. The study was meant to refer to people who are thoughtful and careful about content they share, and it tends to be content which is relevant.

Also, “megaphone” isn’t the most appropriate term for a curator because it does bring to mind those folks who shamelessly self-promote or tweet every 3 seconds.
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Hi, Jeff. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I completely agree with you. I think content curators will have to maintain their integrity in order to maintain their audience. I expect that renumeration will enter the picture, though, and make that harder. In fact, there was a good debate on Mack Collier’s blog about that very issue, and how money can influence content creators and curators, even subtly. http://mackcollier.com/rethinking-how-companies-connect-with-influencers/
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Well, it seems to me that a lot of us in social media are B2B curators. I haven’t seen any data, but as I said, my guess is that a lot of the curators are also creators. I’m curious why you think being both waters down the one or the other?
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Excellent point, Annie. People follow bloggers because of their unique perspective and personality. Makes sense that the same would be true of curators.
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

I don’t like the term megaphone very much, either, which is why I used the term “curator.” Though, the effect is one of amplification. As I said in the note at the bottom, there is a debate about the definition of curator. However, the curators I’m talking about are selective about what they retweet/share. They are selecting content that interests their particular followers and only what they perceive as the best, most valuable of that content. They also probably aren’t just retweeting verbatim, but adding their own comment or take on the content.

I think it’s also the case that most of these curators don’t only retweet content. I know that I don’t only do that. I do primarily read and share good content. Personally, that’s the main value I find in Twitter and the main reason I love it. But I also comment on people’s blogs, interact with people on Twitter, participate in chats. And I create and share my own original content. I think successful curators likely engage more deeply than just @CNN.

Clearly, RTs is a factor in influence, though. The ability to spread the word is a big part of what influence-targeting tools are measuring. Before you can consume a piece of content, you first have to know about it. And there are people who are much harder to reach, those inner circle types from ExactTarget’s research, which make up around a third of users, if I remember correctly. To reach those people, broad viral spread of content is key, and that likely begins with curators.
Leah Steinbrink

So much sense, Neicole.

Welcome to the age of Information Overwhelm. A world in which certain “curatory” funnels will undoubtedly become more and more necessary to help the bottom 90% wade through the insane amounts of information available at our fingertips.
Curators will continue to influence, whether they create and/or simply share information. My guess is that there will be some who do one or the other, or “Super Curators,” – hybrids who are super influential and do both.
As a former TV reporter, I know opinions and biases always play a part in how information is shared and portrayed. The simple act of choosing which information to share, consciously or not, imparts attitude, viewpoint, opinion.
The label may be different. The medium may have changed. But the action remains the same.

Great post, btw. Thanks.
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Thanks, Leah! Glad you stopped by, and funny you should mention the bias issue. You might want to check out the discussion from the other day on Mack Collier’s blog, where we were talking about the possible negative influence of sponsorships on bloggers. (http://mackcollier.com/rethinking-how-companies-connect-with-influencers/) I was saying that we can see the impact through the history of journalism, and how the influence can be very subtle. You’d have a lot to add! Have you found that the influence can even be unconscious?
http://www.jontusmedia.com/ Jon Buscall

I guess it’s to do with the style of the blog. I think Facebook Pages are great for curation and dialogue, but I think successful business blogs are better when they are creative, helpful (tutorials, advice), etc. Of course, you can include curation in this but for me a microblog is better for curation.
http://rebeccaadenison.com Rebecca Denison

Neicole, I absolutely love this post, and I am so excited to dig into the ExactTarget study later today.

I agree that marketers will likely become interested in curators, do you have any recommendations for finding or identifying relevant curators? Or how would you think marketers would approach these folks?
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Oooh! Such good questions! I’ll have to think on that and look into what tools are out there. I know that some of the paid tools help identify influencers in a given area and consider RT/curation traits. Not sure if they specifically target this audience. I’ll let you know what I find out, probably as a post on my blog.

The ExactTarget study is very interesting. I hope you enjoy it!
http://twitter.com/faveeo Faveeo

Interesting view. The problem with this model is that we still have a really low contribution rate, as for any contribution in this model, at least an action is required. A user can post, or can recommand or share, but it always requires an action from the user, which is why IMO we are still stuck with really low numbers of people actually contributing to the web.

