Content Curation for People Interested in Content Curation

If you haven’t heard, the new buzzword at the social media water cooler is content curation, and there are several trying to define this “new” shiny thing.

• Ferguson Consulting Group, in their take on what is content curation report it’s “discovering, , gathering, and presenting the best possible content that surrounds a specific subject.”  There’s no creation of original content.
• Beth Kanter from Beth’s Blog (she writes for the non-profit niche) cites that thing curating we do is “ the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme.”

And if you go to just about any blogger writing on content curation, you’ll find any variety of verbiage that says the same thing. Content curation is researching and presenting the very best content on a subject. I might add that commentary on the curated material just might add a touch of context for the reader.

Think about this way. When I think of curation, I think of an art museum. I also think how lost most people would be if some smart whiz didn’t placard explanations of what those dead artist where thinking and smoking that moved some whacko to splatter oil paint on canvas.

To be honest, we have been curating content since the first caveman told the very first fish tail. Some schmuck thought the story (content) was pretty damn cool and pinned it on wooly mammoth parchment. We just do it with Pinterest now — probably to appease animal rights activists. Or, perhaps, wooly mammoth parchment is in short supply.

Instead of being snarky about this stuff, let me do some curating on content.

The Very Best 10 Content Curation Sites on Content Curation

1.  Content Curation Marketing: Probably the very best curation site I’ve found. It covers industry and business, tips and best practices, industry trends, curation 101, and insights.
2. The Unanticipated Benefits of Content Curation
3. Understanding Content Curation
4. 5 Compelling Reasons To Curate And Repurpose Your Content
5. Content Curation Sneaks Up on Marketers
6. B2B CONTENT MARKETING MODELS I: THE WEEKLY/MONTHLY CONTENT ROUNDUP
7. Sources, Tools & Tricks To Curate Content… From Your Smartphone
8. Tips for Getting Started with Content Curation
9. Why IFTTT Could Be the Best Blogging Tool Ever
10. How to Maintain Great Content Curation

There you have it, the very best on the web for content curation. You do know, however, this all changes tomorrow. Enjoy.

One for the road: Curation’s two most important PR assets?  And you shouldn’t miss this Robin Good presentation on content curation and its value.