Curate Content by Curating People

How do you curate content to share online? You do it by curating people. Be a people broker.
Is your Twitter feed worth reading by you?

Would you like your own Facebook Page?

Let me tell you a story.

Let’s go back to the summer of 2004 when my sister and her friends came to visit me here in Southern California. They were curious about the Southern California lifestyle.

“Where do you want to eat?”

“Anywhere but a chain,” they said.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the Cheesecake Factory or Pizza Hut, but they’re the same here as they are in Northern California, that’s the point of a chain. They wanted local flavor.

“What about Wahoo’s?” I asked. “It’s a local chain.”

That phrase “local chain” got them curious. So we went to Wahoo’s who started here in Orange County in 1988 and they loved it. They had a great meal and got to experience part of Orange County’s local culture.

Fringe Players

Chris Brogan, in a Women in Business Today video said:

“All of the experts… we all see it all. … If …300,000 people are tweeting Mashable. Who cares? You know what? Go find interesting fringe players that no one’s ever heard of and treat them like they’re the experts. You’ll have more fun.”

Curation Tools

Now, I’ve talked about being a people curator before, so if you’ve followed quality people, why not use that to your benefit?

You don’t need a third party tool to tell you what to tweet. You’re better than just another account that tweets Mashable, BuzzFeed, or TechCrunch.

Don’t get me wrong, you’ll see Gary Vaynerchuk, Ted Rubin, Mashable, and other well-known people in my tweets. But you’ll also read from Carol Stephen, Ruby Rusine, and Amy Donohue.

I’ve found some of my own gems, “local flavor,” or “fringe players” as Chris Brogan calls them. They’re on my “Social Friends” list on Twitter. I know, if I want reliable content to share, I can go right there. I don’t need some fancy tool to curate content other than my own Twitter lists.

Win-Win-Win

When you curate people and share their content, it shows that you’re a social person. It shows that you reciprocate. It helps promote your new connections. Your audience benefits from another perspective and a local flavor.

That’s a win — times three.

Content curation is as simple as curating people.