Making the Best Use of Content Curation

 You have been reading about content curation on and off and you may have a sense of how it works and why it is important. Of course, that doesn't mean that you should abandon original content. Curated content should complement your original content and if you do it right, it will strengthen your brand.

Using content curation appropriately

As a business owner, you undoubtedly understand the importance and relevance of writing original content. However, you must also be aware that it is not always so easy to produce top-quality content that you write from scratch on a frequent, regular basis several times a week (if that is the schedule to which you are committed).

As a writer, you must understand that you can't simply snap your fingers and produce amazing original content. So, what do you do if you are struggling to come up with amazing original content? The reality is that whether you are struggling to come up with content or not, you still need to produce it. That is where using curated content comes into play. If you choose to use a combination of original and curated content, you can increase your output tremendously. However, it is very important to remember that whenever you use curated content, you must not only give attribution for that content but you must also add your own thoughts to the content at the end.

The line between appropriately using curated content and stealing it

Of course, it must have occurred to you at this point (already) that you must maintain a high standard of ethics when it comes to content curation. As long as you give the proper credit to the person who wrote the content that you are curating https://yoo.rs/. You can take the parts of the content that you wish to curate and put a unique spin on it. You can also take the article in its entirety and offer a commentary at the end. In some way, you need to insert your own thoughts into the concept of what you are presenting. There are certain rules that you should follow in order to ensure that your curated content was obtained in the proper manner.

Mix up your sources: If you decide to practice content curation, it is important to make sure that you use information from a variety of sources. That is important for many reasons, including the fact that your content will always be interesting and fresh if you present a number of different sources.

Write original titles for all of the content that you curate: It is acceptable to use content that other people have written but it is most appropriate for you to create your own title for what you are sharing considering that the content that you are presenting is a hybrid of the curated content and your commentary on that content. When you are writing the title of the article, make sure that you really do it well. You only have three seconds in which to capture the attention of your reader with the title.

Choose the best possible content: When it comes to the content that you are sharing, you should set the bar extremely high. Of course, that would also apply to the standards that apply to your original content. If you don't make it compelling, nobody will want to read it. That is definitely the last thing that you need or want.

Wrap your mind around the content that you are curating: It is critical that you have a good understanding of the content that you are presenting. The chances are great that if you don't understand it, your readers will not understand it either. It is important to remember that you are using that content to build relationships with your readers and if you don't understand that content that you are sharing, you will not have the opportunity to build those relationships.

Be mindful of the time factor: When it comes to using curated content, it is important to be sensitive to the timing. Even if the content doesn't discuss a specific event or occasion, you should use it sooner rather than later.

Conclusion

It is important that you understand that there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking advantage of curated content, as long as you do it appropriately and ethically. By using curated content, you are opening up a world for your readers and giving them the advantage of new and interesting ideas to think about and to discuss. If you are unsure about how to appropriate curate content, you may wish to take a look at how other people do it. It will most likely give you some really helpful ideas about how to do it yourself.

If there is one thing we can all agree on about the Internet it is the fact that it is stuffed with information. Every day, the internet grows by a phenomenal amount. Indeed, according to the Executive Chairman of Google when he spoke at a conference in 2010, the amount of information being added to the Internet every 48 hours was equivalent to the entire amount of human information that had been amassed from the dawn of time to 2003. And since 2010, the amount has clearly gone up again.

We are living in an information-rich world where we can have vast amounts of information on almost any subject we care to name, all within seconds. But how do we sort through it all? After all, we cannot read it all or watch it all. For instance, if you want to find out about "colour psychology" you'll find that there are almost 7 hours worth of videos on YouTube to watch, as well as over 80 documents on Scribd to read, 47 articles on EzineArticles.com to look at and a further 59,300 results on Google to check out. Unless you are going to devote your entire life to one narrow subject there is no hope of ever being able to process all this "stuff".

Not only that, the amount of material being added just goes up and up and up. Over 100,000 new WordPress blogs are created every day, there's 40 hours worth of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and there are 5,340 new websites created every hour.

Luckily, "content curation" is providing the answer - and it gives you an opportunity too. Content curation is where a trusted individual, or company, trawls through the web for all the information on a subject and then presents regular summaries and updates with links to the most relevant material.

All you have to do is find a good curator of a subject and follow their activity. You can trust them and rely on them to find the good stuff online, saving you time and effort.

But it can also provide a way of reducing information overload amongst your potential customers, thereby giving them a reason to stay loyal to you and make it more likely they will buy from you. Equally, if you curate content in specialist areas relating to your customer needs, you will gain reputation, visitors, followers - all the things you need to ensure your online presence is high.

So how do you curate content?

The first step is being "in the know" for your own specialist topic. Use something like Google Reader to collect all the RSS feeds of the top bloggers in your area or have something like Netvibes to pull together a range of websites and feeds on a particular topic. Whatever you do, you need to have the raw content to begin with.

But once you have content, how do you curate it and where can people get your collected materials? There are several options. Either you can add your content to your own blog, set up a new blog just for curated content, or add the material to a curation service.

If you want to add content to your own blog there are several software options you can choose from. For instance, there is CurationSoft or PageOne Curator. Both are similarly priced and do similar jobs, though PageOne Curator has more options.

Or if you want to add content to a curation service, then try something like ScoopIt. Alternatively, there is Paper.li which allows you to produce curated content which people can subscribe to via email. There is also Xydo which lets you curate content and send it out as an email newsletter.

But whichever system you choose, the mere fact that you are curating content will help your business because in the explosion of information which is happening right now, people are looking for clarity. The people who provide that will be the winners.