LF: Best content curation... help pls

Content curation seems to mean different things to different people.

First learn what curation really is. Here's part of one of my early articles about this topic:

Think of it this way: Curated content is like a conversation, where you’re telling your reader about cool things you’ve discovered.

In that conversation, you’re quoting what you’ve read, pointing to fun graphics and viral videos, and making it easy for your readers to see what you’re talking about, for themselves.

Or, to explain this in geek-speak:

Curated content is content gathered from relevant websites and offline sources, under “fair use” and editorial guidelines, and included in an article (or other work) as a reference. Usually, the reference isn’t just a link, but a short quotation or screenshot from the original article, or that information, paraphrased.

Curated content always includes the credit information: Who wrote the original article and/or who published it, and usually a link to the original work, as well. That’s not just a courtesy to the resource and a legal requirement, it’s also so your readers can click to read or see the entire work you’re talking about.

Some sites make it easy to use their content. YouTube is a good example, as they provide a “share this” link for each video. eZineArticles.com provides you with copy-and-paste articles. Sites with liberal Creative Commons licenses also make it easy and completely legal to use some or all of their content.

If you’ve ever posted a YouTube video at your website, or shared an article from eZineArticles.com, or included a great, viral image in a post at your website, you’ve already been curating.

(That's from Curated Content - What it is, what it isn't )

There are a few points to keep in mind.

First, you're curating to provide a service for your readers. You're showing that you're an expert in the field, and that you respect your readers' time. So, you've already done the websurfing for them, and identified the must-read and must-see material, online (and sometimes offline).

As part of your curating, you're featuring snippets or sneak previews, so your readers can quickly tell if it's a link they want to visit.

Second, your collection of links and videos (etc.) should be so good, when people go to Twitter or Facebook or whatever, they link to your article or post, not to the individual links you've shared.

A really bright, helpful VA could do this for you. Keep in mind, your curation needs to be focused, and reflect a deep understanding of what's new and important in the niche. Otherwise, your "curated" content will be as useless as the links generated by a lot of content curation plugins.

Remember, content curation is simply saying, "Look at the cool news and information I found in our favorite niche."

If you look at it from that viewpoint, you should be okay.