Marty Note
My Bengal cat Lucian keeps his curation needs very simple (and in this order):

* Food.

* Play.

* Clean Box.

* Warm, clean places to sleep.

* Attention.

* Cat Crack (catnip).

* Protection against flees and tics.

* Water.

* Scratching poll (or $1,000 chair).

Lucian’s life is simple. He has a routine. I mess with that routine at my peril. I usually get home from work a little after seven. On the two nights or so each week I work late coming home past 8:00 I face a pacing, angry Lucian. “Where the heck have you been, wait I don’t care about that as much as where is my FOOD” Lucian says clearly with loud, exited meows.

What Cats Can Teach Content Curators
Cats have a lot to teach content curators and Internet marketers such as:

* Keep it simple.
* Know your audience, learn their routines.
* Establish a routine.

* Routines create trust.

* Don’t break the routine, don’t break your promises.

* When you do break a promise, move back to your routine fast.

* Know your customer’s sequence.

* When you break a routine, resume by going back to the sequence.

Create A Routine
What content will your website publish today? What content will your website publish this week? How often and how will you alert me about new content? You create trust by creating, sharing and sticking to a content schedule.

Play
Every day is a new day in Internet marketing and there is only one time that matters – NOW. Set aside some portion of every day to play with content, to create new content ideas and mix and match content that has worked well in the past. Be sure to try something radical and new daily. Time is the only thing we can’t create more of, so don’t let a day go by when you haven’t tested some new idea.

Keep The Box Clean
Keep your environment as free of spam as possible. An untended content garden sends the wrong message. Check your site and blog comments daily, eliminate spam links and remove anything that doesn’t meet your guidelines. Make sure your guidelines are friendly but clear and published somewhere easy to find. Guidelines define how people can interact with your site. Comments can’t include spam links, bullying a community member or work blue are good guidelines to post.

Content marketers must protect against trolls and bullies. If your remove content without clear guidelines it may create a Striesand Effect, your removal becomes the story and makes life worse.

Customer Control
I put enough crunchies out for Lucian that he feels a certain measure of control. If you have a newsletter be sure your customers control their subscription. Customers should be able to control frequency, topic and type of communication (some may want text because they are curating email with their phone).

Attention
If someone emails, tweets a direct response or comments be sure to recognize their contribution and be appreciative. You don’t have to agree with what they said, but realize that 1% of your traffic will actually comment, but the 1% may represent a much larger group of your “silent majority” customers.

See your cat had a lot to teach you abou life, liberty and Internet marketing. Lucian is curled up at the end of the bed after a long, stressful cat day. I was at the office today and got home past 7:00 so friendly cat who let me know another ten minutes and pacing would have started .M