Are you aggregating content for your audience appropriately?
I’ve learned a lot about content aggregation in the last year.
This has been done mainly through watching how news sources aggregate content, and reading opinions from publishers, editors and reporters on topic.
In the digital world, aggregation is an interesting thing. When done properly, it helps your provide your audience with a large amount of content that you typically couldn’t create yourself; unless, of course, you have a massive staff of writers.
Since most niche publications don’t have a large enough core of writers, aggregation is used to adequately supply the audience with relevant information from an array of sources.
However, if aggregation is done improperly, it can look more like content theft.
No writer wants to be associated with plagiary, so let’s take a look at some ways you can go about properly aggregating content.
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5 tips for aggregating content
#1: Add value to aggregated content. While aggregating content, add context and commentary that adds to the piece. This suggestion comes from Kimberley Isbell, the author of “The Rise of the News Aggregator: Legal Implications and Best Practices”.
#2: Link to the original articles used. This is hopefully a no-brainer, since you should always source your sites.
#3: Be accurate. If you’re covering a topic that has multiple sources, use each in your article so you can show accuracy while highlighting some of the nuances between each article.
#4: Aggregate worthy information. Don’t just aggregate to generate a lot of content. Remember, quality over quantity when it comes to aggregation. Make sure you are aggregating the best quality content that your audience will benefit from.
#5: Empower sources and readers. Jeff Sonderman wrote a great article on aggregation for Poynter. The tip of empowering sources and readers comes from that article. After you’ve proven your ability to aggregate content appropriately, news sources and readers might want to help you out. News sources may want to send you articles in advance and readers may want to send you content suggestions.
I’d recommend being open to these relationships as it can help you provide more, beneficial content while building your audience further.
Do you have tips for content aggregation? I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments section below.
