21 Aug What is Content Curation – and Why Do You Need It?

Content Curation Explained: It’s Good to Be Opinionated

Written by Daniela Cavalletti

Content is still king. With our insatiable hunger for information in the digital age, every business needs to create a lot of (quality) content to stay ahead of the competition (or at least not be pushed out of the race).

Then again: who’s got the time to write one or more blog posts a week?

The most efficient way to create great online marketing results, without content creation eating into your income-generating time, is to outsource this time-consuming task to an expert blogging service. But what if you don’t have the funds to completely hand over the task of content creation to the specialist copywriters?

The Power of Content Curation

Content curation – the process of selecting, organising and distributing information from sources other than yourself – is a crucial component of any seasoned content marketer’s overall strategy. Combined with writing and promoting your own blog posts, lead magnets, white papers and other free content, creating awareness of others’ work can create astonishing levels of engagement and big new opportunities.

Still, like with other jargon words marketers frequently use, people outside the field don’t necessarily know what content curation is. Let alone how to actually effectively curate content for it to support an overall content marketing strategy.

If you apply these three expert approaches you’ll be off to a solid start and can continue to build on this foundation:

#1. Carefully Choose Which Content to Talk About – And When

You need to focus on a small number of topics that are relevant to your business and your customers’ needs. But ensure that you touch the human side of your readership as well; mix in a few personal bits and pieces into your curated content. I’ve had excellent responses over the years curating content not just about marketing, copywriting and writing business books, but adding items as varied as fear of public speaking, happiness and the pain of perfectionism; in both my own blogs posts and curated content.

Choose a handful of interesting blogs or websites relevant to your own keywords, and sign up to their newsletters. That way you keep getting an interesting stream of content to curate straight into your inbox.

Then, a couple of times a week, go through that fresh content and curate the juiciest bits. Do use the same piece for more than one post. The handy tools mentioned below will make that a breeze. Just ensure there are a few days or weeks in between posts on the same channel, and that you use different words in your comments.

Tip – Curate content from partners and prospect. You’ll earn brownie points as you’re creating valuable marketing for your business, and interesting stories for your prospects and customers.

#2. Promote Widely, Deeply + Thoughtfully

Social media is a numbers game. Due to the lightning speed at which new content is disseminated, sometimes you’ll catch your intended readers when you’re posting, sometimes you won’t (because of forever-scrolling social media feeds). It’s a bit like telling your teenage kids to tidy their bedrooms, now!: sometimes they will, most of the times they won’t. You need to put curated content out in volume, because, at any point in time, only a small percentage of it will reach and impact your intended readership.

You don’t want to flood every LinkedIn or Facebook group you are part of with tons of new content every day. But do post your curated content across more than one social media platform, and up to ca. 3-5 times a day. And pick relevant audiences (i.e. groups) to share your content with. I post on my personal and company page on LinkedIn, as well as my company Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. At different times and volume levels, in a number of relevant groups.

When you post content for curation, do make sure that you don’t just publish the picked material as is. You need to give it a mini-makeover by adding your own views, opinions and thoughts. And don’t be afraid to be controversial; do stay polite no matter what, though. Sometimes simply copying and pasting a link may work. But generally your readers will be more interested and engaged if you offer your own insights.

And keep in mind that variety is the spice of life – especially in social media. Mix up text-based articles with videos, infographics, podcasts, etc. to keep it varied and interesting. For text-based articles, remember that posts with an image attract readers multiple times better than those without.

Tip – Oh yes, those hashtags are useful for searches. But don’t always use them, and limit it to three of them per post. As with everything in life, a good balanced mix makes for happy results.

#3. Tools Create Efficiencies

Sounds hard – posting that much and often? Fear not: there are nifty social sharing tools that will make posting your curated content fast and easy.

The trick is also to set aside a weekly block of time in your diary to do your content curation. Use your social media marketing tool of choice a couple of times a week to add to your curated content pipeline in one go. And – hey presto! –, you’re laughing! When you see an interesting item, you can also use your tools to curate directly from that webpage with just one click.

I use Buffer and the Buffer Chrome extension to queue content directly from my browser and from integrated feeds. The application allows me to quickly choose content for curation (or my own blog posts), comment  and space multiple posts out automatically over days, weeks, months, and social media channels.

Tip – I block out time twice a week to go through my selected reading and queue up new posts. It’s the beauty of this kind of automatic distribution system – you don’t need to hunt for new content every day.

Content Curation Shows Confidence in Your Own Brand 

Sharing content by other businesses or thought leaders is not only useful in keeping  your readers engaged and your digital marketing pipeline full. It demonstrates to your potential customers that you know your stuff, and understand your industry well.

Curating content from complementing or even competing businesses shows your confidence in your own offering and brand. It helps position you as an authority in your market. So share your own opinions far and wide.

Your readers – and your bottom line – will thank you for it.