Curation Revolution

As a business, one of the most effective ways to gain traction and visibility is through a strategically planned marketing and/or public relations campaign. But did you know that your customers can be just as effective?

Customers can be more influential than ever these days, thanks to social networks and the internet. In fact, the average customer has a reach of 42 people for each positive experience or engagement with your company online. That means if you have only 200 customers who are brand advocates, you have a potential customer reach of 8,400!

Marty Note
An important Infographic and idea. At our Durham, NC based startup Curagami we see the next phase of web development as devoted to learning how to empower, listen to and benefit from the kind of leverage ONLY customers provide such as:

* User Generated Content - the most valuable content you can't buy.

* Social shares and its help with seo, traffic and profits.

* Brand advocacy and word-of-mouth advertising.

* Brand shaping via listening and curation of content created by influential customers.

Last night I realized I needed to order boxer shorts as all of this travel, I'm currently in Columbus Ohio, is putting a strain on a limited supply. Instead of buying Joe Boxer boxers I went to a site and made a cancer survivor design.

The first product I created, Poetryslam Magnetic Word Game (c. 1999), took six months and $10,000. Last night I created a line of boxer shorts for $100 and an hour of my time using drag and drop tools.

Put that experience in the context of this excellent infographic about the power of your influential customers to arrive at the game plan we suggest to B2C ecommerce and B2B content marketing partners daily:

* Create an Ambassadors Program as the foundation of online community.
* Empower Ambassadors with social tools.
* Feature great Ambassadors to create healthy competition.

* Reward Ambassadors with social listening, support and inclusion.

* ASK for help.
* Rinse and Repeat.

Find ways to listen, curate and feature your customer's input and social shares to make your online marketing easier, more fun and sustainable.