El rincón del Social Media

Robin Good: Everytime I see a new post or article claiming to list the best content curation tools I know I am in for some disappointment.

 

Most of these lists just pick up names from other lists without even bothering to check, test or verify what these tools actually do, whether they are still available. Unfortunately the rush to put out "curated" list of tools and services has created more misinformation than useful lists. 

 

But if you, like me, are on the lookout for new and effective tools to curate your own content or the one of your customers, I have created a comprehensive map of all the curation tools available online and I keep it fresh and updated almost on a daily basis.

 

The map presently lists over 250 content curation tools which you can navigate much more easily than it was possible on my earlier versions of this map.

 

On the right side of the map you will find all of the news and content curation tools available online today. On the left side, you can find bookmarking, link lists builders, clippers and lots of tools to operate with RSS feeds (which are still at the heart of a curator's job).

Full map: http://bit.ly/ContentCurationUniverse  

Share it. 

Via Robin Good, RPattinson-Daily

Robin Good: If you are looking for a content curation, mindmapping and presentation tool rolled into one, I strongly suggest you give a good road test to Mindomo.

I have been a passionate fan of mindmaps since 2007, and have created tons of them to curate my many collection of "best tools" in specific niches or learning maps on dedicated topics. You can see some of them here: http://www.mindmeister.com/users/channel/RobinGood

 

But with time, and the increased size of my collections, I have been searching for valid alternatives which provided greater speed, better ways to display and view the mapped info and more options to extract value from my collections.

 

Mindomo, which I have been heavy-testing for the last six-months, is my new reference tool not just for mindmapping but for a) curating large collections of information into a navigable cohesive whole, b) creating prezi-like presentations without needing to become an engineer.

 

Specifically, Mindomo integrates lots of unique and very valuable features to the basic mindmapping toolset, including:

 

- Capture content via browser bookmarklet

- Navigate and zoom in-out easily

- Search and embed video clips
- Search and embed images

- Search and embed audio clips

- Automatically credit all media sources utilized

- Customize look of maps in many ways

- Create presentations from your mindmaps

- Import and export to different formats + embed

- Works and syncs on iPad and Android

- Collaborative editing

- Cross-platform offline desktop app

- Custom URLs for your mindmaps

- just to name a few.

 

Here's a good example of what I have been able to "curate" with Mindomo:

 

1) http://bit.ly/ContentCurationUniverse

a very large collection of content curation tools

 

2) www.mindomo.com/mindmap/content-curation-for-education-98ccaad217074a07b9bff8b76effab8e ;

a navigable "presentation-map"

 

MindMeister and other mindmapping tools still provide good value, but in my humble opinion Mindomo, with its own limits and idiosyncracies, has earned my trust as being the most effective, powerful and feature-rich visual curation tool.

 

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

 

 

Pricing plans: http://www.mindomo.com/pricing.htm

 

Find out more: http://www.mindomo.com/

 

 

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: If you would like to create visual collections of web services and tools belonging to a special category, application or industry, Only2clicks, provides a very effective, simple and straightforward free tool to do so.

 

With Only2clicks you can create multiple pages containing the screenshots of as many web pages you decide, organized and sorted as you prefer and accompanied to your own descriptions.

 

Only2clicks provides also a standard bookmarklet which can be used to grab any web page or service as you navigate the web and to add it instantly to one of your Only2clicks pages tabs.

 

Last but not least, you can publish your curated visual collections on your own customized URL.

 

Among all of the visual bookmarkers available online (there are over 15 of these - see my tools map here: http://bit.ly/ContentCurationUniverse) this is the one that I prefer.

 

iPhone interface: http://www.only2clicks.com/iphone

 

Tour: http://www.only2clicks.com/tour.php

 

Features: http://www.only2clicks.com/features.php

 

Try it out now: http://www.only2clicks.com/

 

 

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: Since I get asked over and over to define "content curation" in a few words, I have invested some time in gathering and culling what I deem to be the most appropriate and useful definitions of "content curation" available online.

Here is a pretty comprehensive picture of what "content curation" is from my personal viewpoint.

 

Grid view: http://bundlr.com/b/content-curation-definition

 

List view: http://bundlr.com/b/content-curation-definition?order=normal&view=timeline

 

 

P.S.: If you are aware of good ones that should fit this collection, please let me know in the comments.

 

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: I have just received an invitation to test the new content curation platform Zeen, and here I am with some early impressions on what I have seen.

