An important aspect to remember is that anyone who decides to participate in content curation must do it consistently. An outlet that shares information infrequently, irregularly, or that is out of date, will not generate new readers. Readers want comprehensive information. Therefore, a curator must continually expand the information they have on offer and also prepare sources for reader-friendly or commenting.
Edit rather than cite
Curation also means preparation, not just collation. There are two reasons for this: on the one hand, readers get more than just a simple link on the screen. In principle, anyone can do this with the help of an engine. The curators’ commentaries, counter-representations, and opinions create added value. On the other hand, adding your own content is important for the ranking on Google and other search engines. Try to separate the valuable contributions from the unnecessary contributions: double content does not provide anyone anything. It is important to always mark content as “unique”.
The 5 types of content curation.
There are many ways to process and edit external content. The easiest way is to share and comment on an information unit (website, blog post, infographic, video). However, it is also possible to create your own longer contributions where several shared contents play a role. Content curation is commonly divided into 5 different types of curating:
- Aggregation: Here you summarize the most important content on a topic in a contribution. Top 10 lists are perfect examples of aggregations.
- Distillation: In the distillation process, you reduce split content to its core statements. The goal is to prepare content so that readers will understand it easily.
- Elevation: Curators like to represent trends this way. It consists of a steady stream of curated content, with a regularly updated link list.
- Mashup: Mashup blurs the lines between content curation and content creation. Many different perspectives and contributions are used to create new content. This creates a mix of text, quotations, and paraphrases.
- Chronology: This describes the chronological treatment of a topic. The goal is to reflect the course of opinions, developments, and ideas. A separate text is also created here, which is strongly based on quotations and references.
Like most online marketing strategies, the best idea is to try and use all of these methods to keep your readers informed and entertained.
Citation versus plagiarism.
With all the possibilities that content curation can offer, there can still be an aftertaste: black sheep feel validated when they steal content and ideas, plagiarizing their way through the internet. A real curator is different. For ethical and data protection reasons, stealing content is not advisable. But marketing is also about securing sources: reaching out to authors, photographers, graphic designers, and video bloggers is highly recommended. The online community values transparency. Readers are happy about clear sources because it gives them the opportunity to find exciting new input.
Added to this is the fact that other content creators can cite important networks. It is best to contact authors whom you wish to quote and ask for permission. This is not always possible (due to time constraints), and also not always necessary - citation is also allowed without permission – provided the source is clearly named, the citations are not too long and the content is not reproduced in an incorrect context. However, hardly any author says no to building a reputation and backlinks. Social media makes it easy to notify original authors about sharing their content, on Facebook or Twitter, you can link people on the day and inform them at the same time. Chances are good that the relevant authors act as disseminators and in return distribute, like or comment on other curated contributions. In the best case scenario, they themselves become followers and begin to share unique content with you, ensuring high-quality backlinks.