Five Great Tools for Content Curation

As we've talked about in the previous posts in this week's blog series on content curation, as a content curator, your first and primary job is searching out valuable content that is relevant to your readers. The time you save creating original careers industry content will be spent hunting for it. While seeking the best content can be time-consuming, here are five tools that can help make the search easier.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Enter specific keywords and Google will send latest published content from everything it searches. Receive information via email or your Google Reader.

Google Alerts is a free service that lets you choose keywords and then tells you whenever new content has been posted using those keywords. You can find articles, blogs, stories, videos, and other content to share as soon as it has been indexed by Google. All you need to do is enter keywords and Google Alerts will either send you results via email or send them to your Google Reader account.

If you refine your Google Alerts keywords, you'll get more relevant results. One way to do this is to use quotation marks. When you search for 'interview preparation' rather than the terms interview and preparation separately, it will only bring up results where the exact phrase 'interview preparation' is used (and not every mention of the words 'interview' or 'preparation'). You can also use Boolean search terms such as AND, NOT, and so on to refine searches. (You'll find it takes some time to refine your Google Alerts to get the types of results you're looking for.)

Google Reader

Google Reader – http://www.google.com/reader

Organize your feed subscriptions so you can keep track of the latest content from your favorite sources.

Google Reader is a tool that lets you subscribe to certain blogs and websites. If you use Google Alerts, you'll start to see the same sites popping up again and again with content you can use. You can use Reader to follow these sites directly. Just like Google Alerts, Google Reader offers advanced search features that help you refine your search and cut down on sifting time.

There are a number of free and paid mobile apps that help you use Google Reader on your smart phone, such as Feedr and Reeder. These are great if you're searching for content on-the-go using your mobile device. You can quickly review your feeds and even share directly from within the app.

Facebook Lists
Facebook originally launched its Lists feature to protect users' privacy, but its Subscribe tool has made it a great way to search for content through this social media site. It works in much the same way as Google Reader, but everything is done through Facebook.

Journalists, bloggers, celebrities, organizations and others whose content your readers like may have a Subscribe button on their profiles. When you subscribe to their page it adds their news to your feed. You can then customize those settings to make sure you're getting the content you want.

Twitter
Twitter makes it easy to find content by searching for keywords using its hashtags. Hashtags are simply keywords with a hash (#) in front of them. A few examples would be #interviewquestions, #resumetips, #careerchange and #jobsearch. When you enter one of these terms, you get the latest posts that include them.

Twitter Lists are similar to Google Reader. They filter tweets and help you organize them. Anyone can make a list and you can follow them. What you then see is all of the sources where they're pulling their content from. So, if you find a Twitter user such as a famous marketer or a careers industry expert who shares great content, you can subscribe to them and to any of their lists. This gives you their top picks, which you can then share with your followers.

SmartBrief on Your Career
If you're just getting started with content curation, one good (FREE) email newsletter to sign up for is SmartBrief on Your Career. It's a content curation site itself, but it can lead you to resources that you can then curate for use with your own clients. The editors of SmartBrief on Your Career choose articles from "thousands of news sites, blogs, and other sources." You can start your content curation with SmartBrief, but be sure to provide your own insight and analysis to the articles you share.

Remember: Curation, Not Collection
These are all easy ways to get content to share with jobseekers, but remember that curation isn't the same as collection. Be selective about what you share, making sure it is relevant to your readers. Give them only what you think will be helpful or interesting to them, and then add your own comments or insights. With content curation, less is more. Don't share 25 links — instead, share 2, or 5.

Other ideas:

Social Mention - http://www.socialmention.com/
Search social networks for content based on keywords and receive results via email. Also has a widget for tracking realtime news.

Monitter - http://monitter.com/
For Twitter search – Get real time and trending search results based on keywords

Social bookmarking sites
Most social bookmarking sites make it easy to keep track of content you find interesting so that you can go back to it later – Delicious, Diigo, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc.

Instapaper – http://www.instapaper.com/
Tool for saving content to read later. Great for when you come across something interesting but just don’t have even a few minutes to look at it.

Alltop - http://my.alltop.com/
Organize your favorite content sources so you can access them easily. You can also share your collections.

Flipboard - http://flipboard.com/
App for iPhone, iPad and Android that organizes your content sources into a magazine format in which you can “flip” the pages with your finger. You can also share from within the app.