 

Zeen is a content curation tool designed to create good-looking magazines on a specific topic or theme. Setup and configuration is very easy and straightforward and it allows you to connect your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

 

Once you are in, you can immediately set up a Zeen magazine, by selecting a title, a description and a cover image. From there on you are free to use the integrated search feature to find web articles, news, images, video clips or tweets relevant to your magazine. You just start a search after having selected what kind of content you are looking for and Zeen presents you with a set of relevant results. One-click on any of them and they are inserted instantly in your magazine.

 

You can also create as many "tags" (Zeen calls them "labels") as you like and assign each content item to a specific label.

 

The final magazine issue offers an automatic visual table of contents, in which you can organize by dragging and dropping the order of your selected contents.

 

A Zeen magazine can be made of multiple issues, instead of being like Scoop.it, a continuously growing content holder. You select the content items and you produce an issue (which can be still edited after publication).

 

N.B.: There is no way to edit or modify the content picked and added to your magazine, including the use of images.

 

You can't create new content but only pick and organize existing resources.

 

Here is an example of a Zeen magazine: http://zeen.com/read/ODgO94/toc

and here is another one on barbeques: http://zeen.com/read/KuJoAW

 

 

More info: http://zeen.com/

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: NewzSocial is a free iPad curation app which allows you to instantly create topic-specific channels and to easily curate the content stories that you deem appropriate for each.

 

Curators can work in teams and collaboratively organize one or more news channels.

 

From the App Store download page: "NewzSocial is a free social news reader app that allows you to follow, create and share broad and niche news streams on your topics of interest.

The app has unique social curation features using which you can tap into your network of ‘topic expert’ friends and get the news you want selected by the experts you know."

 

A reviewer on the App Store left this comment: "What blew me away is the number of great articles the app has. I just searched for latest fashion trends & got really great articles. With flipboard, after reading 5-7 articles, it's the same stories from yesterday. "

 

Free to use.

 

Find out more: http://www.newzsocial.com/

 

Introduction: http://www.newzsocial.com/quick-tour/

 

Other info: http://www.newzsocial.com/support/

 

Video intro: http://youtu.be/sD0pzSthVrA

 

Download NewzSocial in the App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id546527255

 

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: StoryCrawler is an upcoming news and content curation platform which allows you to easily track an unlimited number of topics / keywords and to curate selected ones for publication, both on the web, via RSS feed or email.

 

Selected news stories can be, tagged, categorized and fully edited in each and every aspect before being published.

 

Inside the Storycrawler backend, a curator can configure and save an unlimited number of persistent searches monitoring online mentions of events, people, brands inside specific types of content sources (e.g.: social media, news, blogs, etc.).

 

Storycrawler makes your curated news stream available as a RSS feed, as an embeddable javaScript or iFrame code snippet, besides publishing your content directly on your account pages and providing direct sharing options for Facebook and Twitter.

 

From my own limited experience in testing an "unofficial" early Beta version of Storycrawler, it looks like the basics features are all in place while the UI, usability and final output formatting options still having some work to do.

 

P.S.: The platform seems to be targeted at medium to large size, enterprise companies and does not provide for now indications of its pricing plans. You can contact a StoryCrawler representative here: http://www.storycrawler.com/contact/

 

Promising.

 

Find out more: http://www.storycrawler.com/ ;

 

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: If you are interested in understanding how "content curation" differentiates itself from simple re-sharing and re-blogging here is a great article by Chris DeLine.

 

Great advice for anyone wanting to become an effective content curator: “Whether in tweets, in blog posts, in podcasts, or in newsletters, be ruthless with your attention.

...

 

Some adopt a strategy of blanket-curation, throwing everything new or fresh or remotely interesting online and letting other consumers make their own value distinctions.

 

Others assume the role of tastemaker, selectively making the decisions themselves.

 

Both have their place, but the former contributes to what Jonathan Haidt calls “the paradox of abundance,” which he says “undermines the quality of our engagement.”

How many content-overload websites can you monitor before you become overwhelmed by volume? How many share-explosions does it take before you remove a friend from your Facebook feed? How many Tumblr pages can you pay attention to before the reblogs become a blur?

 

...

Thoughtful, honest, and caring curation isn’t entirely different than creation.

 

After all, the topics you choose to research, to blog about, and to discuss with friends all begin with the process of sifting through the media abyss yourself and singling out worthwhile information."

 

What really counts is to create content that is useful, meaningful and helpful for others, whether from direct hand authorship, or by curating the best existing resources.

 

Insightful. 8/10

 

http://chrisdeline.com/curation

 

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

 

Via Robin Good

Robin Good: Chronological and time-bound sequences have been the overwhelming approach to organize content on the web, just like newspapers had been doing for a long time. Look at blogs, Facebook and Twitter to see how pervasive this type of chronological organization has become.