How about automating the curation, by listening to quality signals and context, we would have a much greater number of contributions to use, as every user would potentially be a “portal” for others, even far away i the social graph!
http://rebeccaadenison.com Rebecca Denison

Awesome! I will definitely keep my eyes open for a blog post!
Anonymous

Definitely agree with your perspective on the role and importance of the “Curator”. I do think that once curators play a monetization card, their credibility to their audience is tarnished. Almost the way we look at some analysts organizations in their pay-to-play business model. Curators will need to continue to serve their audience for passion sakes.

I do think the monetization opportunity lies with PR Agencies. Much as they have done with traditional marketing and PR (identified influencers in media and established relationships with them), organizations will turn to PR agencies as a conduit to the RIGHT curator that has strong influence for a particular vertical.

Great post!

Thanks,
Social Steve
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

There are a lot of automation tools out there that try to surface the best content on a topic. I’d be interested to see their demographics, though. ExactTarget and other research seems to suggest that there are a set of people who will use those, but a lot of people who keep their online social circles restricted. Those people have to be reached directly by someone else who, perhaps, is using an automated tool, or is following a curator, or is a curator themselves.

I also don’t think the tools are there, yet. Mainly because of the quality issue. Easy to find the most popular items and promote them, which causes them to become even more popular. But finding the best quality content is very difficult to do programmatically. But much easier for people to do. Also, you have to be able to find good quality content for more and more discrete niches and topics.

As for the contribution rate, that has historically always been low (that 1-9-90 rule) and seems to have maintained itself even as the ability to create content has gotten easier. I’m not sure that will ever change. That only makes the curators and content creators more valuable, though.
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

I agree that it tarnishes your reputation when money enters the picture. Did you see the discussion on Mack’s blog about this? (http://mackcollier.com/rethinking-how-companies-connect-with-influencers/) It bothers me, though, that the curators who do all the work might not have a way to be compensated. I’d like to see some kind of blind-network kind of business that provides compensation in a way that keeps the marketers separate from the curators. But I completely agree with you that PR agencies will be the first middleman. The model is already there.

Thanks for stopping by, Steve!
http://twitter.com/UniqueVisitor Jeff Pester

Hi Ari, I think it’s important to make a distinction between blind aggregation/reposting of subject matter specific content and value-added curation. If there indeed is any influence that can be attributed to curators it comes from their ability to surface content they feel is highly relevant to their audience. A true curators efforts reflect their underlying perspective/opinion/etc. In that sense maybe some influence is either implied or earned over time.

But you’re right, let’s not confuse influence with popularity. And let’s not confuse true curators with aggregators, or what I like to call “content accelerators”. Content accelerators are truly popularity detection engines that comb the stream and harvest a derivative indication of popularity (# RTs, or RTs from “influencers”) to determine what content they’re going to pump out under the guise of curation. It’s better than brute aggregation but it’s still mechanical, prone to all kinds of manipulation, and worst of all is still a popularity machine.

I started @SocialMedia411 on a dare 3 years ago because everyone said that no one would be interested in a broadcast only Twitter account. I started with mechanical aggregation of Social Media content but abandoned that in favor of complete curation after 6 months. It’s grown organically since then and has a Klout score of 70 or something. But I don’t think of the account as being “influential” at all. I do think that it’s highly valuable to its audience because the signal-to-noise ratio is high and it dramatically reduces search costs for Social Media practitioners. It isn’t meant to catch everything that all its followers might be interested in, just the content I think is relevant

The other thing I do is inject my opinions every so often. That helps build a personality along with the curation – and people definitely respond to it. Only in that sense does true influence get built over time.

But true curation is incredibly time consuming. From that perspective I agree with some of the other comments here that compensation in some form is warranted. I’m not sure how that might work however and for that reason I haven’t even attempted to try anything on that front.

True curation is not aggregation, and good curation is valuable. And sometimes people pay other people for delivering things of value. My 2 cents.
http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

Agreeing with you the term, “megaphone,” is improper, can you suggest social media users who are thoughtless or careless about their shared content?
http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

We should chat offline about @SocialMedia411. I’ve heard of the account, seen it now and then, but I view it as more noise and less signal — quite the perceived contradiction of how you describe it on the bio field there.
http://twitter.com/UniqueVisitor Jeff Pester

One person’s noise is another person’s signal, and vice versa
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

I agree. Actually, I’m mostly talking about curators who share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other forums and communities. I think a blog is generally better for original content. I personally don’t like aggregators.
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

I don’t track them and I wouldn’t go naming names, but I certainly see people who share content that seems not particularly useful to me. Or who share such a large volume of it that they clearly aren’t being discerning. Just trying to cast a broad net and/or mask their own posts with enough others to not seem like spammers….
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

Haven’t seen @socialmedia411, but what you describe sounds like real curation to me. I’m with you. I abhor aggregators. And as I commented above, the technology is certainly not there yet to programmatically determine quality and true relevance to an audience. It still takes a person.

