The ubiquitous presence of social networks today makes it exceedingly easy for anyone to share anything on the web with anyone else they choose.  Twitter has brought the sharing content of any sort, from the most inspiring TED Talks to Bubb Rubb’s whistletips, to within just one click. This social media phenomenon is called content curation, and the ease of sharing it represents can have its downsides for those of us trying to establish a presence as a subject matter expert on the web.

So how do you stand out from the pack when, as social media content strategist Jay Baer recently wrote in a blog post on Convince and Convert,

Content sharing is today’s preferred method of content curation. And it works. 25% of tweets contain links, but 56% of retweets contain links.

Here are my humble suggestions for responsible and successful content curation:

  1. Read THEN Share – A 140-character tweet isn’t always the best representation of the content behind link it precedes.  Make sure you actually click through the links you choose share and, while reading, consider whether or not this content would be truly valuable to your audience.  If not, simply move on.
  2. Know Thyself – If you’re truly passionate about the nature of the content you share, your audience will know.  In addition, you’ll be more likely to carefully sort through the piles of content on the web to find the best nuggets to share with your audience.  This doesn’t mean you need to pick just one specific niche and stick with it, but pretending to be an expert on everything via content curation won’t work for you either.
  3. Know Thy Audience – Be familiar with your audience and the reasons why they have chosen to follow you in the first place.  Make sure you are distributing the right content, to the right people, at the right time.  Anything else is likely to be glanced over.
  4. Just Be Yourself – Remember that the purpose of social networks is to connect people.  Behind every Twitter handle is a person at a keyboard just like you.  Just because you’re talking through a machine doesn’t mean you should act like one.

Good luck, and good sharing.