
What is content curation?
Content curation is a technique to find, gather, and present highly selective online content around specific topics/aimed at specific groups.
The content can come from various sources, including articles, blog posts, videos, photos, tools. It can appear in a variety of places, including feeds on blogs, social media, and online newsrooms.
The cons:
- There are ethical concerns over content curation. However, by taking a careful approach you can help overcome them. This includes ensuring that you give credit to all your sources through references/ links, as well as summarising the key points of these articles rather than wholly copying what they have written.
- You must avoid relying solely on curated content. Instead, you need to combine curated content with your original content. Content curating should be used “in addition to” rather than “instead of” your original content.
- Can become too automated. Hence, it requires a human-being to select and organise the content for their target audience. Quality should be prioritised over quantity.
- The demand of sourcing relevant and valuable content can be a challenge.
Nevertheless, if done properly, content curation has many benefits. Why? Advertising is in decline and the vast nature of the internet and the online community presents significant opportunities. People increasingly want to be informed and are using the internet to do it; they are looking to the ever-growing supply of user-generated content.
The objective of content curation is to find the best content on a certain topic.
You can combine it together including with your own unique content and inform others about it. Content curation gives your readers the content they want. You are filtering through vast quantities of information and presenting the best available. You add your unique perspective on the theme. You are filtering out the useless content, and giving greater focus.
The pros:
- Gives readers what they demand and what they are interested in. With content curation you can provide valuable, high quality and relevant information.
- It can be used to inform, engage and entertain readers. As it enables you to act as a valuable resource for your audience, it helps build trust and authority with amongst your readers.
- Build your social media networks and word-of-mouth advertising through the value you provide.
- Boost your traffic. Curated content is especially useful for those new to business in the online sphere, as it helps increase traffic to your blog/website.
- Curated content can be great for brand building.
- Creating original content is a costly process, both in terms of time and effort. Content curation is an alternative method to creating content that is less time-consuming and highly productive.
So after weighing up the costs and benefits, if you decide content curation is for you, here are some really useful tools you may wish to consider using.
- Zemanta: Content curation whilst you write on your blog. Works with most blogging platforms including WordPress.
- CurationSoft: This enables you to curate information and discover things based on keywords from Google, Google blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and any RSS feed.
- Bundlr.com: An easy way to “bundle” and share content.
- Storify.com: Add and curate content from any public webpage. Alternatively, you can use the integrated search to add content by simply drag and dropping.
- PearlTrees.com: Find, organise and share your favourite online content. You can even share content across a number of platforms.
- MySyndicaat.com: Find, filter and share content most valuable to you and others. Aggregate content various online sources. Can also automatically update content.
- Paper.li: Twitter curation, enables people to publish an online “newspaper” based on topics of interest to them or the community they seek to influence.
- Scoop.it: turns your content creation into a magazine
- Bagtheweb: BagTheWeb helps users curate Web content. For any topic, you can create a “bag” to collect, publish, and share any content from the Web.
- Redux Video content curation
Are you using content curation tools? Leave a comment and share your favourite tools.
Lilach
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98 Responses to The best content curation tools online
Thank you Lilach for this post on Content Curation. I agree with your points and appreciate you underlying the “cons”, such as the importance of clearly mentioning the sources, or the mainly human (versus algorithm) nature of a good curation. Properly done, curation is a very powerful media!
Thanks also for mentioning Scoop.it in your list (disc: I’m a co-founder) ! I believe there might be a typo, tho: Scoop.it turns your content curation, not creation, into a magazine ☺
And if I may, Scoop.it also suggests relevant content from Google, Twitter, Facebook, RSS, Youtube, Flick, Digg, and more for you to curate from; and allows you to share your curation to various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, WordPress, Tumbr).
Thanks!
Twitter: MarcFuseki
Thanks Marc:) I’m a huge fan of Scoop.it:) Thanks for sharing the additional features I missed out (and my naughty typo!).
It’s great to see that you can also share your curation with the different platforms, including Google+ too.
Twitter: lilachbullock
One advantage of Scoop.it, we have found, is the ability to easily set very specific Niche Curations, focusing on very targeted audiences
Twitter: ChuckBartok
Thanks Chuck, yes that’s a really good feature:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Forgot to mention that I was pleasantly surprise to see the update son Delicious recently that allow the creation of Stacks that are really Curation set ups…If you have not been there lately stop by
Chuck Bartok recently posted..Are You Scooping the News? Content Curation, the easy way
Twitter: ChuckBartok
Thanks for the great tip Chuck, I’ll definitely be checking that out too:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
Thank you for writing up Paper.li in your Top 10. We appreciate it and we wish you good publishing — and great content discovery!
