Curation and creation, the dynamic power couple for marketers

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People crave stories, but there are too many to choose from.

Amidst the huge, and constantly increasing, supply of content remains a stagnant amount of attention. There’s too much content to consume, and a finite amount of attention. Content marketer Mark Schaefer calls this discrepancy “content shock.” Catchpool founder Erica Berger calls it “peak content.”

Obviously, demand for great content will never decrease. Humans will always crave great stories. But the quality of everyday content decreases as media continues to incentivize pageviews. Their teams are forced to meet insanely high content quotas. 

 There’s too much content to consume, and a finite amount of attention.

As more and more companies like Marriott, Chase, and Casper see the value in building their own publications, more and more content becomes available. Marketing teams will need to implement rigorous editorial processes, invest in great storytellers, and leverage tools like the content canvas.

However, moving forward, the value will be in figuring out what content is worth spending time and energy on. If you can help people do this, you can influence the flow of attention on the internet. You can, quite literally, lead people’s thoughts. Not many people are curating at the moment and many people are starting to need it.

Curate, don’t create

Social networks can be great sources (Facebook is huge), but they’ve grown more cluttered with sponsored content and clickbait. This has spawned tighter-knit social networks like This., as well as the rise of newsletter curators, and platforms like Nuzzel.

Content creation is still extremely valuable. But in addition to creation, more companies will need to spend time listening, studying, and curating. While this type of activity doesn’t directly involve building and shipping, it will help their audiences and readers stay updated with only the most relevant news. It’ll also enable their content teams to create better work. Writers and content marketers, who are used to publishing, will need to work with content curators, whose primary job will be to listen and read.Unfortunately, today, even companies who have tried curation platforms don’t take curation really seriously. They just share stuff they read. That’s not curation! We’ll dive into the art of content curation in another piece. For now, let’s look into three ways companies curate content:

Unfortunately, today, even companies who have tried curation platforms don’t take curation really seriously. They just share stuff they read. That’s not curation! We’ll dive into the art of content curation in another piece. For now, let’s look into three ways companies curate content:

1. Crowd-powered curation

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You have two ears and one mouth