5 Cool Content Curation Tools for Social Marketers

In the age of Information, the ability to “curate,” or gather and arrange content, becomes one of the most important skills you can have. After all, the information is out there for everyone to see. What makes you stand out from the crowd is how you locate and present it. This process can be a grueling one if you go at it alone. That’s why the smart content curator will find tools to make their job easier in siphoning the best material off the top of the web, and presenting it in the purest and most palatable of forms.

Here are five such tools that will allow savvy social marketers to make it happen.

1. Scoop.it

The Scoop.it service allows you to search through a series of niche magazines on the web. Here’s how it works — you select a topic you want to follow, and from there, you start gathering a collection of articles, media, and other content to streamline to your account. Your collection may end up consisting of everything from blog posts and Twitter content to engaging videos.

What I really like about Scoop.it is how it lets you view the collections gathered by other people who share an interest in your topic. This allows you to quickly find the relevant content you need, essentially making your role as curator much easier.

2. Pinterest

Pinterest is not only one of the leading social networks, it is one of the best tools around for image curators. For those who don’t know, this site allows you to “pin” interesting images you find on the web to random boards, or boards that carry a specific theme. The boards you create can be great fuel for your curation projects, especially if they appeal to a broad audience. Though it takes a different approach, Pinterest leverages the social component quite well, so people can follow you, and even share your content with others.

3. Zemanta

Zemanta is a plugin for Wordpress  that makes it much easier to find related posts and images based on what you’re currently blogging about in Wordpress. This particular tool lets you add image suggestions that appear in the sidebar with just one click. It even adds the attribution for you. Any curator who has spent 10 minutes trying to hunt down attribution credentials knows just how useful this is. These features can potentially save you loads of time you might have otherwise spent scouring the web for interesting content fit for your curation needs.

Additionally, if you link to another blog, Zemanta will recommend your posts in the sidebars of other subscribers. Not only does this make it easier for curators to find posts they can link to in order to make their own content more relevant, it also provides the opportunity for more links and exposure for the original poster. Zemanta is a very useful tool for social marketers who realize the value of content in the blogosphere.  

4. Storify

Storify focuses on longer, more detailed social curation. The site allows you to search through a large number of outside sources to find the content you want to share. It measures resonance for each individual piece of content, making it easier to identify the material with the most value. This tool is particularly handy for social marketers who want to be sure they are giving their target audience the most relevant blog posts, images, videos, and memes.

Another cool thing about Storify is the effort it makes to help your content create a viral impact. One of the unique ways it does this is by allowing you to easily get in touch with the people involved in your story. This admirable gesture can help you recruit a following of engaged evangelists who are motivated to spread the word.   

5. List.LY                

Hence the name, List.LY is a tool built entirely around lists. You can use this site to create a list on just about anything — individuals, images, websites, and much more. These lists can be integrated into your blog posts, which is great for driving traffic and engagement. List.LY also has a “Trending Lists” section on the front page that showcases the most popular lists across the network. This site has a lively community, so getting your list featured here could mean good things in terms of exposure.

Content curation is a process, but it doesn’t have to be a grueling experience. Strap up with tools such as these, and you will learn what a smooth ride it can be.

Three amazing ways social media is changing the world

The democratization of opportunity

A few months ago I had the most uplifting talk with Xavier Damman, the mastermind behind Storify. As a teenager he started working on his idea for a new business by coding in his small apartment in Belgium. He didn’t have a formal education in building a business — in fact, he didn’t have any business experience at all!  So he just got to work, teaching himself how to code through free resources on the web and “googling” himself through any roadblocks he faced.

After months of faith and hard work, he had built a meaningful business, attracted Silicon Valley funding and was making his vision come true at the age of 22.

To me, this is so wonderful and amazing! When I was young, to start a business, you had to actually make something. You needed assets, funding and some way to tap into the traditional business infrastucture. Those business barriers have been destroyed, unleashing an unbelievable amount of inspiration and creativity.

Child learning coding at Coder Dojo

We’re in the first generation where our children are the experts. I recently visited a new free, global movement called Coder Dojo (post forthcoming!) that is teaching elementary school children how to create software and apps. This energy, this opportunity, can change the world. The future is something to be achieved, not just an inevitable result of your family’s economic conditions or the university you attended.

Economic power is shifting from those who control to those who share.

Social media as a global unifier

There are now close to 1 billion people registered on Facebook and half of them use it everyday. Research from The Social Habit shows in the sample surveyed, 80% of Americans between 12 and 24 have a Facebook account. Can you name any brand in history that has that kind of market penetration?

So the world is slowly being unified in one small way through these social platforms. No matter our religion, economic status, political beliefs, or the color of our skin, the Net Generation loves to share favorite apps, complain when Twitter is down, and debate the latest Facebook innovation.

Of course there are still pockets that are left behind. Some people may simply be slower adopters of technology. Some regions of the world may not yet have access to the Internet or oppressive governments limit their citizens ability to connect.  But this is changing. The debate is now turning toward the consideration of access to the Internet as a basic human right. Think about the power of that! Could there be a day in our future where nearly every person on earth is united by this pulsing, creative, liberating beam of electrons?

Yes, the social web is filled with spammers and cat jokes but let’s not take for granted how far we have come in connecting global voices in such a short period of time!

The hive of solutions

The social web gives me hope for true, meaningful progress on difficult global issues and re-building a better world.

One only needs to look at the mess that is Washington DC to realize that millions of people are needlessly suffering because of political rancor. In general, our universities reward professors for consistency and longevity instead of flexibility and innovation. Many of our largest and most important companies are straining to remain relevant in a digital world through leaders who cannot open a Twitter account. None of these traditional sources of problem-solving and power can keep up with and respond to the pace of the world today.

Thankfully, there is another option — our collective, networked intelligence. Perhaps our most glorious hope is that the social web can self-organize to solve problems. The web is clumping into hives of experts who are organized by the problems themselves instead of company silos, national boundaries, or political appointment.

Innovation, education, solutions for urban decay, international diplomacy, health issues, cracking highly complex technical problems — almost every significant human problem is being debated and, and I believe, will eventually be solved by passionate experts wherever they live.

Civilization is being rebuilt through networked intelligence.  We are being mobilized and we are all on the same side — a better world.

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