Social media news and TV – Current.com Blog – Your guide to Current

Hello currenteers! Today we are featuring a guest post by our very own Science channel curator, DeliaTheArtist.

Without further ado, here we go:

Hello Current Family!

DeliaTheArist here, happy to welcome the new assemblage of Current.com curators! By now you’ve seen your section of the Current universe, messed around with featuring articles and told your friends how cool you are- but what’s next? How can you take your Curating to the next level? Here are some Tips and Tricks from me and other curators to help you make the best of your experience!

Something one of our new curators, Nettle, noticed is that the flow of information can be slow at first in your group. People are aware of the homepage topics like “News“ and “Green“, but may not realize there is an Otaku section or a place for their Soccer related info. One way to get more stories into your group is to look around Current.com for already posted stories that relate to your section but haven’t been tagged for it. For example, many articles in the Arts and Style section may also pertain to our new Design or Architecture groups; posts that are found in the popular Movies section may also be appropriate for Pop Culture and Indie Film, bands seen in Music may also fit into Underground Music. You can find out more about tagging right here on the Current.com blog!

You’re tagging up a storm and featuring community member’s stories- but is the community aware that you are doing so? One solution is to respond right onto the thread that you’ve featured the story in your section- however I personally find this method to be just a little cheesy. TravG73, curator of the Random group, has another idea- send a message to the user personally to tell them their story has been featured and you appreciate their contribution. Most likely that person will add you as a connection and continue to add interesting stories to your group!

Can’t think of what to say? Feel free to modify this example for your own purposes:

“Hello! Your story, [STORY NAME HERE] is awesome, and it’s being featured in [YOUR GROUP NAME HERE] today- thank you so much for your great contribution!”

Another aspect of raising awareness for your group is promotion. I know some of you don’t want to hear this, but get on Twitter! You may think Twitter is lame, but the fact of the matter is Twitter is an amazing promotional tool. The main problems people usually have with Twitter stem from the fact that they don’t have many followers or don’t know who to follow- but as a Current.com curator you need not worry about that. There is a well established community of Current Staff, curators and community members already on Twitter, waiting to follow you and help promote your passions!

Since you are a way amazing curator of a Current.com group, you have some leverage that you may not have previously – instead of just posting interesting news, why not WRITE the news too? Ask notable people in your group’s field for interviews, stories and sources and mention that it’s for Current.com! Discovery Science Channel made me their “Geek of the Week” when I told them about my work with the Current.com Science section and I’ve been steadily interviewing people in the Science field after a fellow curator, Mike_Johnston, hooked me up with my first source. Current89 just got the green light to interview a former Congressional Candidate from his state for his US Politics section. Make moves, make news!

I hope these ideas help you make the best out of your new position as a Current.com curator. Current is all about community- your fellow curators are here to help! If you have any questions, comments or collaboration ideas, holler at me on Current or at DeliaTheArtist [at] gmail.com.

– Delia

Thanks DeliaTheArtist! I’m certain that many of our new curators will find these tips useful. Just to add a few extra ones in: aside from Twitter, you can use tools like Facebook, forums, and blogs to make people aware of your channel. Facebook groups is chock full of potential contacts, and it’s very likely that there are forums out there on the Internets dedicated to your topic of interest.

Also, if you do decide to go the Twitter route (why not?), you can also use tools like WeFollow, a Twitter directory that is categorized by topic. Check it out!

Tags: architecture, arts and style, channels, Community, current, current.com, design, green, groups, Indie Film, movies, music, news, otaku, pop culture, Science, soccer, topics, twitter, underground music, wefollow