 

But as more content becomes available more rapidly, chronological organization doesn't work anymore.

 

What we need is the option to navigate, quality content, through topic-based structures, maps and collections, where time is only one among other factors helping me slice and dice what I want to see.

 

"There's simply too much content to consume nowadays, so the great challenge of online publishing is to organize it better. Topic pages are the solution."

 

From the original article: "The time for topic pages has come.

 

Chronological and real-time consumption of content just doesn't work anymore.

It's time for topic pages to add a layer of organization on top."

 

 

Right on track. 8/10

 

Full article: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why-topic-pages-are-the-next-big-thing.php

 

 

 

Via Tom George, Robin Good

Robin Good: Here is a good guide providing the basic principles that should be followed when using, reposting, citing or quoting other people's content (both text and images).

 

The article outlines "proper methods of source attribution on the internet to guarantee the right people get credit for their hard work and ideas."

 

Specific sections of the article cover:

How To Cite Content in Blog Posts How To Cite Content in Social Media How to Give Credit to Guest Bloggers and Ghost Writers How to Cite Images and Visual Content

 

 

Well done. 8/10

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33098/How-Not-to-Steal-People-s-Content-on-the-Web.aspx

 

 

 

Via Robin Good, janlgordon

Robin Good: Vidinterest is video curation platform allowing you to pick, organize and collect into dedicated playlist, video clips of your selection.

 

Video collections play their contents back-to-back providing a highly-focused and uninterrupted user experience.

 

"Videos can be shared from various video sharing communities either via "Video Bookmarklet" installed in the browser or via "URL input Box" in User Menu. "

 

Free to use.

 

Try it out now: http://vidinterest.com/

 

 

*Added to the Content Curation Tools Universe Map

 

(Thanks to Brian Yanish - MarketingHits for uncovering this one)

 

 

Via Robin Good

I curated and posted this a few months ago but feel it's relevant and timely today. (What brought this to mind was another important article written by Axel Schultze, which I have commented on below.

 

Here's what I said about Gideon Rosenblatt's post.

 

This is one of those gems that I love to share. It was written by Gideon Rosenblatt in response to an earlier article written by Eli Pariser, "The Filter Bubble", which is about the way algorithms (based on our personal searches) affect the results that are returned to us, as a result, we're not seeing the whole picture.

 

"Computer algorithms aren't the only thing contributing to the 'Internet Filter Bubble."

 

**In the world of the information networker, curating content is only half the game. The other half is curating the curators.

 

**In that power to choose our connections, rests our ultimate power to reshape our information filter bubbles and radically improve our perception of reality.

 

**Who we choose to connect with in our social networks deeply affects our ability to see a diversity of information.  

 

My takeaway from this is that whereas technology may restrict the results returned to us by search engines, the other, and perhaps more important half of the equation is controlled by us!  It is well documented that we are more likely to influenced by our circle of friends and associates than by anything else that we may find (or that may find us!). 

 

By effectively curating our circles of influence, we increase the value of this ever important means of discovery and therefore of our entire online experience. 

 

**This in turn can make us far more effective and informative consumers as well as curators, when we widen our own circles.

 

Great article by Axel Schultze CEO of xee.me

 

"Why SEO will Be Gone in 5 to 10 Years" as he talks about "Relationships and Recommendations Soon More Valuable Than SEO" (Robin Good)

 

Jan Gordon: "Here's what caught my attention:

 

Axel: As long as people search for a product not knowing their name or a technology, not knowing its source or a solution not knowing who is a potential supplier SEO is an important part of the marketing mix...

 

However, this is slowly and steadily changing.

 

**Today 60 – 80% of the so called educated purchase decision is based on recommendations by trusted individuals or groups that have no or no significant interest in the sale but helpful and experienced people using or knowing the product or service in need.

 

And the number of recommendation based purchases is steadily growing. I'm sure it will hit the 80 – 90% range in the next 5 to 10 years.

 

Now – what does that mean to SEO?

 

Why should a business invest in search engine optimization if most of the purchase decisions are based on recommendations?

 

Wouldn't it be smarter to invest into the "recommendation chain" instead in SEO?

 

Wouldn't it be more effective and successful to make sure people recommend a product than hoping to come up higher in the list of search results?"

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

 

Read the full article: http://bit.ly/AxRrEr

 

Via janlgordon

 

Curated by Jan Gordon covering "Content Curation, Social Business and Beyond"

 

Image by Istockphoto  from an article by Social Media Examiner

 

Read the full article: [http://bit.ly/AxRrEr]

Via janlgordon, k3hamilton, juandoming