Content curation is a term used to refer to pulling together content from various sources and presenting it to the reader. In other words, you’re taking other people’s content and putting it together in one place for your target market.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? After all, you don’t have to create the content yourself. Content curation sounds like a shortcut but it’s actually not. There’s a skill to pulling together just the right information.

Think of it this way – what you’re doing is going out and finding the content your target market is looking for. You’re saving them the trouble of doing it themselves.

Why Curate?

When you pull together relevant information that your audience is looking for, you become an authority in their eyes. Your site, blog, email list, social media profile or whatever becomes their go-to for information related to your niche. If you have a site for teachers, for example, each time you send an email message, your subscribers will read it eagerly to get all the news fit to print related to teaching.

Content curation is a great way to keep your audience tuned in. If you hit the nail on the head and give your readers what they want, they’ll always come back for more.

Finally, it is easier to curate than to create. But don’t be deceived by this. It takes skill and knowledge of your market to do it well.

Getting Started

First of all, get to know your target market as well as possible. The whole point is to choose articles, blog posts, images, videos and so on that are of interest to them. The better you nail this, the better your curation efforts will be.

Decide how you’re going to present your content. There are online services that create slickly designed e-newsletters. You may curate content to use in your social media feeds. Email newsletters are also nice for content curation. Again, follow your market’s tastes. How do they like to digest information?

Before you start, it’s also good to follow a few already established content curators. Find people in your niche that share news stories and blog posts. Following other curators also helps because it puts you in your readers’ shoes.

Adding Value

The secret to content curation is to add unique value. It’s not enough to just share a bunch of news articles. Comment on it, give your opinion, or use it to ask a question. Encourage your readers to interact with your shared content.

A great way to do this is by disagreeing with what you share. Contradict what it says and stir up some controversy. This is a sure way to get your readers commenting and participating.

Finally, share a mix of different media. There’s no reason you have to only share text-based articles and blog posts. Videos, presentations, images, audios, and other types of multimedia work just as well.

One of my favourite strategies is to share a quote that I think my readers would enjoy. My comment on the quote is usually longer than the quote itself. Since quotes are so short and to the point, it’s easier for readers to digest and they can share their opinions.

Remember that your readers could always get their information straight from the source. In putting it together for them and adding value, you’re giving them something more that they couldn’t get by themselves.

Tony