Flockler launches a group curation tool for publishers

Published on: April 28, 2011

Flockler launches a group curation tool for publishers http://pressdoc.com/p/000f8d

Flockler launches a group curation tool for publishers, which allows audience to participate in storytelling directly on the news site. First you create a topic. Second you invite selected experts to post content they find relevant and interesting. Finally embed topic to your site. Members of a Flockler topic can post text, photos, videos and even include embed code or tweets. Content can be posted with any device including iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Flockler team is thrilled to launch the first public version of Flockler – Group Curation Tool for Publishers.

For decades news articles have been the same. They are static and written by one journalist offering expert opinion. Lately news sites have included sharing to Facebook and Twitter and commenting, but the content itself still remains the same. There’s hardly any real audience participation on news sites.

 

Flockler launches a group curation tool for publishers, which allows audience to participate in storytelling directly on the news site. First you create a topic. Second you invite selected experts to post content they find relevant and interesting. Finally embed topic to your site. Topics created with Flockler are something you and your audience; the selected experts are passionate about. It can be a specific theme like local football league or politics, breaking news story or a live event near you. 

 

As a result, you immediately start building curation network around specific topics of your choice. On topics powered by Flockler all the members share the same interests, regardless of their current social network or graph. As Brian Solis, the author of Engage! says: “The evolution of social graphs into interest graphs sets the stage for a more efficient and connected series of networks that combine context and attention.” 

 

Flockler’s first public beta case was during FIFA World Cup 2010 with Aamulehti, the second largest daily newspaper in Finland. Aamulehti selected a team of experts to create and curate content during the World Cup. Members included junior league coaches, referees, true fans and local football heroes. Members posted altogether over 2500 posts in 30 days including dozens of YouTube videos, photos and thousands of comments. Service was extremely popular and the best content was cited daily in paper version of Aamulehti.

 

We all know how hard it is to start building your own network out of the blue and find people that share the same interests. That is why we at Flockler have decided to build this tool together with publishers. Flockler has been co-developed in stealth mode for eight months and have 25+ news sites in Finland using platform including Alma Media Group and YLE, the national broadcasting corporation of Finland. Altogether topics and curation networks powered by Flockler generate millions of monthly page views.

 

Members of a Flockler topic can post text, photos, videos and even include embed code or tweets.  Content can be posted with any available device including iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Flockler user interface adapts to various screen sizes automatically. No downloading apps. Just start posting.

 

The core platform is free to use. Flockler premium version offers fully customizable widgets to match the look & feel of your site, preferred support and analytics. For large organizations and volume sites Flockler offers enterprise edition with partner API access, premium support and guaranteed uptime.

 

We at Flockler are passionate about making news sites social. Our goal is to create tools for audience engagement and help publishers to create active curation networks around their journalistic core. This is the start for us and you’re all invited to join the ride with us!

 

Sign up your own Flockler site at http://www.flockler.com/signup