The word “curation” has become very popular in the social media world, as practitioners look for opportunities to reach their communities in a way that adds value. Not surprisingly, there are different opinions about what curation actually means and why it’s helpful.
What is it, actually?
Imagine that you are at the Prado Museum in Madrid or the Louvre in Paris. You’re interested in European art, but you haven’t the slightest idea where to start. Are you looking for Spanish artists like Velázquez? The current exhibition on Impressionist art? Sculpture? By the way, you only have an hour in this fictitious scene. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have a museum curator with you? The curator understands art, knows her way around the museum, and can take you where you need to go, explaining the significance of what you see along the way.
Content curation is like that, but the museum is the Internet. The curators are, ideally, people with expertise in a particular area, gathering the most valuable information from multiple sources, and presenting it to you with context. This is typically presented to you in a blog post, an article, or an online newspaper service like paper.li – and many other creative ways. A talented content curator will understand what is important to his or her community of followers, and unearth valuable content hidden among the noise of the Web.
How can you find good curators? A simple hashtag search for a topic on Twitter or Facebook will reveal those who are curating content in that area. For example, searching “#eventprofs” on Twitter yields a long list of active users who surface content about meetings and events. Take a look at the Twitter lists created by those users: Often those reveal more contacts worth following. Also, visit socialmention.com and search for a topic. The results will feature “Top Users,” which is a good source of curators.
Would you like to become a content curator? First, identify a need that isn’t being met. Are you speaking to professionals in a niche industry who may be having a hard time finding information? Then, look at your followers—or those you’d like to reach—and see what they’re talking about. (This is called “listening,” but it’s essentially research.) Finally, when you find content that is interesting to you, and perhaps not easily found, share it!
An earlier version of this blog was originally published on MeetingsNet.com.