Kelly, Paper.li
Twitter: kdhungerford
Thanks Kelly:) My pleasure I love Paper.li and am delighted to include it, it’s a great tool:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
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Hi Lilach, thanks for this great post.
I’m the CEO of a young startup, Searcheeze, we offer a collaborative content curation tool
We’re in beta and still working to improve the service.
Hope you will try it!
Cheers,
Stefano
Twitter: passatordi
Thanks Stefano:) I’m always looking for great tools that I can use and share with my readers too. I will definitely be trying it out and look forward to adding it to my list:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Thank you Stefano…checking out your site
Chuck Bartok recently posted..Are You Scooping the News? Content Curation, the easy way
Twitter: ChuckBartok
I just got done reading another blog article about curation. It’s very interesting to see two different (though similar takes on it.
I plan on delving more into curation soon. Your list of links will be very helpful. Thanks!!
Rachel Poling recently posted..Pinterest: Can I Use It With My Social Media Strategy?
Twitter: rachelannpoling
Thanks Rachel, my pleasure:) Looking forward to hearing how you get on with them:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
I’m probably biased in my assessment but content creation would be best as you said but also extremely time consuming! We often use other content creation tools to inspire us to create original pieces.
And of course if you don’t have time to write them on your own our company can help you with that
Kyle recently posted..Why Content Marketing is the Key to Success
Twitter: kfugere
lol nothing wrong with being biased:) Thanks for your comment:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
I attended a webinar in which they outlined this as a technique. You are right though it is an art and science and shouldn’t replace quality content. You did a great job of outlining how it works!
Twitter: lyndacromar
Thanks Lynda, much appreciated. Now there’s a good idea for a webinar:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
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Lilach,
I must admit I have never hear of content curation. So I haven’t used anyy plug-ins, but I am curious other than providing great condensed info atone source. Why will content curation help increase traffic to your blog/website?
~Becca
Twitter: srinivasyreddy
Thanks Rebecca. Sites like paper.li and scoop.it are really good for generating more traffic. The trick also is to get your blog articles on other people’s paper.li for example – that’s where the additional traffic can come from too.
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
I first heard about content curation at iblogzone.com from Ditesco and it’s certainly a very interesting topic. It’s in my to do list to include a round up post each month with the best articles of other blogs in my niche, and your post was just in time, thanks for sharing all these tools…
Kostas recently posted..10 Tips for Small Business SEO
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Thanks Kostas, my pleasure – pleased it was timely for you:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
I haven’t used it myself (though I do have some account on some of the sites that you mentioned). It might be interesting for the reader when you bundle some great posts or posts from a the same niche. I am still not sure whether or not it worth all the hassle
Hezi recently posted..Internet Marketing Product Buying Tips
Thanks Hezi. I have a Paper.li account which is so simple and quick to set up and you can literally (if you wanted to) leave on auto pilot and it posts every day automatically to my Twitter account – it also includes the Twitter usernames of those included – which then means that they thank me and share it – which means more traffic and building more relationships with Twitter peeps. This is of course one way of using it and is really effective.
Twitter: lilachbullock
Dear Lilach,
I have a technical blog but never heard about of Content curation and other blogging techniques. I am planning for three other niche blogs.. Your articles are excellent for bloggers.
Thank you
Hi Lilach,
I’ve used Paper.li and it’s an interesting way to see what others are posting about. I downloaded curation soft after watching a video on how to use it create a list post but I haven’t actually used it yet.
Stacy
Twitter: growwithstacy
Thanks Stacy – yes Paper.li is a very popular and easy to use one. Let me know how you get on with curation.soft:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach! I think content curation is a great idea for the simple reason that everyone benefits (hopefully). Your readers, you the blogger, and the original content creator. I like the idea of being the source for great content on the web. Who says you have to do everything yourself?! So I think it’s certainly worth the trouble.
I first learned about it a few months ago and it got my attention. I have used Zemanta (or at least, tried to use it), but have yet to seriously delve into content curation. Your article may be just the inspiration I need.
Thanks for another very useful and thought-provoking post, Lilach.
Twitter: SrinivasYReddy
Thanks Sri – I agree, content curation (used effectively) is a real win win for both the blogger, reader and original creator. I think it’s good to take advantage of the tools available – there is so much to do online and if we can save time and provide value then that’s great:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
What a great post and love that yoru sharing the tools to help us with out business, will be checking out a lot of these
lewys
Twitter: lewys_sfm
Thanks Lewys, my pleasure:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
I don’t do any content curation as you describe it. Everything I do is original stuff, but if I were writing a report on a certain topic, that would be a good way to go. I’ve bookmarked this page, in case I ever do. For certain blogs, this process must be invaluable.
