Curation Revolution

SEO Freakshow
Small to Medium Sized Businesses are caught in a vicious Chinese finger puzzle. The more they pull the more stuck they become. We say REJECT the CATCH-22 of trying to be us (SEOs, Internet marketers) and run away and join the circus instead. Here's why. 

New SEO's invisible Giant uses magician tricks such as Google's floating filter bubbles, social media's disappearing act & friends you never knew you had. The Giant is more visible than ever.

Thousands, thanks to shares from friends such as @Kelly Hungerford@malek@ janlgordonand @Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.comhave "seen" the Invisible Giant of the #newseo. Have you?

Lions, Tigers, Bears & Content Shock & SMB Survival
Small to Medium Sized Businesses are overwhelmed. The clearest message we've received during our first six months creating our Startup Factory funded startup called Curagami is a clear protest. "Overwhelmed" is the most common adjective SMBs use to describe their situation.

Not hard to see why SMBs are feeling overwhelmed. Tactics that used to insure consistent yearly growth are sick. Tactics are drying up faster than ever.

SMB Marketing Tactics Costing More, Getting Less:

* Yellow Pages (near death).
* Print ads (near death).

* Val-u-pak coupons (near death).

* Coupons of any kind (losing relevance with smartphone users)..

* Groupons (blows brands up almost beyond repair).
* Email marketing (sick due to social / mobile web).
* Social Media Marketing (sick and getting sicker fast).
* Content Marketing.(content shock sick).

* Ecommerce (too many stores, same offerings).
* PPC (paying more to get less).
* Retargeting (cat out of bag, so sick efficacy declining).
* Video Marketing (steep learning curve, expensive).
* Viral Marketing (everyone has that cold now & hit or miss).
* Cause Marketing (not as unique as once was & live or die with partner).

* Celebrity Marketing (expensive and live or die with branded celeb).

* SEO (don't even get us started, all but gone, baby, gone).

3 Rays of Hope

1. Content Curation
Discussed by Scoop.it CEO @Guillaume Decugisin Social Media Publishing Is Dead As We Know It ( http://blog.scoop.it/2014/06/18/social-media-publishing-is-dead-as-we-know-it/ ).

2. Community
Banding and binding tribes of contributors, advocates and supporters to your cause.

3. Friends of Friends marketing.
Reaching new customers via WOM (Word-of-Mouth) supplied by fans, brand advocates and social marketing Sherpas willing to sacrifice and help your cause.

Curagami (http://wwww.curagami.com ) is focused on helping SMBs create sustainable community via the Friends-of-Friends marketing community generates.  

Am Scooping Guillaume's post to use in our Curagami board meeting tomorrow and we are working on 3 cool ideas:

* Curagami SMB Survival Guide - one page "action focused" recommendations on the tapestry of marketing tools and tactics needed to know where online "success" lives these days.

* Curagami $25,000 SMB Survival Contest - Help in seo, content marketing and community building to make this holiday online selling season great.

* Curagmai SMB Survival School - 1 day training to support SMBs at the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC.

How Their Rank Teaches You SEO Lessons
SEO: Their Rank Talks To You, but are you listening, emulating category leaders and finding ways to disrupt your space to win hearts, minds and loyalty online is the "new SEO". 

So if your question is, "You talking to ME?" and you are asking Google the answer is YES.  

Lots of questions after our presentation of asking the right Ecommerce questions last week to a group of about 40 Small to Medium Sized Businesses in Raleigh sponsored by FedEx. Instead fo writing more, we took a different approach and developed short "Video Notes" adding Curagami YouTube links to our Haiku Deck:

Find the Haiku Deck Here
http://shar.es/1gssvu

Find Introductory Video Notes on YouTube Here
https://youtu.be/T3KVhY_yK10 

Find Video Notes about creating online community here
https://youtu.be/KXmON4U1I_E 

Will add more video notes soon.  

Jeff Fromm in a great post for TBJ makes Curagami's tactical marketing is dead argument beautifully. Social Media Marketing is dead & here's what's next.

Use These 5 Web Writing Tips To Crate Trust & Loyalty

1. Use Bullet Points To Introduce Sub-Heads.

2. Short sentences.

3. Small paragraphs.

4. Be Specific.

5. Ask questions & leave room for User Generated Content.

Great copy creates community and your website is about to need COMMUNITY most of all (why we are creating Curagami).