Tips for curating good content

So a huge part of what I do involves content curation. It's not necessarily something I learned in University as a journalism major, but it's a skill that serves me very well as a journalist.

I realized that there are things about curation that I didn't know when I first started doing what I do, so I thought I would just share some of my best practices for curating good content.

Make sure your tech is working for you. 

So, I know a lot of people whose tech doesn't really work as hard for them as it should. They have a smart phone, an ipad, wearables and other technology, yet they couldn't give you a basic run down of the day's biggest stories. These are basically people who get stale 2 day old news from the Facebook news ticker.

As I became more interested curating better stories, I started downloading more apps to ensure that everything I needed to know was in the first place I looked. For curating news stories, I use aggregates like Feedly and Newswhip. And for curating trend and reactionary articles, I look at apps like Pocket and Medium.

Even if you're not sending out a newsletter or email blast of curated stories each day, starting off with the biggest or most talked about stories is a great way to get you in the right mindset for talking about and covering the stories of the day.

How to become a better music curator. 

Music curating is a bit harder because, unlike news, you're never going to find everything you need to hear conveniently in one place. Some people subscribe to music industry newsletters but I find that to be super impersonal and not necessarily geared to my specific tastes.

My advice for curating playlists is to learn to hunt. I spend hours each week hunting, downloading, writing about, and passing along new music for others to hear. One way to make sure that the well never runs dry is to keep a small list of sites where you typically find new music. Then make it a routine to check these sites every day, week, or whatever increment of time you choose.

Another way to become a better curator is to always have your ears open. Whether I'm at the grocery store, a party, or watching TV, if I hear a song I think people who read my blog might like, I Shazam it and throw it into a memo on my phone.

Curating visual content 

Curating visual content is the hardest type of curating, in my opinion. Even though the internet is FULL of images, creating moodboards and staying on top of all the visual content that's out there is a really deliberate process.

Websites I love for curating include tumblr, pinterest, and Instagram. These sites and apps are king because they let you tailor your experience in a way that ensures you only see the types of things you have expressed previous interest in.

Another tip for visual curation is to think long and hard about who or what inspires you. I know that's a bit obvious but that's an essential part of planning content beyond one post.