How to Find Your Way in a Sea of Information
Every hour thousands of new videos are uploaded online. Blog posts are written and published. Millions of tweets and other short messages are shared. To say there is a flood of content being created online now seems like a serious understatement.
With scarce time resources, users must find a way to find the most pertinent, useful, and perhaps even the most hilarious information they are seeking.
Rohit Barhgava seems to believe a “content curator” is a solution.
A Content Curator is someone who continually finds, groups, organizes and shares the best and most relevant content on a specific issue online.”
Google may have another idea.
h/t Steven Moore
Look Back to the Future to Build Your Roadmap
LOOK BACK TO THE FUTURE!
Life has been described as a path, a direction in which we travel over time – rather than a single event. Each of us gets to choose the direction our path will take us. By making those choices, we also clear the way to achieving the objectives we’ve set for ourselves.
When we fail to choose the path we will travel, that is also a choice. In that case, the path we travel becomes less distinct with more twists and turns than we would have liked. Each side path we encounter tempts us to change direction. Lacking any roadmap of objectives we might have chosen, we often end up somewhere – else.
Regardless of the quality of our choices, we can get a clear understanding of where we are likely to end up – just by turning around. By simply looking back at the path we have been following, much can be learned. For example, is the path behind us straight, or filled with curves and detours taken? Is it paved with solid, masterfully laid stepping-stones, or filled with muddy ruts that zig-zag around every obstacle?
Chances are that, as teenagers, most of our paths seemed to have had many twists and turns. As we matured and learned from our mistakes, however, it is also likely that we began improving the direction and quality of the path we traveled. The more attention we paid to the path, the more enjoyable the journey became.
Want life to be a most pleasant journey? Build your own roadmap – then start paving!
Make this a great week!
What about Pscyho Socialgraphics?
Beth Kanter’s posts are well researched and always point me to new writers and interesting points of view. The following excerpt is only a short section of an in-depth post on audience analysis frameworks.
In designing for social participation, Adrian Chan urges us to consider user goals and needs — even interests, features, functionality, and adoption. Best practices and popular ways of using social media guide us in our decisions. What is also important to consider users psychological motivations and build that into your strategy. Here’s his suggestions:
Goals and rewards – Consider the kinds of goals you might set and the rewards that may be earned by users who reach them. These might be personal goals and rewards levels, tasks, challenges, or points. Or social goals and rewards, resulting in status, ranking, visibility, lists, features and spotlighting members.
Moods and feelings – Give expressive users ways in which to communicate their moods and feelings. For example, emoticons and gifts, or icons to be used and exchanged with friends or attached to messages and content. These small gestures, while small, can be curiously compelling.
Knowledge and learning – For users interested in research, information, bookmarking, and more search and browse-related activities, provide ways to share discoveries. Capture those learned moments and make them visible — perhaps surface and validate experts and top contributors.
Giving and receiving – For users who enjoy social transactions provide gifts and a means of passing them around privately and publicly. Gifting is a highly social form of communication, and besides being kind, engages a sense of reciprocity in most of us. So it’s naturally contagious.
Helping and assisting – Some users are just naturally good at paying attention to others, and enjoy helping and assisting those with needs or questions. Design ways to surface these needs and create channels by which helpers can pitch in.
Reviewing, recommending, and rating – Users equipped with opinions and a sense of taste can make valuable reviewers and recommenders. Design ways to capture their contributions as social content. This can be designed then into lists, favorite, trends, news and more.
What do you know about the target audience you are trying to reach with your social media strategy?
Posted via web from Bits of Orange
Have You Seen These Related Articles?
- Introducing Beth Kanter, who will blog about presentations & social media in the non profit world (slideshare.net)
- Why User Competency Matters in Social Design (mashable.com)
