How can content curation help you in business? Is the ability to curate information an important skill to have?Content Curation
I have never given museum curation much thought. And I first learned about online curation in the fall of 2010 from Social Media Examiner in their post How to Grow a Following With Other People’s Popular Content.
However, during Social Media Week Toronto several years ago, I attended an excellent session titled Curation vs. Curation, where the panel compared curation in the context of museums with curation online.
Have you read?
Curate This!: The Hands-On, How-To Guide To Content Curation by Steven Rosenbaum
The Idea of Curation: The big question is, are online “curators” true Curators?
According to Dictionary.com, curator [cu•ra•tor – kyoo-rey-ter] means
“the person in charge of a museum, art collection.”
Museum curators are also responsible for choosing and acquiring the pieces displayed in the museum, as well as deciding how the pieces will be displayed.
Online or Content curators on the other hand,
“review and filter articles and blog posts from across the web.”
At the Social Media Week Toronto session, the panel emphasized that for true curation to take place online, the curator has to add their insights to the information that they have reviewed and filtered. Mark Farmer, Website Redesign Manager, Royal Ontario Museum one of the panelist remarked,
“Curation is the value you bring to a set of information.”
Having a list of links to excellent content is not true curation, you have to add your thoughts and reactions to the content that you have reviewed and filtered.
I found this distinction quite helpful in clarifying who is and who isn’t a curator. This is another instance where one idea is transported from one industry and used in another creating innovation. What idea can you transport from another industry to innovate the way in which you perform your work?
In the session, they also talked about crediting the source of the original information. You can easily do so by linking to the original source. I tend to stick with photos in the public domain and those I have taken myself. When using YouTube videos, at the end of the post, I usually have a link back to the person who uploaded the video to YouTube. I am slowly going through my old posts to ensure that I give proper credit.
In How to Grow a Following With Other People’s Popular Content, they mention Cadmus, PostRank, and Yahoo Pipes as great content creation tools. In addition to reading many blogs to keep informed, I use Google Alerts, and SmartBriefs, to learn about really great content. I have tried to add value to blog posts and create a multimedia experience by adding relevant videos, when appropriate, as well as further reading.
Definition of Content Curation
Tom Foremski defines content curation as,
“Person or a group of people, engaged in choosing and presenting a collection of things related to a specific topic and context.”
Digital content curation is,
“Gathering information from the Internet, selecting the most important elements, organizing the content and sharing it with others in a concise and easy to consume manner.”
Curation: Best Practices
7 Best Practices for Content Curators
- Excerpt, Don’t Lift: What’s fair use? How much is too much? Do not cut and paste, summarize
- Attribution: Give credit to the creator.
- Context: Have a context around curated content. Have a point of view.
- Link Back: It’s fair and the right thing to do.
- Images: Read the fine print. Who owns the image?
- No-Follow is a No-No: This doesn’t give credit. That’s not good.
- An Excerpt is an Excerpt: If an article is six pages, use only a paragraph or two.
Source: Curate This!: The Hands-On, How-To Guide To Content Curation by Steven Rosenbaum, Review
Now that I know more about “true” content curation, I have to pay more attention to how and where I place the additional content such as the video, so that it brings maximum value to the blog post.
Where you can find tools to curate content
46 Best Content Curation Tools For Fail-Proof Marketing Automation
Content Curation Tools: The Ultimate List
7 Content Curation Tools for 2021…Because We’re Already Over 2020
13 Content Curation Tools Every Marketer Needs
15 of the best content curation tools to save you time in 2020
Final Thoughts – Curating Information: Museum Curator vs. Online Curator
What is your idea of curating information?
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- Can you use curation in your work?
- How about if you curated content that senior level executives in your organization would appreciate and add your thoughts before you forwarded them?
Curate This!
Content CurationNon Obvious Megatrends
If someone clicks on a link and buys something from Amazon, the company will pay me a small commission. First published in February 2012.
