Server load balancing – February 24 outage

Posted on February 24, 2011 by Tim Brunelle

Hello.

Today we experienced an outage due to higher-than-expected traffic and usage, which caused a server load balancing issue. Some clients may not have been able to access their administration dashboards. However, public-facing content has remained live during this outage. All client Curation Station data is stable and secure, and always has been.

The issue has been addressed, and is currently stable. All clients should be able to access their admin dashboards as of 4:15 p.m. CST.

Thanks to our clients for your continued interest and loyalty in our software. If you have further questions about this issue, please contact your CS sales representative.

Original Content Is Hard

Posted on January 21, 2010 by Tim Brunelle

Our friend Lee Odden offered some cold reality last summer, when he observed, “Many businesses are hard pressed to come up with original articles, blog posts, videos, images, presentations, etc on a regular basis.” Is this you?

Creating and distributing original content isn’t easy. It requires quite a bit of funding—to define business objectives and target audience, develop strategic insights, inspire compelling creative and ultimately produce work people actually notice. It also takes a lot of time.

Curation offers a distinct alternative in this paradigm.

Curating the world’s content—to uncover and celebrate ideas and insights in tune with your brand—can serve as a welcome balance to the costs involved in developing original content.

The strategic work still matters. In other words, you still need insights and direction to guide brand leadership, to guide curation. But the time and funding required to curate content can be significantly less than that spent creating original content. Of course, the balance depends on the subject matter your brand lives within—and the volume of existing content those topics generate.

We’re interested to see how brands evolve the ratio of their content in the age of empowered consumers, and suspect curation will supply an increasing share of that output.

The Future of the Brand Voice

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Tim Brunelle

Control.

Ownership.

Finite expression.

The history of brand-building was built on premises like these. You hired creative firms, tested and formulated ideas then tightly directed how your brand stepped forth into the world.

Today empowered consumers can and will define your brand in their own terms, on their own schedules, as often as they want. The issue isn’t how to stop or legislate these new expressions, but how to leverage their energy.

Curation embraces the crowd.

Curation provides brands with a different kind of control—one that acknowledges, differentiates and celebrates outside perspectives.

Curation extends the ownership of a brand’s voice to those that ultimately purchase or utilize the brand.

Curation allows brands to continue speaking after corporate budgets are spent, by harnessing expression created by brand enthusiasts.

The Value of Curation For Brands

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Tim Brunelle

Truth be told, brands were never in control. But they had lots of money and media channels were exclusive; the public had little power, except with their wallets.

That reality shattered in the mid 1990s, and continues to mutate. Today, brands are most definitely not in control, media outlets are a dime a dozen and consumers are radically empowered. Tell me something I don’t know, right? Perhaps the better question might be: Tell me what to do in this new reality?

I suggest brands adopt the role of Curator, and embrace the practice of Curation.

In other words, brands ought to embrace the unending flow of content created by people outside their corporate walls and the corporate walls of the firms they hire to create ads, brochures, videos, etc. Brands should get curious, comfortable and excited about the idea of empowered consumers telling stories, about and related to their brand, industry and its subject matter.

Brands should be tastemakers—like radio DJs and newspaper editors.

When a brand curates, it’s saying and demonstrating several key attributes of modern (e.g. influenced by social media) marketing:
“We’re listening.” Curation demonstrates your brand is taking the time to see what our audiences are saying, what interests them and gets them excited, or angry.
“We have opinions and perspectives, just like you.” Curation helps guide your advocates and enthusiasts by showing them how your brand sees the world.

“We like what you have to say.” Curation is a pat on the back, a thumbs-up, that tells advocates and enthusiasts you appreciate the content they’ve created. Essentially, this action says, “Do more like that!”

In the past, there was comfort in control. But that control was limited by budget. Today, there ought to be greater comfort in community–in the realization your brand does not have to be the only creator and disseminator of ideas and opinion that might persuade others. And who wouldn’t prefer to diversify the expense of producing branded-content?

The solution to today’s marketing challenge lies in curating content that’s right, from your brand’s perspective, to help guide and influence the never-ending conversation in today’s marketplace.