Recently I was travelling to L.A and came across this gentleman. We had coffee together and then just out of curiosity I enquired about his profession. œHey what do you do for living? He raised his grey brows and replied in a hush hush voice. I was just able to make out something similar to content curator.

Well Content Curation is fast catching up with other profiles in the world of content marketing but still many prefer to proclaim themselves to be a blogger or at best an author rather than being a curator.

The first thing to ponder about is the definition of Content Curator. Well if you spend time to post on Facebook, tweet on Twitter and have started assuming that you are very close to a content Curator, I would humbly request to have some decency for this profession.

Just because you have an SLR and you post some catchy images of rail tracks or a sunrise in London you cannot be a photographer.  How about you can treat cough and cold so you proclaim yourself to be a doctor. Will it be worthy? I dont think so. The same way just by mixing data from glittering sites, knocking the doors of wiki is never going to land you in the shoes of a curator.

To be precise Content Curator in the words of wiki can be defined as follows:

œContent curation is the process of collecting, organizing and displaying information relevant to a particular topic or area of interest.

A good curated content is one which has all the spices added to it in a proper manner ranging from information, opinions, knowledge, humor, controversy and of course your own views.

So is it like creation and curation are two faces of the same coin?

Here comes the unresolved issue. As preached by some of the renowned icons of industry like Mel Buchanan, Brit Morin of Brit.co, Nate Silver curating content is a very delicate thread which if not handled properly will not be worthed at all. Recently I got my hands on my all time most admired content curator Mel Buchanan who clearly defined what it is really mean to be a content curator  in a recent post here on "An Open Letter to Everyone Using the Word ˜Curate Incorrectly on the" .

This art of curation depends heavily on the fact that how well you can collect the data for your niche, followed by the way you create it into something productive and finally how well this curated content contributes in the enhancement of knowledge you want to give out to your readers. So it would not be wrong to say that-

Content Curation = Collect + Create + Contribute

The three Cs which can transform an ordinary content into something more meaningful and valuable. One of the subtle issues faced by many in this field is the correlation to be made between different chunks of data collected for curation. Well my advice in this case would be to look for an artistic correlation approach rather than going for a logical one. The reason being at times logically correlated content tampers the real idea behind it. The second thing to be noted here is that it is always good to mix the curated ingredients and cook something which has been purely written by you. Although it takes time but the outcome is quite appreciable.

How can you start content curation?

1. Be an avid reader.

2. Make Google, Yahoo, Alltop, Mashable, Buzz feed your all time buddies “ The reason being in order to curate the content for your job it is important that you have the data. And this data can easily be availed from the above sites. There are many more for the same so keep checking them out.

3. Get into the habit of bookmarking the pages you like. Or to be extra smart you can always use snipping tools to take down your favorite quotes, information or any other thing to your system. Tools like Awesome screeshot or Fireshot or even the snipping tool available in windows 7 can be of great help.  

4. Be social - A lot of content can be collected from social media. Therefore be the first one to do this.

These are some of the tips to help you out in collecting data. In order to create a curated content you can come up with different styles of writing. For instance topics like:

1. œTOP 20 Content Curating Tips,is one of the ways to do this.

2. You can also create a user generated data or even a humorous topic for your readers. Tricks like infographs or a pictorial blog also play well with your readers.

3. Now lets talk about the some expert tips in order to enhance our content curating skills. One of the important things in this regard is how well you can relate your content to your audience.

4. If you have borrowed content from other author do mention the source.

5. If you regularly come up with curated content make it a habit to do it on a fix hour of day, week or month that suites you the best. As this will ensure that your audience keeps waiting for your next act and you deliver them on time.

6. Get into guest blogging domain. It is not a mandate to come up with your content every time. Its always good to ask the curators of your niche to contribute to your site or domain.

7. Try to make your presence on every platform. And do not miss the big platforms like Facebook.

Some Pro Tips

“ Have you ever wondered about the difference between the two adages?

œThe body leaves the sole versus œThe sole leaves the body.

The difference in the above comes from the way the two sentences have been used and the meaning they are reflecting from their contextual texture. Content curation is something similar to this. For being a content curator you must be able to separate grains from the chaff.