The world today, has become more dependent on social media than ever before and continues to grow. Whether you are a business trying to promote themselves or a person just posting content, learning how to curate that content is essential in getting started:
What is Content Curation?
Content Curation is the act of discovering, collecting, and presenting digital content that encompasses a specific subject. However, though many in the digital industry still find it a “buzz word,” content curation is now becoming a marketing necessity for many companies with a strong online presence. These can include audio, video, text, and images.
Types of Content Curation
Aggregation – the act of diligently collecting the most relevant information about a subject, from different sources, in one location. This is one of the most common forms of content curation. Examples include; news, reddit, and reader’s digest.
Distillation
The method of curating knowledge in a simplified format, in which only the most interesting or relevant ideas are shared. Examples of this would be Ranking Charts, and “best of category lists”. “The 100 Best Novels Written in English” and “Best Books Lists” are sites that organize/curate information using the distillation method.
Mashup
Is merging two or more existing content into something new and unique. This is often used in the context of music. Examples include remixes and compilations.
Chronology
Is a method of curation that brings together time-based historical information to display an evolved understanding of a topic. Example; Evolution of the web is a timeline that shows the history of the web.
Essentials for Curating Content
How Much Curating Needs to be done?
Come up with an ideal balance between original and selected content “golden ratio”. What percentage of your content will be original, and how much will be selected from somewhere else? At least more than 60% of the content should be your original while the other 40% curated. This may vary between the social media platform being used, example, Instagram.
Divide Your Content in Categories
If you are creating a vast amount of content, it is better to categorize them to make it more organized. Some businesses are sticking to publishing only one form of content, which is not a problem. Each Social media platform has different ways to categorize content. For instance, on Instagram you can use hashtags to organize what each post is for. Hashtags are keywords that help push your content on the internet. Search Engine Optimization (S.E.O) also helps curate content for websites and helps increase the exposure online.
Finding/Sharing Content
When curating, its best to have multiple sources. Most social media platforms are a great place to get content ranging from Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tok and even Facebook. Social media has made content curation quick and easy to find. Sharing content can help boost your reputation, but sharing without filtering can damage it severely. Curated content reflects directly on your reputation and credibility which is why it’s important to use only those which best improves it. Remember to add your own spin to the curated content, as to not have it seem like a copy and paste.
Analyze Your Content
Always check to see how well your content is doing. Analyzing how well your posts did can help determine what type of content is best for generating more interaction from people. If a category is not performing well, you can adjust your content to what your audience enjoys more.
