Curating the Web

One of the best practices for journalists is creating significance for readers by curating the web. Curating the web means to find stories of importance to readers and directing them to those stories. Writer Scott Karp outlined six of the best practices in doing so.

1. Make it a collaborative effort - it is much easier to have multiple people contributing than a single person trying to do it alone.

2. Let the readers know why the link is important - New York Times deputy technology editor Vindu Goel said, "readers should know why you are recommending a certain item so they can decide whether it's worth their time to check out."

3. Attribute, attribute, attribute - most people click on links based on the person who recommended it to them. Attributing stories helps journalists build their personal brands by sharing what they are reading.

4. Share links on Twitter - journalists for New York Times' technology blog, Bits, automatically publsih what they are reading to their Twitter feed. Sharing links to interesting stories is one of the easiest ways for an organization to enhance their Twitter feed - and boost its number of followers.

5. Integrate into existing workflow - due to the auto-post option for links, the only change to workflow is that all stories are shared with readers. Previously, some interesting stories would not be run due to lack of space, but by curating, every story can be published.

6. Complement original reporting - posting links to the original source of information (such as the column on the right of this blog) makes it easy to inform readers.

All of these points are very important in creating value for readers. These tips are also helpful for journalists and those wishing to pursue a career in journalism. Not only can it help build your reputation, but doing things such as attributing original sources can help establish your credibility.

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