A Beginners Guide to Content Creation by Kristina Cisnero.
From the post:
From Songza to reddit, content curation is a huge part of the social web as we know it. We’re all on the same mission to find the absolute best material to enjoy and to share with our followers. This is especially true for businesses, whose customers and broader online audience follow them based on an expectation of quality content in return.
What is content curation?
In simple terms, the process of content curation is the act of sorting through large amounts of content on the web and presenting the best posts in a meaningful and organized way. The process can include sifting, sorting, arranging, and placing found content into specific themes, and then publishing that information.
In other words, content curation is very different from content marketing. Content curation doesn’t include creating new content; it’s the act of discovering, compiling, and sharing existing content with your online followers. Content curation is becoming an important tactic for any marketing department to maintain a successful online presence. Not only that, but content curation allows you to provide extra value to your brand’s audience and customers, which is key to building those lasting relationships with loyal fans.
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It had not occurred to me that “content curation” might need definition. Kristina not only defines “content curation” but also illustrates why it is a value-add.
Being written in a web context, curation is defined relative to web content but curation can include (particularly with a topic map), any content of any form at any location. Some content may be more accessible than other content but web accessibility isn’t a requirement for curation. (Unless that is one of your requirements.)
Curated content can save your staff time and provide accurate results. Not to mention enabling informal knowledge to persist despite personnel changes. (Corporate memory)