I know there are people who say that Twitter is ONLY about one-on-one engagement, but I’m of the mind that there is no right way to use Twitter. I follow a lot of news feeds on Twitter, as well as curators, and it’s my main reason for using Twitter. I enjoy the engagement and the people I’ve met, but if I wasn’t getting the information value out of Twitter, I would have abandoned it long ago. Some of my favorite Twitter accounts are essentially feeds, focused on specific topics. It’s even better for me when I follow someone who sifts through the many stories to share the gems with me.

I agree with you: true curation is not aggregation and good curation is valuable. Very well said.
http://ariherzog.com Ari Herzog

Considering you introduced this topic that inspired me to comment, it’s now curious you compare thoughtless/careless tweeters to those who you don’t find useful. What if someone else found that person useful?

What I’m getting at is to determine a universal definition, not a definition that depends. Else, this entire blog post meets the “it depends” mind frame.
Leah Steinbrink

Absolutely, Neicole. Even though I have some very strong opinions, I never considered myself a biased reporter, and did my very best to provide “both sides,” as often as possible. But let’s face it…time doesn’t always allow that, nor do network execs. And honestly, even subtle word choice and tone can completely change the meaning of a story, whether consciously or un-. I’ll happily check out the Mack Collier post and thread…thanks!
http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

As Jeff said, everyone has a different perspective on what’s useful. There may be people who do find these “careless” tweeps useful. I don’t. But it is because I know that others may find them useful that I hold to the belief there is no “right” way to use Twitter. That’s a separate topic, though.

As far as definitions, I was pretty clear in the note at the bottom of the post as to how I’m defining curators. I also noted that there is still dispute over the definition, though. Heck, there’s apparently still dispute over the definition of PR, let alone something that has only been around with the advent of social media. The ExactTarget data and the emerging definition of content curators does suggest that being a good filter and selective about the content you share is important.
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http://twitter.com/UniqueVisitor Jeff Pester

Well said Annie. Some people really like the stories I curate at @SocialMedia411 (and the occasional commentary that accompanies them) and I’m sure some don’t. But the content and character of the feed is clearly a reflection of my experience, opinion, and bias.

I’m not interested in running a link-bait popularity contest. You can follow @GuyKawasaki for that
http://twitter.com/UniqueVisitor Jeff Pester

ProTip: Curators don’t want to be approached by marketers

Having said that, curators are always on the lookout for compelling content that’s relevant to their respective audiences, including event/conference info. If you have something that genuinely adds value to their audience then they don’t mind being approached. If not, don’t waste your time or theirs.
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http://socialmediathriveconsultant.com Desmond Sim

Hello Neicole,

This is a piece of “high-value” article I have been come across. Yes, I admit fully 100%, though work as Social Media Manager as an Expert for my clients, I am also a Curator. The Megaphone term a little abstract and I don’t feel connected to it.

I appreciate a lot of your thoughts. From your perspective after some pondering, am I consider as an “influencer” already though not much well-known.

You have a point that, these may set a new trend for social media platform as the new a.k.a Google agent.
http://www.facebook.com/Lonepanther Spruce Panther

What a bunch of bullshit. At least link baiters describe themselves honestly.
http://www.facebook.com/BonnieSandy Bonnie Sandy Sterling

