Using Content Curation Tools for B2B Thought Leadership

Years ago, I ran marketing for a professional services firm.   As with most consulting firms, our demand generation efforts were based on thought leadership.  Getting the content for those programs was a long and painful process, worse than pulling teeth because, most of the time we had to fabricate the teeth and then pull them out. 

One would think that with the rise of social media and the focus at the corporate level on blogging, that content creation would not be a problem. However, according to a recent HiveFire research poll, the challenges I encountered ten years ago still exist today; finding, developing and producing high quality content.  Could the latest content curation tools be the answer?  

Content Curation tools like Scoop.it, and Storify, are the next generation digital content tools having evolved from content aggregation (gathering links, like Google News) and social bookmarketing tools (like Delicious and Digg). The key difference in this evolution being the human “curator.”  To this point, those tools have been aimed at consumers to help them manage and sort through the vast spaces of web content.  

The latest version of these tools, Curata (a HiveFire company, the sponsor of the research) and Curation Station are aimed at B2B.  With a value proposition focused on their ability to drive awareness by improving organic search, and providing organizations with an opportunity to build thought leadership.  

The curator is an editor who sorts through the content to find the information relevant to them and/or their audience.   They are not content creators.  And this is where I think the challenge lies in using the tools for thought leadership.

First, creating a content farm on a “hot” topic will not improve a company’s organic search results (Google has already figured this out).  It also will not establish an organization “thought leadership” in a area on its own.  

As the survey referenced, Marketers stated that “Creating Original Content” was the number one challenge; companies must establish a point of view, not just aggregated content on a particular subject.  So what value do these new tools offer?

To understand that it's helpful to first understand how thought leadership content is developed.  For example, the process I used in the past involved five steps:

1. Deciding on a issues set
2. Developing a point of view
3. Conducting research to validate the POV
4. Summarizing the research and drawing out insights
5. Writing and publishing a content piece  

Challenges related to this process involved:

• Limited time and/or resources…often both
• Limited view on the issue – often our only perspective was through our existing clients lenses
• Drawing out insights – sometimes the research didn’t reveal anything new and/or enlightening
• Distributing content – after all the effort the distribution of the content often fell short of expectations
• Maintaining the program – continuing to create content beyond the initial launch

By taking these opportunities and challenges into light, we can begin to see where the tools provide value.  Using this as a framework, the tools can add value by:

• Reducing the time required to collect research for developing the issue set
• Providing a real-time, broad view into top issues and/or hotpoints on a subject area
• Integrating multiple content formats (tweets, video, etc.)
• Creating leverage for staff on content creation and management
• Being a ready made vehicle for distributing and measuring content

Content curation tools are enablers, not end solutions. To fully realize their potential, they will need the human elements of curation and creation.   It will require staff (#4 on the challenge list), and time (#2 on the list).  The good news is with these tools it will require less of it to be successful.

Keep in mind, thought leadership must be established.  It’s not a campaign...it is a program.  It’s also not something you say you have, but rather something others recognize that you provide.  

For more information on the subject, Susan McKittrick has written an excellent white paper on the subject.