• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 26, 2009

By curating the long-tail of content focused on unique offerings, brands can become part of blog and/or Twitter discussions, create unity and build affinity with consumers, according to Dan Buczaczer, SVP, director, Denuo. "Brands have resources, money and the ability to make it happen," he said.

Buczaczer said reaching consumers through user-generated content requires brands to take a realistic role, including doing it themselves, sponsoring something, and curating the long tail of content. Curating solves two problems. For the brand, it associates them with real content. For consumers, it brings them closer to the brand.

Buccaneer said there are five steps to curating content: aggregation, curation, organization, presentation, and adaptation.

One example Buccaneer provided, Denuo created a sports show for Champion, makers of sporting equipment, which acts as a sponsor. The agency went out onto the Web and found great content created by sports addicts, or "unsung heroes of the athletic world," to promote sports. This lets Champion tap into user-generate content to promote sports without having to say it in an obvious way.