Next Up (Last Post in the Series): Do's and Don'ts of Content Curation

Where To Find Careers Content to Curate

This is the third post in a weeklong series on content curation. I've talked about what content curation is, and shared some best practices for content curation. But I'll bet you're wondering, "Where do I find the stuff to share?"

Where To Find Content to Curate 
The idea of content curation sounds simple enough. You find content your readers would like and share it with them, either summarizing it or just adding your opinions somewhere in the post. But where do you start? There's obviously a LOT of great content out there (and lots of NOT-SO-GREAT content too!). Once you start curating content, you'll realize that it takes a bit of focus and creativity to find really good content — content that is worth sharing.

Scheduling Your Content Search
The best way to find content is to work it into your regular routine. It's much better than spending a whole day tracking down content all at once. It's better because when you spend a little time each day, you find fresh content that's up to date. You also keep yourself from burning out searching the Internet for things to share. While you're curating content, you're also learning new things yourself — so the time you spend on content curation each day can be like a little mini "learning break" for you.

Choose a time to set aside each day. Try to find a time when you're most likely to enjoy the search. For example, first thing in the morning before you start your day, it might be fun to scan the Web looking for news. Or, you might prefer to do it at night while you're catching up on some TV.

Searching for content is also a great activity to do when you're killing time waiting for something. You might have 10 spare minutes before the kids come home, 20 minutes while waiting for a ballet lesson to finish, or a half hour while waiting on hold with tech support. These little nooks and crannies of time aren't great for serious, focused work, but you can use them to find content. You might not take the time to do the commenting at this point, but simply locating the content is going to give you a leg up when it comes time to actually curating. I recommend using Evernote to store your un-curated clips. You can start an Evernote Note for specific subjects and then copy-and-paste links into the Note for later use. (Have I mentioned how much I love Evernote?)

Resisting Shiny Object Syndrome
The Internet is full of shiny objects that can distract you and lead you astray. When you're looking for content, it's easier than ever to get distracted. You'll find something of interest to you and start reading, even though you have no intention of sharing it.

First of all, set aside your content search time and designate it for only searching. During that time, say to yourself, "I'm only looking for content to share." Every time you stop on a site and begin reading, ask yourself if it's something you might share. If it's not, save the link so that you can read it later in your spare time. (Again, this is a great use for an Evernote note called "To Read." Simply copy the link and paste it into the note, and move on!)

Search with an Open Mind
You need to stick to the task at hand, but don't get stuck in a rut. When you ask yourself whether the content in question is sharable, be open-minded. Try to see if there's a way you can tie it into your niche. Look for creative ideas from other industries. If you can do this successfully, you'll come up with unique content other resume writers wouldn't find.

For example, if you have a blog on executive career search, you may share an article on the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. You might reference how 007 works with a team to achieve outrageous objectives. If you work with students, you might share content about zombies. Why? Because this will attract their attention AND it's important to teach them about not "following the pack" when it comes to job search.

Think outside the box and don't forget that you can also share content you disagree with. This often gets the best reaction from readers.

Watch your audience's response to your content and judge whether or not it was a good find based on that response. Don't make the mistake of choosing content you like; always choose content that your readers will engage with.

Next up: Five Great Tools for Content Curation

Best Practices in Content Curation

Building on yesterday's post on content curation, today I want to share with you some "best practices" for curating content in your career services business.

As I talked about yesterday, content curation is all about providing jobseekers with the information they're looking for — and adding value to that content at the same time. It isn't difficult to do successfully, as long as you use these guidelines.

Know What Jobseekers Want
Successful content curation requires that you choose content that your readers (jobseekers) will find useful or intriguing. Start by understanding your readers and what they're looking for online, information-wise. The better you know their interests and needs, the better you'll be able to deliver the most relevant content. Some jobseekers are interested in the resume (they may have one that's not working, or they may be looking to create one for the first time); others want to know how social media can help in their job search (LinkedIn strategies especially); while others may be in the interviewing stage and be looking for ideas on questions to ask or salary negotiation techniques. Understanding what topics you can curate is the first step.

Follow Other Curators
The best way to learn any skill is to imitate those that came before. Follow other content curators and see not only what kind of information they share — but how they go about doing it. You can learn a great deal about sharing content and engaging readers by simply paying attention to the methods of the experts. Wendy Enelow does an excellent job of this for career services professionals in the Career Thought Leaders E-Bridge newsletter.

