Bob Hutchins
Twitter’s knocking off the competition, one by one.
Last week saw the release of Periscope. At the same time, Meerkat announced $ 14 million in investment funding. But, as the following chart shows, Periscope quickly rose to the top:
Third day. pic.twitter.com/xnBd27zTvC
— Dan Frommer (@fromedome) March 29, 2015
This week, Twitter’s making headlines again (albeit smaller ones) with Curator, a free curation tool for media producers. There’s no skirting the issue, Curator has sights set directly on Storify.
How Does Twitter’s Curator Work?
Curator was built to allow media publishers to search, filter and curate Twitter content that can then be displayed on web, mobile, and TV.
In other words, Curator exists to help you find the most powerful and relevant content about the subjects your brand wants to discuss, whether that’s a real-time promotion event like a movie release or an on-going campaign by your brand.
Perhaps one of the most important functions of Curator is that it gives users the ability to identify trending topics before the mainstream picks up on them.
Will Curator Overtake Storify?
Curator isn’t widely available yet. Media publishers can request access (expect at least 1-2 days for a response), but even entry into that pool is likely to be limited. As of now, we can see that Curator has at least one major pro and one major con (in comparison to Storify).
In Favor Of Curator: Curator is Twitter’s product, and Twitter is a much bigger, resourced company than Storify. Plus, Twitter owns Twitter, to state the obvious, and can shut anyone out of its social graph (as it did to Meerkat just days before launching Periscope). We may see Curator’s developers get the same kind of preferential treatment (over Storify) that Periscope received over Meerkat.
In Favor Of Storify: Storify has the benefit of not being exclusive to Twitter content. Storify users can pull Facebook posts, GIFs, YouTube videos, Instagram posts, and much more into the conversation – in addition to Tweets. This allows Storify users to share a more inclusive conversation. (However, Storify lacks the data insights that Curator boasts.)
The Future Of Content Curation
Regardless of the platform, one thing is certain. Content curation is – and will be – a significant part of any brand’s marketing platform. Curator shows promise. But, in the meantime, while you wait for access, practice curation with Storify.
Pick a topic that interests your followers, and curate a story. Curation allows you to share content that’s not about you, make social connections with others, and offer up something valuable and interesting to your followers.
Does your brand use curation tactics? What works? What doesn’t?
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