Lou
Twitter: planlablprecher
Thanks Lou – you are a beautiful writer and that’s what you do for a living so I think I’ll let you off on this one:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Lilacs, very interesting, looks to be a very helpful tool in moderation. It can be very helpful with gathering good content and sharing your opinion on it. Thanks for all the added sites and features.
Thanks Ryan – absolutely, in moderation:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
I can definitely see the benefit of using curation as a way to offer versatile and helpful quality content. I also agree that it’s important to not only do that but to mix it up. Like anything else, it’s important to have variation in what we blog about.
Twitter: reachnathalie
Thanks Nathalie – I think you’ve hit the key point here – it’s good to have a variety of things when blogging although I can be guilty of that and don’t create enough videos:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Well Lilach, I started thinking why would we want to make use of content curation and then I realised that it would be very useful in order to give our visitors all the information they are searching for. Then they are more likely to come back because they will see our site as an authority site. So will Google, hopefully.
David
Twitter: davidgsharp
Thanks David – yes your’e right there are many benefits to using content curation tools. Google loves them as well which is great:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
I used paper.li before as well. It creates an interesting way to gather and view info from other sources. I liked it from the newspaper aspect of it. Using tools like this in a creative way can certainly make a person stand out. Great list. I have not used the content curation method in a long time. It does have some great pros like you said and can give you a break on just writing your own stuff, if you use it wisely.
thanks
Joe
Twitter: josephjyoung72
Thanks Joe, yes I’m a huge fan of paper.li as well – works great with Twitter and I get a lot of traffic from it too.
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach, great discussion about content curation. I see more benefits than disadvantages and can help researching for certain topics to write. You’re so generous sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Viviana, really appreciate your kind comment:) I think there are benefits to content curation tools, like anything, everything in moderation:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
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Great collection of curation materials.
I linked them all and put them in a folder.
Now!
How to have the time to use them, and which ones suit me.
I really want to get a handle on what I want to use.
currently Twylah for tweeting, but not much after that.
Maybe you could tell us what system you use to curate.
Oh! I also use Buffer somewhat.
thanks Billy
Twitter: billy_delaney
Thanks Billy:) I currently use Buffer as well and love it:) As for the others I mainly use Paper.li and Scoop.it. I have and do use the other ones but I find these two the most effective in terms of traffic:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Curation is Social Media King
Twitter: LucianeCurator
Thanks Lucian – that’s one way of putting it:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
This was an interesting topic as I had never heard of the term content curation before. I’ll look into some of those websites you listed to see which ones I like the best. Thanks Lilach.
Duke Romkey recently posted..5 Foundational Steps To Running An Online Home Business
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Thanks Duke, my pleasure:) I hope you find one or two that you find useful:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
Great info on Content curation!
If you had to pick one, which would it be and why?
Terry Petrovick recently posted..My Lead System Pro Overview. Does MLSP really help build your MLM Business online?
Twitter: terrypetrovick
Thanks Terry:) hmm can I only pick one? Paper.li and Scoop.it generate the most traffic for me (in that order:))
Twitter: lilachbullock
Another great post Lilach. As many who have read this before me, I too am not aware of content curation. But, I do see there are some good reasons to use it. I will be looking at is more closely and give it a try in the near future. Thanks!
Twitter: valheisey
Thanks Val:) I hope you find them useful, I’ a huge fan of them, particularly as they integrate well for Twitter:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
I guess most curators are doing illegal staff according to copytight rules in developed countries:
Hyperlink: allowed
copy/paste to your own blog/website: forbidden
imbed to your own blog/website: usually forbidden
Any insight information how to do LEGAL curation?
Twitter: juergwyss
One suggestion Juerg might be to only curate information from people who are NOT foolish enough to put so much restriction….
I am not violating most content if the Curation is directed TO the original site as the “scraper” Scoop.it works. A synopsis and link to the original dominates and YOU can add your flavor to the information below.
Most of the professional writers I know LOVE people to share their work, unless, of course, it is from a PURCHASED product.Most of the information on the Internet falls under Creative commons, I believe.
Our counsel has not felt any pressure from the way our Curation is handled.
Anyone else with thoughts
Chuck Bartok recently posted..Are You Scooping the News? Content Curation, the easy way
Twitter: ChuckBartok
Chuck thanks for your great advice:) I’m a great believer in asking people too. I often receive emails asking me if I’m happy for them to use my content (with a link back to me and confirming I’m the author) and I pretty much always oblige.
