Content Curation

Also known as: Content Aggregation, Content Collection, Social Curation
Content Creation beginner
Reading time: 3 minutes

Content curation involves finding, selecting, and sharing high-quality content created by others while adding your own insights and commentary. It’s about becoming a trusted filter for your audience, helping them discover valuable information they might otherwise miss.

Why Content Curation Adds Value

Curation helps you provide consistent value to your audience even when you don’t have time to create original content from scratch. It positions you as someone who stays informed about industry trends and developments.

Build Thought Leadership by demonstrating your ability to identify and interpret valuable industry information, showcasing your expertise through informed commentary.

Maintain Publishing Consistency when original content creation resources are limited, ensuring your audience continues receiving value from your channels.

Strengthen Industry Relationships by highlighting and crediting other creators’ work, potentially leading to collaboration opportunities and mutual promotion.

Serve Your Audience Better by filtering through information overload to share only the most relevant and valuable content for their specific needs.

Effective Curation Strategies

Add Your Perspective by including commentary that explains why the content matters, how it relates to your audience, or what insights you’ve gained from it.

Provide Context by connecting curated content to current trends, your industry experience, or how it applies to your audience’s specific challenges.

Create Themed Collections by grouping related articles or resources around specific topics, making it easier for your audience to dive deep into subjects they care about.

Mix Content Types by curating articles, videos, infographics, podcasts, and other formats that appeal to different learning preferences in your audience.

Curation Best Practices

Credit Original Sources by always linking back to the original content and mentioning the author or publication to maintain ethical standards and build relationships.

Quality Over Quantity by being selective about what you share, focusing on content that genuinely provides value rather than sharing everything you find interesting.

Maintain Brand Alignment by ensuring curated content reflects your brand values and serves your audience’s interests rather than contradicting your messaging.

Balance with Original Content by using curation to supplement, not replace, your original content creation efforts and unique voice.

Building Your Curation Process

Identify Reliable Sources by following industry publications, thought leaders, and content creators who consistently produce valuable information relevant to your audience.

Develop Selection Criteria based on content quality, relevance to your audience, alignment with your brand values, and potential for adding meaningful commentary.

Create a Content Pipeline using tools like RSS readers, social media monitoring, or content discovery platforms to efficiently find curation opportunities.

Schedule Regular Curation by setting aside time weekly to review potential content and plan curated posts that fit your content calendar.

Measuring Curation Success

Engagement Metrics track how your audience responds to curated content compared to original content, helping you understand what resonates most.

Traffic and Referrals measure whether curated content drives meaningful website visits and contributes to your overall content marketing objectives.

Relationship Building can be tracked through increased mentions, collaboration opportunities, or networking connections that result from thoughtful curation.

Audience Growth shows whether your curation efforts help attract new followers who value your ability to filter and contextualize industry information.

Content curation, when done thoughtfully, becomes a valuable supplement to your content strategy that demonstrates industry expertise while providing consistent value to your audience, especially when efficiently sharing insights across platforms like social media, newsletters, and blog posts created in Google Docs and published to WordPress.

Examples

  • Weekly newsletter featuring top industry articles with curator commentary and insights
  • Social media posts sharing relevant third-party content with added perspective
  • Blog roundup post collecting best practices from multiple expert sources with analysis

Use Cases

  • Maintain consistent content publishing when original creation resources are limited
  • Position your brand as industry thought leader by sharing valuable insights
  • Build relationships with other content creators and industry influencers

Pro Tips

Always add your own commentary or insights to curated content rather than just sharing

Give proper credit and link back to original sources to maintain ethical standards

Maintain an 80/20 ratio: 80% original content, 20% curated content for balance

Focus on quality over quantity when selecting content to share with your audience

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Sharing content without adding any original value or commentary

Not crediting original authors or linking to source material properly

Curating content that doesn't align with brand values or audience interests

Over-relying on curation at the expense of original content creation

Frequently Asked Questions

How much curated content is too much?
Aim for no more than 20-30% of your content to be curated. Your audience follows you for your unique perspective, so original content should remain the majority.
Do I need permission to curate content?
Generally, sharing links with commentary falls under fair use, but always credit sources, link back to originals, and avoid copying full articles without permission.

Further Reading