Before we can appreciate the benefits of content curation, we must first grasp just how much content exists online. You probably know this already, but the Internet is a very noisy place. The amount of data and content is astonishing, and people add more every day.
When I started writing this article on Saturday afternoon (4/12/14), I did a Google search for “how much content is on the web.”
My search produced a gazillion results, including a website called WorldWideWebSize.com. This is the one I chose to click, and it turns out this site provides a daily estimated size of the World Wide Web. I have no idea whether the information is accurate, but it looked impressive. As of today: “The Indexed Web contains at least 1.79 billion pages (Saturday, 12 April, 2014).” Wow.
But I’m not really here today to discuss how much content is on the Internet. Instead, I wanted to explain a bit about how content curation helps people filter through all the noise.
A lot of the “noise” comes about because so many businesses want to be on the first page of a Google search. They create content to help them get there, as do their competitors. Some of the content is good, and some…not so much.
With so many contenders – and with so few achieving the goal of landing on the first page in today’s noisy online world – we are left with pages upon pages of potentially useful information. It’s important for people to know that great content does exist on the 2nd page – and even the 102nd page – of a Google search.
Luckily, we have content curation, which gives everyone the power to discover some of the “great” content out there while sorting through the rest.
Content Curation, Defined
Content curation provides us with an excellent way to filter through the noise. So, what is content curation? Blogger and author, Beth Kanter, explains it nicely:
“Content curation 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. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging, and publishing information.”
Many curators use tools to dig up relevant content based on keywords and topics. After finding the content, curators have several options.
One popular choice involves sharing the content, via links, through social media. Another approach curators can take is to surround the link(s) with their own original content, and then share it as a part of their own content strategy. I demonstrated this second option in the paragraph just above, with Beth Kanter’s quote.
Curating is a labor of love
Think about how a museum curator painstakingly examines, collects, and then display works of art. They keep their specific patrons in mind and curate specifically for them. It’s a labor of love.
Good content curators work their magic in very much the same way as museum curators. In other words, they also think about their audience first, and they devote their time and energy to find the best content for them.
In a nutshell, curators take on the noisy internet, headfirst. They dive in and dig out the content that is valuable for their followers….and they make it seem effortless.
Content curation offers potential benefits for curators as well. For one thing, as curators provide their online audiences with quality and relevant content, they often pick up more followers. More followers means more online sharing and relationship-building. These activities help curators gain credibility as their audience gains knowledge. A win-win for all involved, don’t you agree?
Back to You
So, do you believe in the power of content curation for discovering great content? I would love to hear your thoughts about it. Please feel free to leave comments below.
Related Resource:
Search Engine Journal Your In-Depth Guide to Content Curation
Jennifer Hanford
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14 Comments. Leave new
I think content curation is a very important part of being an influencer. You have to be able to show that you actually have some sort of interest in your niche.
The way I curate my content is not so much my keyword searches and alerts (not that there is anything wrong with that) I generally follow great people. From them they always come out with awesome content that I can share with my following!
What’s your absolute favorite method of content curation?
Thank you for your comments and insight, Blake. I completely agree with your POV, and especially the part of having an interest in your niche. It’s part of the “labor of love” concept to which I refer within this post. Following great people is very important, too, and I do the same. Are you familiar with Triberr? Not only is it a platform for finding and sharing great blogs, but it’s also a great way to network with like-minded people – and it’s my favorite method of content curation for both of those reasons.
I use everything mentioned, Blake! People (and Twitter lists), alerts, keywords and as Jenn mentioned, Triberr (which I LOVE)!
Great article! I love the information that you have! Always such great content, thanks again.
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I appreciate you, Rena! Thank you for your comments and for engaging with me (via j+ solutions) on G+.
Thanks, Rena! Appreciate you taking the time to comment and say so – Jenn did GREAT!
Jenn,
I really enjoyed this! The museum curator example is poignant. I’d add a distinction though. Museums curate and archive for future reference. Do online content curators do the something similar? Do you know of any good tools for content archival and retrieval? Because the issue I have is I can never find it when I need it! But I guess that’s why we have Google. 🙂
P.S. I had no idea that Dude loves content so!
Haha – love your comment this morning, Mark! And that’s a GOOD question. Let’s see what Jenn says!
Thank you, Mark. And yes, it seems Dude loves content, too. 🙂
That is a very good question about content archival/retrieval. I personally rely on Scoop.it for both. This tool “scrapes” the web for content based on the keywords I choose and also allows me to add my own from all over the web, thanks to a bookmarklet. I then have the option to share posts from Scoop.it for my social media audience. I can also save “scoops” in a newsletter form so I can refer back to them anytime. Pretty nifty. I find Pinterest is also a great place to save content for future reference.
Hope that helps, and thanks again!
[…] In a nutshell, curators take on the noisy internet, headfirst. They dive in and dig out the content that is valuable for their followers….and they make it seem effortless. Via bsquared.media […]
[…] The amount of content on the Internet is mind-blowing…but we still add more to it every day. What good is all this content if we can’t find it and share it, right? Scoop.it is a unique platform which makes both activities possible. The site has evolved significantly since its inception in 2011, but each iteration has only made the platform even more user-friendly. […]
I really agree with what you said Author that Internet is such a big cloud of noise. Searching for relevant information according to what is being searched is really challenging since many sources are making their rebuttals that the info they provide is directly relevant to what is being asked. Good thing with content curation is that it filters what needs to be filtered and it sorts the relevant topics from the irrelevant. Thank you for sharing this to us!
I appreciate your comments and compliments, David. It sounds like you appreciate content curation as well!
[…] As of July 10th, 2014, the Indexed Web contains at least 3.32 billion pages. I wrote an article for B Squared Online Media in April, 2014, and referenced the same source to find out how much content was available. Just a few short months […]