Here's a snippet from the Nov. 1 E-Bridge (Issue #20):

Choose the Right Tool
There are many good tools to help you deliver content to your readers. In fact, there are too many. Resist the temptation to bounce around among different tools. Instead, choose one that you like and that does what you need it to do, and stick with that one. You can deliver your content via email newsletter (I recommend AWeber), blog posts, via Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn (simply sharing links to content you come across), or using specific content curation tools. Pinterest can also be a great tool for curating content — especially those with strong visuals. (One great tip I heard last week was to curate videos in a YouTube channel using Pinterest. I did this a few weeks ago with "Call Me Maybe" videos on YouTube on a Pinterest board.)

Add Value
Don't just present the content "as is." Always add some extra value to it by commenting on it, giving it your own spin or opinion, or even contradicting it and creating some controversy. A blog post that starts off with, "I found this article online and I totally disagree with it," can get others commenting and giving their two cents. This is especially important when curating content and sharing it via Twitter and Facebook. Even a sentence or two can increase engagement and discussion.

Quote Articles
One important note about content curation: when you refer to an article in a blog post, don't just put a link to it. This makes your readers follow the link, which is extra work for them and also leads them off your site. Instead, include a snippet or quote so that your reader doesn't have to go anywhere to get the gist of what the article says. Then they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to read further. (Note: When using Twitter to share content, you obviously can't do this -- but it does work when using Facebook, LinkedIn, blog posts, and content curation tools.)

Mix It Up
Don't present the same type of content in your content curation efforts. Mix it up. Rather than just curating articles and blog posts, share videos, infographics, resource sites, and podcasts as well. By curating content from as many different sources as possible, you'll make the learning and reading experience more interesting both for your audience and for yourself.

Always double-check your content curation from the reader's point of view to see if it's truly providing value. Is it better to read your posts or just go straight to the source? Put yourself in their shoes and you'll understand what you need to do to add value to the content you're curating.

Next up: Where To Find Careers Content To Curate

Curating Content to Attract New Clients

I'm a content junkie, I guess. If you've been following me for any length of time, you've probably figured out that I'm a huge fan of using content to build your career services business. Whether that's using content to attract media attention ("Feed the Media" special report and teleseminar), or blogging ("Resume Writer's Guide to Blogging for Profit and Promotion" special report), or using content in many other ways ("Using Content to Capture New Career Clients" teleseminar, "Resume Writer's Guide to Article Marketing" special report, "Resume Writer's Guide to Profiting From Speaking: How to Use Teleseminars, Webinars, Workshops and Seminars To Attract New Clients and Generate Revenue" special report, and "Capture Clients With Content: Use Information to Attract Resume Clients" special report), one of the most powerful tools we have as resume writers is the knowledge we possess about the job search process and how to help jobseekers be more successful in their job search efforts.

But what if you don't want to generate original content? What if you want to instead focus on sharing best practices and targeted information? Then content curation might be exactly what you should focus on.

Content curation means pulling together content from various sources and presenting it to the reader in your own unique way. It may be easier to understand content curation by defining what it is not. Content curation doesn't mean presenting a list of stories or a weekly roundup of links. It's definitely not a simple cut-and-paste job where you just point to content that's out there.

Instead, the idea is to take the information available and make sense of it for your readers. It starts with carefully sifting through all that's out there and selecting the best items that would interest your readers. You then put this content together into an easy-to-digest format that tells a story, making it relevant, valuable and memorable.

Why Curate Content?
The content is already out there for your readers to enjoy, so why put it together for them? This is the key to good content curation — it's not just a pile of information. We're inundated by a deluge of information every minute of every day. The Internet is wonderful because of this, but it also can be overwhelming. Everyone has to sift through all that's out there to find what they're truly interested in reading. A good content curator does this for you, and builds a following of loyal readers as a result.

How Content Curation Helps You
Like the content you write yourself, the content you curate can help you establish authority and create a connection with your readers.

Think of it from the reader's point of view. Your blog or website is a source of the exact information they want on a regular basis. It saves them from having to do their own sifting online. Over time, they come to see you as a go-to source for their information. They see you as a knowledgeable expert in the career services field.

If your content is relevant and helpful to your readers, they'll keep coming back for more. It doesn't matter to them whether you're the actual content creator or not.

Curating content should be taken just as seriously as creating your own content from scratch, but one of the advantages of this approach is that it is easier and more cost effective than writing your own content or hiring a writer. It's just a matter of understanding your readers well and choosing the right content.

Check out: Best Practices for Content Curation