User generated content is still finding its place amongst the media heavens. Sometimes traditional media turns its nose at it, and other times realizes that fully embracing UGC could be a valuable source of market research. Speaking of market research, UGC is still being explored for monetization purposes, including the almighty ways of the advertising industry.
So while the world is still figuring out the best way in which UGC can be leveraged, distributed, popularized and taken to the bank, there have been several recent trends for truly integrating UGC with editorial and premium content. There are various ways in which this can be done, and most of them revolve around hopes of bringing in larger audiences with the allure of editorial content, which is supplemented by users, who are encouraged to stick around the site by way of participating in said provision of content. This can lead to a big mess, or a large imbalance, or even weighted crowdsourcing.
A primary concern and obstacle is the act of organizing all the content in a way that’s still compelling and useful to all parties involved. Spleak is hoping to provide such organization, with its newly launched Spleak Media Network. This new service allows web publishers to take its flagship product and place it on their own site for an integrated hybrid of UGC and editorial content.
Why? Because traditional media publishers can do with a few sections of their sites that easily implement the hybrid content, and publishers that are just starting out can also do with the extra content. Spleak offers multiple access points for users, including IM clients and widgets, which is a highly encouraging way in which users can both consume and contribute content. The content itself is collected, organized and distributed by Spleak, so publishers don’t have to worry about implementation on that end.
I wonder how deeply integration could eventually go with such a media network as Spleak’s, especially given the progress we’ve seen with the likes of MindTouch, Salesforce and KickApps, but Spleak’s integration with messaging tools outside of direct widgets or websites makes it an easily adoptable tool by younger demographics.
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