How to Effectively Curate Content

An entrepreneur, educator, and former corporate executive based in Michigan, Scott Westerman has held positions in fields such as publishing, technology, and telecommunications. Scott Westerman leads Ramirez and Clark, a publishing firm in Michigan catering to independent authors, and he also runs the websites RockAndRollRevisisted.com and Keener13.com. He handles all content creation and curates the websites.

Effectively curating content breaks through the clutter and supports the brand and operations of a business or website. Usually, the first step to successful content curation is mastering the audience. Businesses and other groups must know what readers expect from them and who their audience is. This lets them precisely curate content that appeals to their target audience, instead of filling websites with information of little actual value to the reader.

Once companies know who their audience is, they must put their own spin on the content they are curating. This doesn’t mean re-working the content into something new. Instead, it refers to adding a brief explanation or introduction to the content that lets the brand’s personality shine through.

Although companies can add their personality to the mix, they must give credit to the original author. This means linking or tagging the original source of the content. Content curation is not plagiarism, nor is it content scraping. It is content sharing, and sharing means that the original creator gets recognition for their work.

Finally, organizations must manage their curating process. Curating content is a time-consuming task that quickly becomes overwhelming when done manually. Instead of constantly scrolling through websites searching for quality content, businesses will do well to implement a content curation tool that makes finding relevant content easier. This helps companies consistently curate quality relevant content, thereby successfully drawing in target readers.