Content Creation vs. Content Curation

Differentiating between content creation and content curation is fairly straightforward. These are two facets of building an online presence that can encourage audience engagement.

Creation and curation are terms most people are already familiar with — the only real difference, in this case, being the addition of the word “content”. Broken down to layman’s terms, creation is the act of bringing something into existence. Generating something that didn’t exist before. Keeping social media in mind, the act of creation is utilizing original content that was made specifically for the post. An example of this is English football club Chelsea FC posting an image of its players during a match against Bright and Hove Albion on September 28, 2019.

As can be seen above, the post features a photo of three players taken during the match with a graphic showing the final score and logos of both teams. This was posted to the club’s Instagram page after the match.

An example of content curation comes from the same say the photo above was posted. Before the match on September 28, the club posted a photo that was originally created by an account @the_sporting_press.

The image to the left is a photoshop rendition of three players from the club featuring an X-Men (specifically Wolverine) graphic. This image, if I remember correctly, was also posted to the club’s Instagram Story on the morning of the match. Followers of the club will often re-post graphics such as this one to their own stories. Chelsea has used @the_sporting_press frequently throughout the last year for unique content that can be posted on matchdays, holidays, or in reference to pop culture events.

Ultimately, content creation and curation aim to achieve the same goal; increasing online engagement (likes, shares, views, etc.). Creation is the act of making something new and posting it directly on an organization’s own page whereas curation is the act of utilizing, gathering, and/or posting content from another source.