In a neat little link up with yesterday’s post, Steve Rubel wrote a while back about the overabundance of content and therefore the future rise of what he calls ‘digital curators‘.
The call of the curator requires people who are selfless and willing to act as sherpas and guides. They’re identifiable subject matter experts who dive through mountains of digital information and distill it down to its most relevant, essential parts. Digital Curators are the future of online content.
The premise is sound enough and actually identifies an opportunity for businesses to use content marketing methods without actually creating the content itself. Guide people, Sherpa-like, through the mountains of information available and they may come to trust your opinion and guidance – which can translate into trust in your business and brand.
I do have a few points with Steve’s take though.
Firstly, I see no need for these curators to be ’selfless’ – far from it. Being a curator seems to have obvious commercial potential both as a business in itself or as an astute course of action for businesses – ‘identifiable subject matter experts’ in their industries – hoping to become a trusted resource in their industry.
Secondly, and more to the point, he suggests that ‘content is a commodity’. Clearly if you propose that curators can help us ‘unearth those special high-quality “finds” and to make them presentable’ then that suggests that some content is more valuable than others.
Indeed, if take the curator metaphor back to the art galleries from which it stems, most curators would give pride of place to an Old Master – suggesting the source of the content is vital.
Reputation is everything.
What the curator concept does give us is a viable alternative in content marketing – being the arbiter rather than the creator. Needless to say, we would all hope to create masterful content but being the curator of the museum or the deified art critic have their kudos as well.
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