I recently published a post in my Vistage Leadership Community Blog and LinkedIn Group, where I take some of the best material on leadership, sales management, leveraging social media, hiring, retention, and culture and share it with my network of Vistage Chairs, Members, Speakers, and Trusted Advisers. I've spent years combing the internet for the very best bloggers and content publishers in these areas - many times featuring members of our own Vistage Community.
I re-published something Mark Taylor published about something someone else published on Delayed Gratification and Emotional Intelligence. This is the basic premise to one of my recent blog postings on Ripples in Marketing. Extending yourself through other network connections through content and thought leadership. I put my own particular spin on the article, didn't republish the entire thing - just gave a little taste, gave Mark full credit, and provided a link to his original article in case someone was interested in reading the entire thing. The whole process took me approximately 15 minutes from start to finish. I'll admit I use a fair number of "automation tools" to leverage my time efficiently in finding, grabbing, writing, and publishing this content. Anyone can do it.
Here's the little PS at the bottom of my blog posting about Mark's Blog Posting:
PS: Mark did a great job of illustrating how you can manage content for your target audience and use it as a tool to engage, promote discussion, brand yourself, and establish your thought leadership. If you're a speaker, consultant, or sales professional, do you do this with your network on a frequent basis by leveraging social media, such as LinkedIn and Blogging? The additional lesson is that I find this interesting article that Mark wrote, quoted him, linked to his material, gave him full credit, and put my own thoughts around his blog post. This technique of sharing information with your network is called content curation - are you doing this with your most important connections?
What is Content Curation:
At the most simple level, Content Curation is the sorting of an overwhelming amount of digital information that you're network might be most interested in seeing - such as leadership topics. You then take that information, add your comments and thoughts, and then re-publish to your network. Since you're network views you as a trusted source, they'll appreciate that you're "filtering" important information that you think they should be viewing. This is really no different than you providing a handout every month to your members at their physical with information you believe is important for them to see. Leveraging blogging and social media is a way to take that messaging to your entire network of potential members and referral sources. There are lots of tools to automate these activities of content curation. Perhaps, one of our Chair e-courses will tackle content curation as a key subject.
There are three key steps in content curation. First, you must have a tool that allows you to easily digest the wealth of content in your chosen niche - such as leadership, or culture, or hiring. I use Feedly which is an add-on to Firefox and Chrome. Not sure if there is a version for Safari. Secondly, you must have a tool to publish the content so that your network can see it and engage with you on it. My chosen tool is a WordPress Blog. Finally, you've got to be able to distribute it to your network, connections, friends, and followers. Connecting your blog to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook provides the primary distribution vehicle for your content.
It takes approximately 15-20 minutes to bang out a blog post based on curated content. It takes about 45-60 minutes to write an original blog post of your own content. I try and mix the two of these together to balance my blogging.
Why Do Content Curation As a Vistage Chair?
You have a goldmine of outstanding content that you've collected from members, chairs, speakers, and TAs over the years. The Village Library is bursting at the seams with extraordinary content. Why not share some of this outstanding content with your expanding network? You can take an article, white paper, blog posting that someone in your network has published and share it with other members of your network - like the example of Mark Taylor above. The only way your network is going to trust you enough to refer their best CEO contacts is by communicating and engaging. Unfortunately, it's not possible to do this at a deep personal level with everyone. The next best thing is blogging and content curation to brand and differentiate yourself, to seek engagement among members of your network, to show off your expertise and thought leadership, and finally so that they "see you out there".
Remember the old adage "out of sight - out of mind". This works in networking. I've discovered that most members of my network prefer to see my content on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, or in Vistage Village as opposed to receiving emails from me. Most individuals seem to like the non-intrusive approach of having messages flash by in their "stream" on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Most of the individuals I know get frustrated by lots of messages appearing in their inbox. The best part of social media is that you can target what groups you wish to see your content.
If you're not blogging and starting to curate content that is useful to your network, you're missing a huge opportunity for pr, branding, differentiation, lead generation, referrals, building trust, and communication. Not to mention just plain old leverage. You only have a small amount of time to actually physically touch certain members of your network.
When does your plan call for launching a blog and starting to filter content through curation for your specific network?
Are you leveraging the goldmine of content you're sitting on? Are you encouraging your members to do this for marketing, sales, and lead generation? Are your Trusted Advisers doing it to establish their credibility and thought-leadership?
Barry Deutsch
