Approaches to Curation

Another approach is to share curated content (with or without commentary) via social media sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. For instance, the Inbound Marketing Agency, Kuno Creative has developed a nice following of nearly 8,000 followers on Twitter by sharing its own original content along with related content from HubSpot, SEOMoz, and other sources in the inbound marketing space.

Last but not least is a hybrid approach that combines original content and different forms of curated content. Because a hybrid approach combines a variety of content, both original and curated, it creates a particularly rich experience for viewers. A nice example of a hybrid approach is CMO.com, a website developed by Adobe for marketing professionals, which presents original content along with high-quality 3rd party content. According to Compete, CMO.com generated about 10,000 unique visitors in January, 2012.

Thematic news channel on a specific topic / theme curated for a specific "tribe"-audience. A newsradar is made up of selected news stories that have been edited, re-titled and personalized for the specific context-theme and tribe subscribing to that channel.

A link list is a dynamic and structured list of links on a particular topic. The list can either be curated by a company (e.g., Techmeme) or by a user community (e.g., HackerNews or Inbound.org). Techmeme is a structured link list and is one of our favorite sources of technology news. According to Compete.com, Techmeme generated about 50,000 unique visitors in January, 2012. Not too shabby.

A collection is a bundle of articles, images, videos, or websites, that relate to a specific theme. For instance, SEOMoz created a “Social Media Marketing Guide” that lists 101 of the best social media sites that you can use to market your business online. By creating this list and keeping it updated, this “guide” has become an important resource for social media marketers.

Periodic summaries are daily, weekly, monthly or annual summaries, often including a list of links, around a particular theme. These summaries can be presented online (e.g., The Lede by CopyBlogger), via email (e.g., The Moz Top 10), or in magazine format (e.g., HackerMonthly). An example of an email summary is the CEA SmartBrief, put out by the Consumer Electronics Association. The CEA SmartBrief is an excellent way for the CEA to stay in touch with its primary audience in between its major trade shows, such as CES in Las Vegas.

Content with commentary is when you identify one or more 3rd party articles (or other media) and then add your own point of view. Microblogging often follows this approach. One of the best examples of content with commentary is Daring Fireball, a blog that focuses on Apple’s strategy and products. With 3rd party content and commentary, and the occasional full-length blog post, DaringFireball has built a dedicated following (30,000 unique visitors in January, 2012, according to Compete).