Everything you need to know about curation in 2016: 8 content curation best practices

If you’re in the dark about content curation, you’ve come to the right place.

Earlier this week, our CEO Guillaume guest hosted for Express Writers‘s weekly #ContentWritingChat on Twitter, where he discussed content curation tips, best practices, tools, and pretty much everything you could ever possibly need to know about content curation with a community of eager and inspired writers. In case you missed it, we’ve put together some of the exclusive highlights from the chat below:

1. What is content curation exactly?

Content curation is a great way to build a large audience by adding value to other people’s content. It’s about discovering and publishing content that is relevant to your audience, and it is an essential component of successful content marketing.

@writingchat A1: so content curation is about discovering, selecting, enriching and publishing relevant content. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

Additional insights from Kristen Dunleavy, Grenae Thompson and Kyle Murray below:

A1. Content curation happens when you sift through the world of content, find posts relevant to your audience & share! #contentwritingchat

— Kristen Dunleavy (@KristenWritesIt) March 8, 2016

A1 Curation adds your own insights, examples, experience w/someone else’s content #ContentWritingChat https://t.co/KWhPZf2h0p

— Grenae Thompson (@DGGT) March 8, 2016

A1) Content is reflection of your values, concerns abt the world you live in. Curation is a method to advance the convo #ContentWritingChat

— Kyle Murray (@TheKyleMurray) March 8, 2016

Also it should be noted here that curated content is not duplicate content. For more on this, read this article!

2. How does content curation fit into content creation?

The consensus on this was simple: you can’t have creation without curation. According to Guillaume, we should all have a balance between creating content and curating content:

A2: so a good way to see it is as continuum: nobody’s 100% creating and nobody’s 100% curating. We all do a mix. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

Give content kudos! While it’s important to create great content ourselves, it’s also extremely effective to recognize and promote others who are also creating great content. Curating content can also be a huge source of inspiration.

A2 As a content creator, I CANNOT create without curation. Finding/curating great content/news/etc is huge inspiration #ContentWritingChat

— Julia McCoy (@JuliaEMcCoy) March 8, 2016

3. What is a good mix of content creation and curation (80/20, etc.)?

Some say that as a content marketer you should allocate 20% of your time to creation, and 80% to distribution. Is that really the case? The key here is balance. It’s essential to provide your audience with a mix of valuable content that’s both original and from other sources. Your content should always be aimed at providing value for your audience and less about promoting your brand. While there may not be an exact ratio you should strictly adhere to, bottom line is that the majority of your content should be useful to your audience.

A3: There is no golden rule. My own rule: create as long as you’re good; curate the rest to reach your content goals. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

A3 Balance is KEY. Don’t overdo curation; add your voice. That said, share others’ great content consistently! #ContentWritingChat

— Julia McCoy (@JuliaEMcCoy) March 8, 2016

4. What are some ways to find great content to curate?

The discussion was packed with suggestions for great content curation tips and tools to add to your content curation arsenal. You can use curation tools like Scoop.it to help you discover relevant, top quality content you may never have otherwise found in minutes to publish directly to your blog. BuzzSumo is another great tool for finding out what your audience is talking about and for discovering top influencers in your space to amplify your content. Other methods of finding great content to curate include email newsletters, using Twitter lists, or subscribing to influential blogs in your industry to see what topics people are discussing. 

A4: But also email newsletters you can subscribe to from influential blogs in your industry. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

A4 I use #TwitterLists, my email subscription, tried few tools including @scoopit #contentwritingchat https://t.co/Yg5bnNhw7n

— Varun Kumar ☺ (@varunkr842) March 8, 2016

A4: Follow your favourite hashtag, sign up to newsletters, blogs and updates on @feedly or @reddit #contentwritingchat

— Tajah Brown (@Tajah_Brown) March 8, 2016

Here are some additional ways you can curate content on your blog!

5. What are best practices for content curation?

One of the most important things to keep in mind when curating content is to always give proper credit to the original source, and never try to assume credit for something you didn’t create!

A5: Best practices are good sense + ethics. Attribute, quote and respect the original content creator. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

Other best practices include making it common practice to always read the full piece of content before sharing, and using an editorial calendar to curate your social media to prepare your audience to receive your content. See below:

6. What are some don’ts for content curation?

Don’t be unethical: what’s the biggest sin in all the content curation land? Being unethical. Don’t do it. Don’t be a content thief. If you keep your content curation ethical, however, the benefits are huge. Ethical content curation is a win-win technique that saves time, boosts visibility, and provides your audience with credible and valuable content. Case in poi

Don’t curate for search engines: curate for your audience instead!

A6: Don’t be unethical. Attribute, use short quotes and link back. https://t.co/Jfh8iS5n8k https://t.co/8GFFmnI02E #ContentWritingChat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

A6 #ContentWritingChat Don’t: 1) steal content & claim it’s yrs, 2) use sensational headlines (esp if aud is smart) https://t.co/AcVZhm3yV8

— Tony Dimmock (@Tony_DWM) March 8, 2016

7. What are some of the best tools for content curation?

There’s quite a few tools out there that can help you with your content curation. Of course, we’re a little biased here and recommend using Scoop.it to help you automate the discovery and distribution of relevant, highly-valuable content for your audience. Additional insight below:

A7 As always, @gdecugis ‘s tool @scoopit! @BuzzSumo for research, I like @Buffer for scheduling, @googledocs to notate #ContentWritingChat

— Julia McCoy (@JuliaEMcCoy) March 8, 2016

8. Open Q&A session with Guillaume!

To conclude the chat, Guillaume answered some remaining questions.  

@irishtara I’ve found working in sessions and scheduling things in advance helped. Weekly or couple of times a week. #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

@alberMoire @nuzzel is great – always scan it (if only to check our own content made it there ;-)). #contentwritingchat

— Guillaume Decugis (@gdecugis) March 8, 2016

Still want more?

For more insights from the chat, we invite you to check out the Express Writer recap here. And if that’s still not enough to satiate your content curation appetite, check out this article.

As always, if you have questions, comments, or anything you’d like to add about content curation, let us know in the comments below!

And if you want to see how Scoop.it Content Director can help with your content curation and content marketing efforts, sign up for a demo today!