Curating is a popular word lately, a golden oldie getting a new lease on life. With sites like Paper.li offering a place to consolidate all your internet interests into a single online newspaper, curating your brand is an idea worth exploring.
Most online dictionaries agree that a curator is someone who oversees the collections of museums, art galleries and zoos. For our purposes, curating is much more flexible because we are electronically sharing with button clicks. It’s much harder to transport an actual elephant or sculpture physically from site to site, so we can pack in more “exhibits” and change them often.
While I did briefly consider curating an online newspaper, good advice and creative thought sent me on a different path. The idea itself is a great one, using the things that interest you to attract more people to your blogs, books, videos – whatever. It stands to reason that people who like what you share or come to you because of what you share are people who are more likely to also like the products you create.
What I rejected was the hassle of yet another online project, another place to suck my valuable time and energy. Once the realization came that I could curate my brand through already established social media channels, it was game on.
Most of my online interactions come from three sources: Facebook, Twitter and this blog. Those are the ones that work best for me at this time, although it does pay to be flexible and stay aware of other platforms. Spend some time defining where your time is best spent, which medium works best for you and which you enjoy using more. If you focus on just a few, there will be more time to be out there finding your exhibits and less time promoting them.
Next, think about what kind of message you want to send via your exhibits. Don’t be fake and go for what you think people want, they want you to be genuine. So, if videos of people dressing up like Imperial Storm Troopers and performing Swan Lake are meaningful to you, that’s what you post. If you’re interested in how to roast your own coffee beans, other people might be too. If you just like pictures of animals (guilty), share them.
What you share says much about you, how you see and respond to life. There is a saying among writers that you don’t tell, you show – and that is the very heart of curating. You are showing your fans and potential fans who you are without just standing there like a dork shouting, “I’m cool! Really!!”
If you are building up to something, say a book release, then start really curating with intent. That is, share articles and sites you used during research of the book, share links about book publishing, share images that inspired your story. This way, your readers are already inclined towards your view point and more ready to go further.
Once you’ve determined your social media outlets and types of exhibits, the hard work is fairly well done. Pretty much everything on the internet is designed to be shared with the click of a button. I advise against over-sharing exhibits and under-sharing personal contact, try not to let your exhibits become who you are. Also make sure to add your own comment to each share so people will know specifically why the share was chosen. These don’t have to be profound thoughts and can be as simple as “Yum, doughnuts.”
You are already online, you’re connected through major social media platforms, so make the best use of your resources. Keep it simple, keep it genuine and try not to get distracted by all the bells and whistles going off around you. There’s no need to jump at every single one!
