Content curation is one of my favourite ways to create content. We are spoiled for choice when it comes to authorative killer content these days on almost any topic. Sure create original content, share others and of course curate.
As a writer, I can tell you there’s nothing worse than staring at a blank computer screen. The cursor mocks you, each blink a testament to your wasted productivity and creative failure.
But at Matt Cutts from Google advises, add value to the content on the way through. Add your take on the topic. What is missing? Does the article cover other aspects or do you not agree with what they are saying. Do you have a controversial view point?
I do not condone blatant copying, that is wrong. Passing someone’s content off as your own is wrong. Spinning someone else’s content too is just plain lazy.
Let’s address the elephant in the room. “I don’t curate?” Do you share content on social media? If yes, then you are already curating. You just do not know it yet.
Every article we curate has first been selected from a trusted source I have previously added into my Feedly account, then saved to Evernote, copied to Pocket (via Zapier) so I can listen to it via Lisgo later if required. Side note: Lisgo is a better text to speech (TTS) option for listening to content than Pockets’ native feature. I even speed up the voice so I can consume the content quicker.
So each piece we select to curate has been selected from our feed, read or listened to or both. Tagged and notes made appropriately. When it comes to curate it we are across it thoroughly and if we feel it falls within the parameters of our content strategy. It gets curated.
Moreover we teach curation as part of our Creating Constant Content online course. Part of which we also cover what we call a Content Scorecard.
- Does it fit within the content strategy?
- Will it fit into our core categories of content we like to cover?
- Will our community appreciate it or can they use it now to implement into their business?
A positive answer to that, allows us to continue down our curation path.
Don’t dupe other people’s content, but there’s no harm in doing some research or adding new spin on an old idea. We live in an era where ideas are moments away, literally at our fingertips with a few keystrokes.
There’s a popular literary theory that all of literature can be lumped into one of seven basic plots. In other words, don’t try too hard to be original because there’s a high probability that it’s been done already.
Some of the blog posts we have curated have been more popular than our original content. We’ve become the middle-man (person for those needing to be politically correct) of content.
We know this is what our clients want as we hold live implementation days discussing how to create content. Our students struggle with blogging. Curation is one of the ways to create or repurpose someone elses’ content. Preferably someone who is already creating killer content in your niche. Heck mainstream media are masters at re-packaging the same boring crap all day every 30 minutes. All I am advocating is curate it once. Share it multiple times and if the content is evergreen, then share it multiple times for the next few months.
Better yet repackage and repurpose it into other types of content. Gary Vaynerchuk is a master of this. Read his article here on Content on Content on Content.
I’m about to get real meta on you: the article you’re about to read was made from a video, that was made from the making of an article, that was originally based off a video.
What I just said right there is the infrastructure for a true content strategy.
There are so many of you out there who aren’t producing the number articles or pieces of micro-content that you could be producing all day long.
Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary is an online media mogul. If you need inspration, ideas or want to follow him – you should. Period.
If you are an automation geek like me, then use something like eClincher or Meet Edgar and add your evergreen content to your queue, so it can keep being shared on auto-pilot. Seriously incredible stuff.
- Stop Trying To Be So Original
- Draw From Your Own Experiences
- Give Them What They Want
- Use Other People’s Ideas
- Don’t Overtly Sell Your Services. Tell A Story
According to this article we’ve curated from business2community.com we have done everything above and then some.
We’ve curated an article that talks about curation. Hardly original but the rest of our content in the article (not in a block quote and the list) is original. Our viewpoint.
We’ve spoken about our own experiences and used someone else’s idea that I am sure was someone else’s several thousand times before. Covered our process for collecting, consuming and scoring the content before we spend time adding to their story.
So, go find the content that is relevant to your audience, curate it. Add value. Publish it like a boss. Curate killer content.
If you feel you can add to this article, please do so in the comments below.