Influence in my opinion suggest ability to sway or direct decisions
These are actually the questions I am currently asking my self… I am opinionated enough to have stumbled upon content curation in my niche, “Fashion, creative entrepreneurship, marketing, and technology”.
Curation implies a judgment or some barometer, on value! Curation should also include an above average knowledge or expertise or research on the topic! Otherwise you’re just stocking a shelf with what LOOKS good!!
I always described and been described as a connector! Connecting people with information… without “curation” or attributed value to the information! I think the curation started when I realized that my connections saw me as a filter and began making their decisions based on my information… that’s a responsibility I take seriously!
The paid tools identifying influencers. I keep my FB page numbers low,
I post a mixture of original and curated content… but for the most part my interactions are offline. My base who actually are creative’s with their own businesses as opposed to fans who love and live vicariously, are using their hands creating a phone call, email, quick chat… yet the stats would not show that!
90 % of my friends are small business owners in the independent the crafts and creative field in the NY area I know others who are of similar “quality” yet when I look at the “list’ of influencers in the niche none of the relevant, will not be found!
The challenge is that much of the content that is circulating is incorrect, untested and severely compromised! Yet have become popular and even accepted as “common”! However when a young designer(an actual case) sits in front of me, explaining a costly mistake and admits her decision was based on info she saw from a popular blogger that was widely retweeted and accepted as an “expert’, Who is liable! I question the sanity of new media new media allows the privilege of publication to the masses it should not absolve the responsibility!
As such I have to disagree strongly RT should NOT be a factor of influence. Influence is a responsibility not just a numbers magnet! I check my facts and think it through BEFORE sharing… Often a proper, responsible intro needs more than 140 characters!
My post are genuine centered on my passion for the topic, it has become more time consuming and I recently made the mistake at checking my numbers, I also started getting serious offer that expressly pointed to the value and weight of my post!
I was surprised I had no idea so many were reading! I did not care… which lead to frank observances! Now as I’m reconsidering my platforms of choice; and a business model; I am debating the changes that may come about because of or to enable for marketing and advertising opportunities! I find myself grappling with that need to be judged on CTR will affect my current style… the fact is many aggregators and even original content producers in the same niche play these factors
I won’t share crap; few can lay down a sound perspective in 120 characters, so my retweets are low!
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http://twitter.com/kareemamin Kareem Amin

Hi Neicole,

Really enjoyed this analysis. I’m happy to see more and more people identify themselves as curators and to write about the value that they provide. You also laid out clearly a number of factors that are interesting in measuring influence and helping curators identify even better content for their audience. It’definitely not just about volume of shares, it’s also interesting to look at your expertise in different topics. In fact thinking about how I have different friends “curate” different things for me – some share my taste in music, or in technology, or in interesting scientific discoveries is what made me leave my job at Microsoft and start a company called The Shared Web to allow people to do just that. The main value that I get from Twitter is following people who share links to good content but I wanted a way to make sure that I saw the best content – the content that is shared in topics that I care about from people that I care about and that is most relevant (i.e. retweeted/reshared) and Twitter didn’t have a way to do that. So my team and I developed the shared web to pull and priotize the content from Twitter and to also let curators share more through and on our site knowing that they are not flooding their users because our algorithm takes care of showing their followers only the best content in the topics they are interested in.

This article made me think of a number of features that we can add to make it easier for curators to understand their audience. Will be back reading your blog often.
http://twitter.com/ReputationLevel Reputation Level

Good article!
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http://twitter.com/kareemamin Kareem Amin

Hi Jeff,

I think what you are saying is really interesting. Thanks for creating @SocialMedia411 to curate content around the topic of Social Media – I have found many interesting articles through it.

I believe that there is a sweet spot between manual human curation and using the power of algorithms to bubble up the most interesting content for people. What I mean by that is that wouldn’t be great if you could share anything you find interesting whether it is in Social Media or not i.e. curate freely in any topic and in any quantity knowing that your audience will get the most interesting content to them from what you’ve shared based on their particular preferences? That’s an idea that has been obsessing us at The Shared Web and we’ve been working on developing a platform that let’s you do just that. There is 2 sides to it – when you share you select which topic whatever you are sharing falls into and if you’d like to recommend it to someone in particular and when you are consuming you select which topics you are interested in and you get the most relevant content for you. We algorithmically assist on the consumption side to decide whether a post will be interesting to you or not based on the people you are following, the topics it is in and your behavior towards similar content in the past i.e. did you like it, ignore it, etc. In this way we are empowering both the curator to share more freely and the consumer to not waste their time by having what they like bubble up to their attention.

I’ve also been thinking about models for rewarding curators for their time. Something akin to the http://letter.ly/ model with micropayments or subscription models. Let me know what your thoughts are about that.
http://www.businessesgrow.com Mark W. Schaefer

I think this is a hot idea. I am particularly intereted in the micro payment concept. This is an idea that has been kicked around for 10 years and it has never worked. I’m hopeful that the new Facebook credits system will pave the way for this. Thanks for your cool ideas!
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Bob Champagne

Very good post Mark- I think you hit the target ‘spot on’ in terms of the makeup of the base. I’d like to see some more perspective on the “value added” by the curator, but until we can really define the value of content “throughout its full lifecycle”, this will be difficult— in part because so much of it is spread across so many channels of distribution AND consumption. If we could get out arms around how to “track a piece of organic content” throughout its lifecycle…in all its variations and augmentation (comments, cross references, et al), we’d have a better read on the value added of the content, and the curators. The problem is the we are so hell bent on tracking the source channels (ie wordpress, blogger, etc) and the initial distribution systems (twitter largely), that we quickly lose perspective on the leverage that occurs downstream.
http://www.businessesgrow.com Mark W. Schaefer

