How-To & Productivity · 4 min read
What Makes Content Worth Curating? A Five-Question Test
Short answer
Content is worth curating when it is accurate, useful or genuinely new to your audience, clearly better than the obvious alternative, and something you can add a sentence of your own to.
Key takeaways
- Ask five questions: is it true, is it for them, is it new to them, is it the best version, and can I add something?
- Most content fails on 'is it the best version'. There's usually a better article on the same topic.
- If you can't write a line about why it matters, skip it.
Finding things to share is the easy part. X is full of links. The hard part is deciding which of them deserve a place in your feed, because every link you share is a small promise to your followers that it was worth their time.
Here is a five-question test you can run in under a minute.
1. Is it true?
If you can't tell whether the main claim is accurate, don't share it yet.
Look for a source behind any number. Check the date. If it's an opinion piece, that's fine, but make sure it's framed as one. Skip anything where the headline promises more than the body delivers.
2. Is it for your audience?
It has to help the people who follow you, not just interest you.
A brilliant piece on database indexing is noise to an audience of illustrators. Picture one specific follower and ask whether they'd thank you for it.
3. Is it new to them?
The best curated links are ones your audience wouldn't have found on their own.
If it's on the front page of the biggest site in your field, most of your followers have seen it. Value comes from the smaller blog, the long thread from a practitioner, the paper with a dull title and a great finding.
4. Is it the best version?
For most topics there are several articles saying similar things; share the clearest one.
This is the question most links fail. Before sharing an explainer, spend thirty seconds looking for a better explainer. Searching the topic in your crate with the Top tab often turns up the version people actually recommend.
5. Can you add something?
If you can't write one sentence about why it matters, it probably doesn't belong in your feed.
Your line is what makes it curation. "The section on pricing pages is the useful bit" or "I tried step 3 and it cut our build time" turns a link into a recommendation.
What does this look like in practice?
Most links fail one question, and that's fine: the test is meant to filter hard.
| Example | True | For them | New | Best | Can add | Share? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A practitioner's thread on a mistake they made, with numbers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| A viral listicle everyone's posting | Mostly | Yes | No | No | No | Skip |
| A study write-up with no link to the study | Unclear | Yes | Yes | Unknown | Maybe | Find the study first |
| An old but excellent guide | Yes | Yes | Often | Yes | Yes, say it's old | Yes |
| Your company's press release | Yes | Rarely | Yes | n/a | Rarely | Count it as promotion |
How do you use the test day to day?
Run it on everything your crate turns up, then put the survivors in a queue.
Open your crate, skim the results, and run each candidate through the five questions. The ones that pass go into the Share Queue with your line attached. On a good day, three pass. On many days, one does. A feed of one good link a day beats a feed of ten average ones.
If you want to go further, Content curation best practices covers crediting and pacing.
What if nothing passes the test today?
Share nothing, or share your own thought instead.
Some days your sources are quiet or everything is a rehash. Posting a weak link to keep a streak going teaches followers that your links are optional. It's better to skip a day, or to post an original observation, a question or a short lesson from your own work. Your Content Mix Planner slots are a guide, not an obligation.
Questions
Should I share content I haven't fully read?
No. Skim at minimum, and read fully anything that makes a claim. Headlines are written to be clicked, not to be accurate summaries.
Is popular content worth curating?
Sometimes, but your audience has probably already seen it. A popular piece is worth sharing when you add a take nobody else has, or when your audience is outside the bubble where it went viral.
What about my own older content?
Treat it like anyone else's. If it still passes the test, share it, ideally with a new angle.
How strict should I be with the test?
Strict enough that you'd be comfortable if a respected colleague saw every link you shared that week. If a link makes you hesitate, skip it.