User Generated Content News & Articles

My, how content strategy evolved during the past 12 months. In 2010 we spent our time talking about what content strategy was, while in 2011 we spent our time putting content strategy into action and then we kicked the tires and tried to figure out what made it work well, and what makes it fail. While digging through the archives, we uncovered a few common themes for content strategy in 2011.

We all know that optimizing content is often the key to unlocking your company’s potential. Good content can make it easy to sell widgets and improve the customer experience as well as make it easier for others to find your content. When it comes to SEO, content is the king. But when it comes to user-generated content, how does it influence SEO and what can you do to leverage it even further?

Previously we’ve addressed how to merge content strategy and enterprise content management. It’s no secret that, as more platforms emerge from which to engage customers, vendors and employees, the more challenging that creating and managing content becomes. But it’s not just content; it’s sentiment and feedback that is also crucial to the process. Enterprise content strategy will always be about the content, but for it to be successful, there must be elements of analysis and reporting, as well.

Recently, I gave a presentation on how content strategists can help other UX professionals. After I finished speaking, the first question asked was “What do you think about user-generated content?” I answered honestly, “I don’t know?” Obviously, a pertinent topic on peoples’ minds, the question provoked a lively discussion and got me thinking -- how do we, as content strategists, manage user-generated content (UGC)?

Does your content strategy proactively plan for the attack of UGC? 

As many American newspapers and news agencies close down news desks scattered strategically around the world, citizen journalism is filling the gap. By offering local journalists and concerned citizens a platform from which to offer their perspectives on local and global events, coverage of world news is showing signs of life again.

The holiday season has not slowed down the web publishing world. In fact, they might be looking to pick up speed as the year comes to a close. From Google to Bing to YouTube, it seems that things are heating up, like a Thanksgiving turkey.

Platformic has gone social. The online web development environment (OWDE) that mixes content and design has launched SocialSite, a social media platform.

Designed as an integrated social media creation environment aimed at helping companies build highly customizable, complex user communities, SocialSite can be set up to combine social networking and social media functionality into any Platformic Enterprise website without requiring code, ftp, manual style sheets or JavaScript.

No one can accuse Johannes Bhakdi, CEO of Klatcher.com of standing idly by while the web publishing industry tries to fix itself. No, Mr. Bhakdi is taking matters into his own hands by putting the power to publish in the hands of his users.

Klatcher.com has launched v2.0 of their site, which allows authors to self-publish anything online from words to a rich media publication and start selling their best content.

Sometime today, The New York Times is supposed to launch two new citizen journalism sites focused on local communities.

"The Local" will appear on the Times' Web pages with sites dedicated to three communities in New Jersey -- Maplewood, South Orange and Millburn -- and two Brooklyn neighborhoods, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.

User-generated content is a rapidly developing revolution in media. News media have been implementing user generated content in an effort to supplement content and community perspectives.

Citizen journalists now wield power over online content and new business models are emerging in response to this shift. To help bring together content-trendsetters and business leaders in a variety of fields, Mediabistro presents User-Generated Content Conference and Expo.

If you need more evidence that social media and SaaS are thriving despite these tough economic times, Reality Digital can provide it.

The SaaS social media platform provider has announced that due to the growth of the web video and social media market, they have had to make big changes to their company — sales, marketing, distribution, product development, and a brand spanking new office in the U.K.

The issue of user-generated content has been subject to scrutiny and debate among online news media, many of whom have questioned its place in online journalism.

We reported that A Moderated Approach to User Generated Content seemed to produce more accurate and censored content than opponents would lead you to believe. Then, we reported on the status of online comments as used by online newspapers and as to whether or not comments enhance the quality of online journalism.

Now, we bring the next phase in the saga of online comments: the difficulty in maintenance and moderation.

The Social Media industry seems to get just a little bit bigger every hour and it’s amazing how many different vendors can come on the scene and offer products and solutions that can help us design and build communities of one sort or another.

As an enterprise though, you need to be sure you are working with the right solution provider. Someone who is not only selling you a service, but helping you truly understand why and how to implement it. This is where you see Awareness — an on-demand social media platform for Web 2.0 communities provider — emerge as a front-runner. They have the right technology platform and what appears to be a wealth of knowledge and understanding to implement your community(s) the right way.

Organizations today understand that a key focus of their marketing activities must be in the social media arena. If they are really smart, they also recognize that user participation is key to successful social media marketing. And what do users like to contribute? Text, video, audio and all the rating, tagging and commenting that goes along with it.

Who better to help these organizations support their social media marketing activities than SaaS User Participation Platform provider Reality Digital? This is a company that not only has the technical experience to create a social media platform with a strong Digital Asset Management backbone, but also has the marketing savvy to understand the key to social media marketing is a combination of user generated and professionally published content.