Yesterday Intel introduced quite the interesting content experiment: a social-publishing platform sourced from employee reads and recommendations.
In an article announcing the launch, Intel said the project was “inspired by…how people discover, share and collaborate online.” The magazine is a blend of content shared by Intel employees and original and industry content; the selection process is illustrated in the infographic to the right.
IQ Editor-in-Chief Bryan Rhoads told AdAge that the goal of the digital magazine is to “connect with a younger audience and tell them the story of who we are as a brand. Many of them don’t know, so we need to tell them the story of Intel that is beyond PCs and beyond processors.”
Rhoads noted that while they do have an active Facebook page and blogs, these platforms aren’t necessarily tailored to a younger audience – and that’s where IQ comes in.
The concept is fairly design-centric; content appears in boxes of various sizes depending on how many shares said article has collected. Roll your mouse over any piece of content to see a quick preview and social sharing buttons. Each article is also tagged with its source, telling whether it is an original piece of Intel content (these seem to be the least popular), or the name of the publication in which it originally appeared. The majority of content on the homepage is tech-centric, generated from your run-of-the mill tech blogs, from Mashable to TechCrunch and Engadget.
Clicking on an article within the interface directs users to a preview page under the IQ domain, with the option to keep reading on the original publication’s site. Social sharing buttons send a link not to the original content, but back to the preview on IQ.
Cool concept? Absolutely, especially given the element of employee culture and voice. The real question is one of value – what makes this curated content a more desirable source than a hand-picked, tech-centric Twitter stream or RSS-feed? In the next few weeks, we’ll see whether or not young people value the Intel staff as tech content curators.