Neicole wrote the post but of course it is fine to give me all the credit. preferred actually. : )

Very wise point. Thank you!
http://Social-Tango.com Billy Delaney

Something like the idea of “sneezers” they spread it to everyone! Forget where this idea came from but it seems to fit.
KamakshiSri

Yes, it’s a big “Yes”. Because it is through these content curators that you pass on your product and service information to the end users.

That is very important. These curators have given a new and meaningful twist to the social media’s influence on our daily lives. I am not so good at explaining things and I am damn sure that I can find something much more interesting and sound on social networking sites that can easily express what i might have taken 100 hours to think over.

See a point in marketing is to keep pace with the market itself. When we talk about market, we mean our customers, so its better have an impressive content that best describes my products and services and attracts my customers.

We cannot raise a question as to whether it makes sense or not because it makes sense as long as we are able to capture potential customers. The moment we fail, the whole thing become useless and insensible.
http://www.essentialoilsforliving.com Azappia

Interesting. I’ve been somewhere between the Enthusiast and the Content Creator (or Megaphone) for the past 8-9 years and didn’t know it. I do it out of interest and as part of my work (I’m a librarian). I do it to promote socio-political and health issues and to share with friends the interesting things that are out there.
For me it all started out the outrage I felt in 2002-2003 over what the Bush administration was doing and just kept going. I then became interested in promoting good health
Thanks for this article Neicole.
http://www.essentialoilsforliving.com Anthony

I agree with both of you. One of the messages I’m getting constantly about internet marketing, is that to be successful, you need to build relationships with people, and to do that you need to build trust and integrity. If you feel passionate enough about something, then its virtues will shine through and your (online) community will stick by you. If it’s just about the dollar, then forget it.
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http://twitter.com/PrintArtsNW Lora R Fisher | PAN

Great analysis of social structure and influence.
Nice to know that I am one of the ‘elite.’
Lora R Fisher | flairCreativ
@flairCreativ
FLAIRcreative | Facebook
http://www.businessesgrow.com Mark W. Schaefer

Awww, we already knew that!
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http://twitter.com/neicolec Neicole Crepeau

fdsas
http://www.essentialoilsforliving.com Azappia

Hi Neicole, came across an article on BNET – A scientific view of why ideas go viral ( http://www.bnet.com/blog/best-business-books/a-scientific-view-of-why-ideas-go-viral/331?promo=854&tag=nl.e854 ) Apparently a number of studies have now shown that influencers are not really the key to how ideas spread so far and why – rather it’s a case of how easily influenced people in a network are and the overall structure of a network. Any thoughts?
Anthony
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http://www.dogwalkblog.com/ Rufus Dogg

This is not revolutionary or surprising. It just happens that the information is digital so people think it has to be this wonderful new facet of human behavior. Seriously, this is what newspaper and magazine editors have done for decades. It is easy to be cynical about “that old dinosaur dead tree industry” but the formula is simple. A newspaper is nothing more than a trusted source for whatever (news, ads, etc) gathered together in one spot for readers, organized and packaged that is convenient for its audience.

Just because YOU just discovered curation doesn’t mean it hasn’t existed before.
http://twitter.com/lesanto Glenn Le Santo

Content Curator = Editor. Nothing new to see here…
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Vipin

Really enjoyed your thoughts! real estate website design Delhi
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Bossanove

ok curadores da TI ja temos, fica para depois do codigo da vinci os curadores da biota, que incluem tb uma demanda, e outros graficos (OBVIOS) para definir qual será o ” bussy ” do próximo curador(es) q irão reunir: $, TI & THE GREAT BIOTA ! well, i think the bird and the rivers is a great curator for all of us, right? good night phower…
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Dr. Helen Cummins

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I totally agree with you. I am an
editor of a luxury lifestyle magazine and my readership popularity depends on
the integrity and credibility of the information we publish. If it sounds like
a PR article then readers see through it immediately and don’t read on. The
editors are the big influencers in off-line. It’s just a different medium
within the new social media. But I have to say it’s very interesting to see how
this new role of the ‘influencers’ will unfold in the next 12 to 24 months -
watch the space.
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