Twitter: lilachbullock
Juerg I think as long as you follow the rules of the content curation site then you’re be fine. Sadly there are many people who abuse things like this and steal content and don’t abide by the rules…
Twitter: lilachbullock
Good post Lilach. Keep them coming.
)
Twitter: Guru30
Thanks Rajesh – I’ll do my best:) Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you again soon:))
Twitter: lilachbullock
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Content Curation is an important part of blogging as you say Lilach and finding reliable information to disseminate to your readers can be a challenge and it is very generous to share your rolodex. There is also a balance between free (takes more time) and a paid for service which is pretty much automated. Just testing out a service at the moment so will let you know how that goes. C&S
Susan recently posted..Find Your Success Code
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Thanks Susan:) Yes you’re quite right. There is no such thing as free as time is money after all:)
I’d love to hear about the service you’re testing so do keep us posted and perhaps a guest blog review would be useful too:))
Twitter: lilachbullock
Another nice post – I quite like http://idioplatform.com/platform/ (not currently using) it takes curation a step further with marketing automation and combines curation, personalization and analytics.
Agree paper.li and scoop.it are both great
Twitter: mikeeng1and
Thanks Mike:) I’ll check out idiotplatform, haven’t heard of it before so appreciate the share:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
This is a great overview. I have one more suggestion: Trapit (disclosure: I work there). Trapit (http://trap.it) is a discovery engine, most similar to CurationSoft, except it is completely free and does not require a download. Trapit does an excellent job of continually finding relevant, non-spammy content on the topics of your choice. Tell me what you think.
Coleman Foley recently posted..Pinevio: A New Look On Content Discovery
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Thanks Coleman, appreciate the suggestion. I hadn’t heard of trap.it before (sorry!) so will be checking it out – will let you know what I think:)
Twitter: lilachbullock
hey Lilach!
great post, appreciate the info. I have never really thought about content curation…until now! think i will go check out some of those plugins now
Carl.
Carl Ashton recently posted..How To Get Things Done – Outsourcing With Odesk
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Thanks ever so much Carl for your kind words and apologies in the delayed response. Glad my tips could be of some use
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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Good post Lilach. Content curation is an especially interesting area for me and my startup. At userladder.com, we are trying to create a network where content can be filtered by author reputation. I believe that this type of system would help reduce the time and effort of finding the sources of the best content, especially user generated content, for various topics.
Mike Piccolo recently posted..Beta Testing UserLadder.com
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Thanks ever so much for you comment Mike and apologies in the delayed response. I think any shortcuts which make gathering content an easier task are always beneficial, especially in relation to whether the author has a history of writing good/bad quality content
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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Have you checked out Surfmark? It’s an awesome content curation tool because it allows you to add your own thoughts and ideas directly to the webpages you’re browsing. And you can save all of your web pages all in one place! This is one that I did for work…not such exciting content – but such a cool platform: http://mark.ly/1uU
Thanks ever so much for the comment Ariana and apologies for the delayed response. Although I’ve never heard of it, I’ve checked it out and I’ll definitely be using it in the future. Thanks for the heads up
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
Twitter: lilachbullock
Content curation is an important part of blogging, and very good post, keep the good work, i really appreciate your hard-work, one thing i have observed in your blog, whatever article you write its unique. Hope you carry on the good work.
Thank you so much for your kind words, they are much and always appreciated Balu. Apologies for the delayed response, I do try my best and keep each articles unique each time I post, thanks again for your kind words
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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hi lilach ,
thank you a lot , now i have a good idea about content curation
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Hello again
loving your loyalty at posting comments on here! Thanks ever so much for your kind words, I really do appreciate it.
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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Hi Lilach,
Thanks for another great article. Do you actually produce a paper.li yourself( or similar production) and , if so, how do I get on the distribution list?
Regards
John
John Cosstick recently posted..Top Apps For Freelancers
Twitter: frelanceWkGuide
Thanks for the comment John, and apologies for the delay. Yes, i do use paper li. My paper li is paper.li/lilachbullock
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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Hi Lilach,
Thank you for this article. I wonder if you know MediaHeroes.com ?
It’s a content curation tool for brands, MediaHeroes allows a fair use of content curation to help companies post more posts quickly, easily and search engine friendly. The added value of MediaHeroes is that it posts articles directly to the current blog of the user. Also the generated article could be shared on social medias.
