ASAE Annual Meeting Daily Now – 2011 Annual Meeting & Expo

Really enjoyed the roundtable discussion with the senior folks on Sun night (although I learned the lesson about the perceived “fairness” of giveaways; next time).  The session on “How Will You Lead Differently” was the first presentations of the research from the upcoming Return on Impact book (#ROIBook) – positive feedback from the attendees and strong intrigue in how to elevate social to a strategic conversation.  “What IF…” conversations were retweeted by several attendees.  Will post info on the forthcoming IMPACT community, webinar series, and the board executive briefings in the next few weeks.  Thanks to all who were in St. Louis and continue to support my work on strategic, connected relationships.

If you purchased the Relationship Economics Updated and Revised edition from the ASAE Bookstore, email me your contact info and I’ll send you my second book, ConnectAbility, for free. With my best, David

Last week I discussed how every organization should have a Content Curator function on staff. Here in Part I of our three part series, I have listed 3 qualities that I have found necessary and helpful for me and what you should look for in your Content Curators:

Content Curators Get Their Brands

Content Curators need to invest significant time, effort, and resources to truly understand the types of clients you work with, the types of market challenges and opportunities you address, and the value you add. They need to be able to articulate your unique value proposition as well as understand it well enough to defend it. As content curators, they need to understand a succinct profile of your buyers and how to influence their thinking, perspective, and call to action. This is the foundation of their role, without which the rest wouldn’t be nearly as successful.

Content Curators Get You!

Your name is your biggest brand, and if you’re going to have an online voice, the content that is researched and provided for your review, and the comments made on your behalf, actually have to sound like you! We all have a voice, and consistency in articulating a unique perspective or an independent insight through that same voice is critical in building and nurturing digital relationships. Content Curators need to be able to send you content samples that sound like ‘‘something you’d say!’’

Content Curators Invest Focus and Bandwidth

To constantly find, group, organize, and share the best and the most relevant content on specific issues online requires unparalleled focus and dedicated bandwidth. The key is ‘‘constantly’’ because of the instantaneous nature of digital conversations. If you’re going to tweet once a month, save time and effort—don’t! It would be similar to you exchanging e-mails with people once a month! Content Curators need to engage with you several times each week with key questions, discussion points, or results of our most recent campaigns.

To learn more, read Chapter 10 in the revised and updated Relationship Economics paperback edition with 40 percent new content, including an all-new chapter 10 on social media and business relationships (Wiley, Feb. 2011).