Curation Revolution

Great Post But Upside Down
This is a great post by Primal's founder Peter Sweeney, but it is upside down for what I want to accomplish today. Sitting there thinking I wish the bottom were the top I realized I have the tools to make that happen (lol).

Crowdfunding feels like a "next big thing" with tentacles in everything from banking to ecommerce so it passes the very good Next Big Thing Test Peter's post creates:

"How to Recognize The Next Big Thing?

If the history of The Next Big Thing teaches us anything, it’s that new media invariably dominates old media; regardless of how hard the incumbents try to keep new media down.

Equally clear, the essence of The Next Big thing won’t be technological. Cloud, data, augmented, geo, semantic, mobile, distributed, implicit, programmable networks are statements of technological enablers, not human experiences."

Ideas Peter sees as Next Big Thing:

* Interest networks (niched & more personal social media).
* Computational Services.

* Automated Assistants.

Ideas I see as next Big Thing:

* Crowdfunding.
* Distributed Ecommerce.
* Curating Conversations.

Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is so much MORE than seed equity funding. Having managed a multi-million dollar ecommerce website and remembering putting my job on the line every Christmas means finding ways to "test before we test" and generate tribal formation every website needs these days favors a crowdfunding revolution that only has a little to do with seed funding via equity crowdfunding.

The trend is already manifesting. Dell creates a new "venture fund", P&G outsources 50% of their R&D and Kickstarter is slouching toward their $1 BILLLION in funding party. Soon we will "crowdfund" everything.

Ecommerce
After Google's algorithm changes storming the castle of scaled websites to achieve top search rankings is all but impossible. This begs the question WHY is commerce something we must got to a website to complete. In a SOCIAL and MOBILE time why can't we THINK, "I want that," and have it flying in on one of those Amazon drones?

Why is our eCommerce imagination so BORING? Whit is it so proprietary? Why do we make online customers COME TO US? One of the things we proved with CureCancerStarter.org, our crowdfunding cancer research platform on Authorize.net, is once you've created the commercial "token" it can go anywhere. SO why isn't it?

The most disruptive thing any affiliate marketer does is ship traffic across the bridge to their partner. More than half the traffic drops off. Why not CONVERT ANYWHERE?

Conversations
The conversation is rapidly becoming the new medium and currency thanks to the SOCIAL, MOBILE and VIDEO tsunamis. We can consult experts on anything. Our marketing is "inbound" so own the conversation to own the traffic.

"Owning the conversation,” means curating in a Radian6 ORM (Online Reputation) way. Our marketing must curate conversations in near real-time no matter where they happen.

And suddenly Cure Cancer Starter has a quorum with four great cancer centers:

* University of North Carolina's Lineberger Cancer Center.

* Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York.

* University of Wisconsin's Carbone Cancer Center.

* Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina.

Both of my treating institutions have signed on to be part of Cure Cancer Starter's pilot program. Cure Cancer Starter is our "Kickstarter for cancer research" platform to bring cancer doctors and researchers together into a common community with an important goal - curing cancer.

Atlantic BT, where I am Marketing Director, is helping create a platform for cancer patients. Cancer patients can take an empowering action by funding research.

The most devastating thing about hearing your name and "cancer" in the same sentence is how helpless you feel. You are sure your life is now beyond your control. The invisible hand is playing with your life like a marionette. 

For a year I trained and then rode 3,300 miles on a bicycle I wasn't sick. No colds or sniffles despite riding 10 days in the rain. For 60 days I "cured" my chronic Leukemia. 

I had to go back into chemo within weeks after Martin's Ride ended, but I didn't feel helpless until chemo kicked my butt again. Cure Cancer Starter is Martin's Ride 2. 

This time, instead of a team of 3, I hope we can create a big "cure cancer" community, a community where doctors and researchers share their projects with people willing to donate and be a part of the cure for cancer. Can't tell you how much it would have meant to send someone $100 and be part of a team working on Leukemia after my diagnosis. Would have been MAGICAL and EMPOWERING.  

Thanks to all my Scoop.it friends for help, ongoing support and best wishes. If anyone would like to help by reviewing beta designs, helping form plans and other foundational work for Cure Cancer Starter let me know. There are GREAT smart people on Scoop.it. 

Please LIKE Cure Cancer Starter on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CureCancerStarter 

Please FOLLOW CureCancerStart on Twitter:
https://www.twitter.com/CureCancerStart 

Every one of these 3 crowdfunding whitepapers is worth a read. As I state on our #startup http://www.crowdfunde.com crowdfunding will become a new and important marketing "channel" for all NOT JUST equity crowdfunders. 

P&G might crowdfund new R&D, Amazon might crowdfund a new book or movie. Every marketer is now also a publisher, TV producer and movie creator. Forming the capital for all the cool marketing we need is fraught with DANGER. 

Crowdfunding provides a way to "test before you test", to see if you can scale an idea before you invest in hard goods or more content and information. Crowdfunding is going to change...everything.

Reading these 3 white papers helps understand why. I promise to write something on Crowdfunding: The New Marketing Channel soon too.  

The Genius of the Pebble Watch Kickstarter Campaign
No one told the Pebble watch team they couldn't mashup distribution, pricing, marketing, sales and funding all in one brilliantly executed campaign. The team didn't have the "curse of knowledge". They didn't know how the game is normally played and that is really good.

Their lack of knowledge meant the Pebble watch team turned to Kickstarter to solve problems no one ever thought to solve via a "crowdfunding" platform. My ScentTrail Marketing post notes how getting distributors to come to you is brilliant.

Combine solving distribution with Pebble's amazing "create your own customized Pebble", an idea that puts the celebrity endorsement game on its head bedcause they fought to give Pebble $1200 each, and you get sheer marketing genius.

There is so much genius to go around here every Internet marketing team should study how Pebble solved traditional problems any startup faces with a single stroke of genius and OPP (Other People's Platforms).

I bet you lunch; your team will be using OPP in a similar way inside of two years.