[Disclosure: I'm the founder of MediaHeroes.com]
Thanks,
Salah
Twitter: SalahBenzakour
Thanks for the comment Salah and apologies for the delayed response. I can’t say I have heard of it, but thank you for sharing, and I’ll most certainly take a look at it. We do offer a product review service if you would be interested?
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
Twitter: lilachbullock
This is an excellent piece. You make several good points.
All of these tools you mention can definitely assist folks with their content curation interests. One of the excellent points you make is that curation is not simply collecting, but requires one to make decisions about what to include and exclude. That way, it’s not the engine making decisions: which means that anyone could come up with the same criteria–and come up with the same results.
An additional way of thinking about content, although perhaps not for the casual curator, is to go beyond search and discovery to “awareness.” As search engines used by the discovery sites become more algorithmic because of the millions of choices available, the curator is faced with choices that have already been “curated,” albeit mechanistically. An awareness engine such as the one we are developing at Darwin Ecosystem allows the user to go beyond search and find Internet events that are unmediated by SEO and other automated search algorithms. An expert can use it to find relevant stuff, that a search engine won’t get.
Twitter: NicholasHerold
Thanks ever so much for the comment Nicholas and apologies for the delayed response. Absolutely, content curation isn’t just about collecting information, it is so much more. You have to take this information and come to a solid conclusion about it. You also need to evaluate which pieces are relevant and which are not so relevant. I think your right, an awareness engine is a good way in gathering knowledge, particularly because it allows you to broaden your knowledge of a particular field
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
Twitter: lilachbullock
Hi Lilach,
This is an interesting list of tools for improving curation of content. I wonder whether you use any news aggregation service separate from the curation tools and whether you would be willing to tell us which one/s? Do you think that google’s liking of the curation approach post Panda and Penguin is more related to the comments rather than the content which presumably would have to be non original except for the comment. Lilach, this is a very important and interesting topic thanks for the post.
Regards
John Cosstick
Twitter: SocialMedContrc
Thanks ever so much for your kind words John. I have used PR web in the past, and would definitely use it again in the future. To be honest there are now so many google panda/penguin and god knows what else, that I think content which is of a high quality will also be the most important thing
Lilach recently posted..The missing ingredients for success
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Great post, I use most of the tools mentioned however I have to say my favorite has to be paper.li it is just so slick.
Den Nicholson recently posted..How I Use Curation Traffic Theme To Increase Traffic
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Thanks ever so much for your kind words Den and apologies for this delayed response
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Great article – there are certainly some ethical issues to the reposting of articles, but I think over time people will get used to the new definition of “fair use” and act accordingly. One tool I find very handy for staying on top of the current news in my niche is Spike – https://spike.newswhip.com. It ranks articles by the amount of shares they’re currently getting per hour, across a number of locations and verticals. Well worth checking out – it has a free trial.
Twitter: tomlowe
Hi Lilach,
Lurving your new site, very bright and catchy. Really enjoyed your post on content curation. You picked out some of the difficulties and also confusions that I think some people have about content curation, in that you should curate content in addition to adding your own spin and summarizing other people’s content.
I think it is a great way to find new people in your niche and build some really good relationships. We have to remember that by recommending and endorsing others content we need to be sure that it is congruent to our own brand.
Thanks for sharing,
Beth
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Great article Lilach, thank you. One frustration I ahve when curating is storing stuff to read later, in such a way that I can find it when I want it. A tool I’ve recently started using is brilliant at that and has a sharing/ social angle too. Have you tried Pearltrees?
Twitter: divingjon
Wow, this post of your seems so very timely. I’m looking for some content curation sites where I can put our contents and of course some contents that I found very useful to my target audience. Thanks Lilach! You are such a BLESSING.
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Hey Lilach,
Some great services listed there. Love Paper.li thanks for that.
I worry about shameless plugs on forums for businesses I’m involved in but can’t help but want to mention DemocraSay. I hope you don’t mind and I appreciate it’s not necessarily in the same arena as the top 10 curation tools mentioned.
We’ve just launched the early version of the tool which is about bringing groups of people together to create and curate their own social content. Allowing anyone within an organisation (or whatever kind of group) to suggest content ideas. Everyone then votes for the content they like best.
We’re finding it’s changing the culture and buy-in from all sides of the organisations using it by involving everyone in the conversation. The open and forward thinking brands out there can even invite customers to take part, which we think is really cool.
As with any new service we’ve got a journey ahead of us and any feedback if you or your visitors get a moment to check us out would be super!
Cheers, Paul
PS. The coffee is always hot if you’re up in the North East on your travels
Twitter: paul_g6
Hello
loving you sharing your posts on here! Thanks ever so much for your kind words, I really do appreciate it.
Sanjay