Content Curation 101 [InfoGraphic]

By Janet Barclay.

A blog is a great tool for developing your career or marketing your small business, but you may have any number of reasons for not blogging consistently. If you find it difficult to write articles from scratch on a regular basis, content curation is an excellent way to keep your name in front of potential employers and clients. Many of the Web’s top bloggers are expert content curators.

Content curation is extremely popular right now, but like most Internet buzzwords, many people use the phrase without really understanding what it’s all about.

What Is Content Curation?

Content curation is sorting through a large amount of web content to find the best, most meaningful bits and presenting these in an organized, valuable way.

Kevan Lee, Buffer Social

It’s not simply presenting a list of stories or links, nor is it ripping off content from someone else by simply copying and pasting it into your own blog. Content curation is about gathering information and selecting the items that are most likely to interest your readers.

When you know your readers will be interested in learning a subject you’re not terribly knowledgeable about, doing the research and writing it up effectively can be as much work as writing a term paper. On the other hand, you probably devote a certain amount of time reading blogs and articles that are relevant to your target audience. You can serve them more efficiently by putting this content together into an easy-to-digest format that tells a story, making it relevant, valuable and memorable by adding your own commentary.

Why Curate Content?

The Internet provides a wealth of facts and figures on everything under the sun. This is great, but the daily deluge of information can be overwhelming. As a professional, you have the skills to sift through what’s out there and find articles that your audience will truly find interesting and enjoyable to read. Don’t get me wrong  —  content curation isn’t an easy alternative to content creation. Curating content should be taken just as seriously as creating your own content from scratch, but it’s generally easier and more cost-effective than writing articles or hiring a ghost blogger.

It’s mainly a question of understanding your readers and choosing the right content. Think of it from their point of view. If your blog supplies the information they want on a regular basis, it saves them from having to do their own sifting online. Over time, they’ll come to see you as a go-to source of information and a knowledgeable expert in your field. If they find your blog content relevant and helpful, they’ll keep coming back for more, whether you’re the actual content creator or not.

Source: Organized Assistant