Rumours of the influence of ‘social search’ made internet marketing teams sit up and take notice. Bloggers should pay attention too because the promotion potential of social media is real. Several posts have been published here on Spice Up Your Blog about how to use social media to promote your blog (5 Tricks To Sync Up And Maximize Your Social Media Efforts & How To Create A Sustainable Social Media Strategy.) However with all this content around we’re in danger of overloading our potential audiences. We need to organise this content in order to make it more accessible and reach our target audience. And so, content curation is born.
What is content curation?
Content curation, like any other form of curation is the process of presenting content with a centralised theme and providing context so that the best and most relevant resources for a certain topic are grouped together. Another guest blog 5 Content Curation Tools to Help Your Build Content dealt primarily with curation tools that gather content from other authors, I’d like to look at a new platform that allows you to gather together all your social media output in one place in a hybrid of curation and social media management. Meet RebelMouse.com.
RebelMouse is my new favourite content curation site and I’m not the only one. Content buffs all over the web are falling over themselves with glee. I first heard about it from lovely blog site Launch Grow Joy. So what is this amazing new service? RebelMouse is a ‘social media aggregator’ which you link to your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Flickr and Pinterest accounts and then watch as it sorts through your most interesting past posts. TechCrunch described it well as a “Pinterest style collage that represents your social media presence”. It was developed with publishers in mind and has in fact been adopted as a major tool for journalists, bloggers and social media enthusiasts.
Getting started
Although the login process leaves a lot to be desired (you are redirected twice, first in and then out of your chosen social profile) I found the rest of the experience really slick. Connect social media profiles to RebelMouse to pull in all your past posts through those channels. Using this content a Homepage is created for you, with posts containing video or images generally receiving preference. You can edit the front page by changing what is displayed as well as where and how. Then go on to create new pages to sort the content by category or display posts that weren’t previously selected for display. All your other posts will automatically be saved in a ‘drafts’ tab for easy access and management.
You can edit your RebelMouse site on a Dashboard page. This means curating your own content, creating more connections to your other profiles around the web, including embedding your RebelMouse page on your blog and redesigning your RebelMouse site. Sort your posts with tags and create different pages for different themes to make the most of storytelling potential that curation is all about.
I call it a hybrid of social media management and content curation because first and foremost you are curating your own posts. However these may be posts where you shared content from around the web so you’re adding to a topic with more than just your own organic content. You can also ‘stick’ content you find online directly to your RebelMouse site, without posting through Facebook or Twitter first. While doing that you can also post through RebelMouse onto your Facebook and Twitter. Although unlike other social media management tools like TweetDeck and HootSuite you can’t time your posts. RebelMouse’s position as a hybrid means this isn’t its primary purpose but through changes and updates may be possible in the future.
More treats for early users
Rebel Mouse is currently in its very early stages, running a Beta that is subject to lots of changes in the near future. Signing up early seems to have several benefits:
Use their developers for free! RebelMouse are actually offering to help you build your RebelMouse site into your website or blog. It is possible to do this yourself but why not take them up on this rare opportunity? Additionally you can have a say on how RebelMouse develops. The service is still very much in the development stage so now is the time to ask for the features you want because you’re far more likely to get them.
You’ll be able to save the username you want. You’ll have a greater chance of creating continuity with your blog or social media accounts by selecting your ideal username.
You could get featured. As RebelMouse go to town promoting their service in the early days they need quality examples of how their site is being used. You can put yourself forward to be featured and get publicity off the back of their promotion efforts.
The benefits for you
Your past posts become a useful, easily accessible resource for you and others. This is a chance to collect your posts together in a clear and visually appealing way.
You’ll get statistics relating to your posts that show how much impact your post has had e.g. page views, clicks and shares. This feature is set for some big updates in the future and should provide a clear view of the success of your social media output.
Lastly one of RebelMouse’s most appealing attributes is that it optimizes your social media content. You can tell your audiences and the search engines what certain content relates to instantly. As I said at the top social search is gaining influence. Playing up to this fact can only be a good thing.
My advice is to get on the bandwagon now before you get left behind.
By Guest Author – Scarlett Huxley is a newly fledged writer with interests in social media trends, SEO and web marketing. She has previously worked for Oxfam Newcastle, managing their social media accounts. Currently Scarlett is building up her blogging portfolio on all things web. She has also started a personal blog Thai cooking over on www.thethaifoodblog.com where she’ll be sharing her culinary experiences very soon.
