Content Curation: The Next Big Thing?

Unless I am getting this all wrong, content curation, the term or any derivative of, has been very popular recently. So much so that top bloggers and news sites are little by little “mentioning” about it. Content curation, as I was able to gather could be good for many aspects, providing of course, just like anything else, is done properly. I received a comment on my recent post (more on that later), that describes in one way, what “properly” in this context means..

Thank you for the great review of CurationSoft! One of the things that might help people understand this as a totally different tool from article spinning or simply aggregating content from places onto your blogs is that the human element is required to do good curation.

Without commentary to make sense of the topic your write about (and including 3rd party information with it) it is just a list of links. With your “thought leadership” added, it becomes a truly new piece of work at adds value to your readers, much like what you see on the very large blog sites who do the same thing. It’s what makes people subscribe, come back to the site often, and builds links that help you in search – Jack Humphrey

Just like blogging and productivity tools, content curation tools are starting to surge. Soon, and don’t be surprised if you start seeing articles about “the best content curation practices”.

What am I really up to here with this post about content curation anyway? Well, two things…

First, I will really love to here your thoughts about content curation. Do you think that…

curating content will be the next big thing?
it will replace blogging as we know?
it will be a good marketing strategy?
it will help in social engagement?
it will be good for SEO?

Second, I would like to introduce you to a tool that I have been using to help me curate content. While it may not be the best of the best, for now, it is a tool that does its job well, and integrates with virtually any platform (WordPress, Blogger, even on Google+ and LiveWriter). If you know of any other curation tool that merits a shoutout, please let me know.

CurationSoft is the tool that I am talking about. I won’t be telling you much about it here as I already wrote an article, about it, on Hesham’s blogging contest. Please take a moment to head over there and leave your thoughts. I do hope to discuss and hear your views about this tool further with you there. In any event, here’s a quick video presentation of what you can do with CurationSoft (sorry about the intro, I got a bit excited, lol).

The article: CurationSoft: Creating Content Has Never Been Easier

Download Your Free Version here

While I am at it, I would like to thank Hesham for yet again organizing such a great initiative. The man knows what he is doing when it comes to creating and organizing contest. It might look easy but it is not, so kudos to him.

Contest is a great marketing strategy for everyone who participates in it. Obviously, the success of the initiative will never be possible without the active participation of the contestants and the community who take the time to support their favorite bloggers.

Last but not least, I would also like to extend my thanks for this awesome sponsors, who helped with their generous offers to make this happen.

The Sponsors:

Main sponsors $500

Ideal Sponsor $300

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Basic Sponsors $150