Curation Revolution

Steal This Survey To Post Idea
Had a great stay at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Charlotte during the Search Exchange conference. I NEVER fill out surveys since who has the time, but the service was so good I wanted to share that information with Marriott.

I broke my rule and completed a survey that was at least 2 pages too long. Started out looking all Net Promoter and then just went on too long. Glad I hung with it because if I'd bailed I wouldn't have seen one of the coolest ideas - use surveys to create web reviews.

The last page asked me to write a review TO GO TO THE COURTYARD WEBSITE. Now that is BRILLIANT. Bet they are smart enough to create a new webpage with the 100 words I just shared too adding to page spread and aggregating reviews on their property.

Why am I so confident Courtyard is that good? Look at their 7,000 follows on 43K following number (15%). IMPRESSIVE. Most big brands think social is about THEM talking to you. That's why I created Social Its About the Conversation Stupid on Haiku Deck (http://shar.es/LhQP2 ).

Don't have to teach Courtyard by Marriott to listen. They are and the experience in their hotel was pretty amazing as a result. Now all they need is our startup Curagami (http://www.curagami.com ) to take their community to the next level of excellence in listening :). M

There are no "right' or "wrong" ways to use social media, but there are ways to grow your following faster and get more return from your social efforts.

Not all brands are created equal. Some can help your online marketing more than others. Use our Curagami Brand Score to map your content marketing for ROI.

@Jaana Nyström is a great curator and she just beat me to the punch :). When she shared her EPIC journey of using G+ to move from "nobody" to "somebody" I planned to blog about her amazing journey. The content and message was too good to be trapped in comments.

Read this post CAREFULLY as you may recognize where you are on Jaana's timeline of personal brand development. There are several "inside baseball" tips to pay particular attention to including:

* Don't worry about perfection, start publishing.
* G+ is an AMAZING and vastly under used tool (start there add more social nets later).
* No matter what, keep turning the crank (keep going) since the only sin you and your personal band can't recover from is NOT PLAYING.

Great stuff from an amazing curator. What lessons did you learn from Jaana Nystrom? What similar lessons have you learned as you create a meaningful personal brand?

Group boards on Pinterest can be your secret to increased followers, improved engagement, and reaching a larger audience with less effort.

Marty Note
Great Curation Revolution suggestion from my friend Bill Gassett (@MassRealty). I love group boards too because they crowdsource great Pinterest content. My Group Board include:

King of Pinterest (2,047 followers, 121 contributors)
http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/king-of-pinterest/

Queen of Pinterest (3,290 followers, 325 contributors)
http://www.pinterest.com/scenttrail/queen-of-pinterest/

Love these boards since the share GREAT stuff and my work load GOES DOWN even as they get better. One caveat is Pinterest can be strange about allowing you to invite contributors. I could easily have 1,000 contributors to both boards if Pinterest didn't have such a tight and strange grip on the invite reins.

5 Internet Marketing Secrets
Some of these 2014 "secrets" such as ecommerce and social media may not feel very secret, but there is still plenty of "blue ocean" in them still. Ecommerce creates great content marketing support for less and less effort (to create the story) so every website should have a store now even if all they sell is their logo merchandise.

5 Secret IM Tactics For 2014
* Crowdfunding.

* Content Widgets. 
* Mobile First. 

* Ecommerce. 
* Social Media. 

Social media is ubiquitous but not embraced. Our recent Ecommies Study of social media for top online retailers (http://bit.ly/1gATp9p ) proved many have social media accounts but few are "social businesses".

5 Secrets Blog Post on ScentTrail Marketing
http://bit.ly/IYZIo8

5 Secrets Haiku Deck
http://bit.ly/1k6uJFu

If you are serious about growing your Google Plus following -- and actually gaining some clients from the platform -- you should be doing these seven things:

* Share Great Content.
* Interact with Others.
* Forget your listings.
* See out those with authority & influence.
* Expand your content offerings.

* Join Real Estate communities.
* Build a business page.

Marty Note
My friend Bill's post about how to create a G+ Real Estate following apply to anyone needing to build a following for anything. How we sell stuff is different now and getting more so everyday. Bill is a leader in real estate, content marketing and social media. He took to Scoop.it like a duck to water.

Jeff Fromm in a great post for TBJ makes Curagami's tactical marketing is dead argument beautifully. Social Media Marketing is dead & here's what's next.

Social Media Reach Is Dead, Long Live Content Curation & Cmmunity
@Guillaume Decugis  was nice enough to ask me to weigh in on his blog post. He knew it wouldn't be hard for me to write 1,000 words on something that I feel strongly about - what will tomorrow's marketing look like.

Little is certain OTHER than tomorrow's marketing will be very different than today's and unrecognizable from yesterdays. The post on G+ shares my reaction to Guillaume's post along with as much Nostradamas as I can muster at midnight after a long day.

The core is YES content curation is going to be an integral part of the friends of friends marketing creating community we see at our Triangle Startup Factory funded startup called Curagami (http://www.curagami.com ).

One BIG THING we've already learned is RESPECT, ADMIRATION and enough envy to fuel a train for what Marc, Guillaume, Ally and the Scoopiteers created. The post discusses how any cause moves from passion, through to business and finally into quackery.

That evolution is why all tactical online marketing is dead man walking. The key is winning and keeping hearts and minds. Certainly content curation is going to be HUGE in winning the LOVE any successful brand or online presence will require to be successful in tomorrow's marketing. Are there a few other things? You bet and I tried to share all of the hard won lessons about content, community and love team Curagami is learning.

My G+ Post
https://plus.google.com/102639884404823294558/posts/i1fzgtror51

Every online transaction started with a conversation and that why conversations are the new money and the rocket fuel creating the New Ecommerce Revolution.

After Google's algorithm changes content is KING, context QUEEN. Online merchants who "match the hatch" of content to customers create advantage. Winning this advantage takes courage.

Courage because when one revolution happens things get crazy. When three revolutions are happening simultaneously its time to get in the basement with water and a year's supply of canned goods.

Instead of doing that we suggest reading about how content, commerce and social media can contribute to one another on CrowdFunde our startup dedicated to helping websites, brands and companies tap wisdom of crowds.

Becoming A Social Business - 5 Quick Tess
If your answer is NO to any 2 of these questions your company is failing to become a "social business". Good news is fix is easy, just be able to say YES to all five:

Twitter - Do you FOLLOW at least 50% Of Your Followers (and do so with some presence and reasoning)?

Twitter - Do you respond to @YOU comments in hours or less?

GPlus - Are YOU and YOUR COMPANY on GPlus?

Pinterest - Are you anticipating the visual marketing revolution by PINNING?

Facebook - Have you held at least one Facebook contest and/or responded to and allowed customers to post on your Facebook wall?

YouTube - Do you have a YouTube Channel and are you posting there at least weekly?

We are past the time when merely having a Twitter button meant anything. Your business must USE and be PRESENT on these tools or your social buttons create powerful "Don't Get It" dissonance.

What other "social tests" can you think of? Marty