Many brands (and people) have fallen into a routine of aggregating \/ curating their category as the extent of their social participation. They use tools and \/ or team members to scan the day\u2019s news and re-share it as micro content usually comprised of a link and a headline.<\/p>\n
This is fine way for companies to\u00a0start out<\/em>\u00a0in the social web. They usually don\u2019t realize it involves going deeper. But you have to move beyond it if you want to\u00a0get to outcomes\u00a0from social or become a truly definitive leader in your category.<\/p>\n The truth is we\u2019re saturated with curators.<\/p>\n And, many of them aren\u2019t really even necessary and just contribute to the noise. Despite the social web quickly turning to micro content created by singular people, the individual is still not able to predict better than crowds. Without\u00a0diversity, aggregation and incentives\u00a0in place, single users as curators (with some distinct examples like\u00a0Guy Kawasaki\u00a0and\u00a0Louis Gray) are not as good at surfacing what\u2019s interesting as algorithms and filters powered by the crowd. Reddit or Stumble\u2019s popular sections in most categories are\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0more interesting than most Twitter streams. They\u2019re all signal, no noise. Sadly most marketers still ignore this and don\u2019t even look at how crowds are deciding.<\/p>\n The point I wanted to make today is curation is just the beginning of using social channels. The most\u00a0mature\u00a0brands leveraging social aren\u2019t just curating, they\u2019ve\u00a0become media companies\u00a0and are building a community external of the noise of real-time. They go beyond curation: they add context, commentary, opinion and ultimately become leaders.<\/p>\n Brands serious about owning their category online need to evolve beyond curation, and fast. I personally find myself opting out of many feeds and unsubscribing from sites who simply curate the same content I\u2019m already getting another way. I\u2019ve had conversations with many others who feel the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many brands (and people) have fallen into a routine of aggregating \/ curating their category as the extent of their … <\/p>\n