Content Marketing Services
Content Curation – What, Why When?
Unlike the common assumption, content curation is not same as content creation. Content curation is essentially finding other people’s work and sharing it with your own audience via blog, social media, or any other online platform you frequent. It takes far less time than creating content from the scratch.
That sounds rather simple, but the impact it can have is profound. Digital marketing experts agree that focusing too much on self-promotion damages your chances of building or keeping a readership. Likewise, successfully curating content can lead to scores of new followers and new opportunities for you in your discipline.
Captivating content curation can be tricky, especially for newcomers. It’s easy to be drowned out by the constant roar of social media and share random stuff that barely offers any value to readers. Here are six steps to help you effectively curate content and make an impact on your followers and your brand:
Know How You Are Curating Your Content
There are two basic styles of content curation to choose from:
1) Sharing links to other people’s articles from your social media profiles; or
2) Writing an article that is specifically about someone else’s blog post, using it as the foundation for your own thoughts.
Both are valid and have a place on your pages; it is up to your discretion to know which style will have the most impact for a given piece.
It is important to note that the latter style provides for opportunities to quote directly from the piece. These can help you rank well with Google and get a higher response rate from you audience. However, you have to make it is obvious to Google that it is not duplicate content by linking to the original source and articulating your own thoughts and quotes.
Curate Content Organically
Even the professional content curators disagree on the optimal ratio of curated content to original content. Some say your pages should feature more original content. Others contend having more curated content yields greater rewards. Most likely, the best answer is the one that makes the most sense for your site.
Therefore, you should always take care to curate your content organically. Similar to content creation, you should adhere to a schedule with content curation as well. Every piece of curated content should carry with it the wonder of discovery—if you’re excited about an article, your audience will know and respond to it accordingly.
Here are a couple of more handy tips that will help you to curate content organically:
- Capitalize on content creators’ research: There are so many content creators out there who conduct comprehensive research to come up with unique content. Make sure to follow them on social media or subtribe their newsletters to come across the ideal curated content for your audience.
- Pick an experienced content creator to curate content: Content curation is a not a cakewalk. It involves a lot of hard work as well as skills. By assigning this role to a non-professional, you may not be able to make the most of it. We would recommend you take a professional content creation expert on board for the reasonability.
Curate Worthwhile, Relevant Content
Content “curation” is a different animal to everyday sharing. The term “curation” alone implies a level of sophistication and thoughtfulness behind every retweet and re post. As a result, you should take care to only re-post articles pertaining to your chosen subject and by authors or publications with authority.
However, simply riposting from your discipline’s largest website isn’t going to impress your audience. Most likely they will have already seen and shared that source’s pieces. Great content curation should provide a new dimension to the conversation and should wow with a new perspective.
Don’t Neglect Your Own Writing
Content curation isn’t meant to supplant developing and publishing original content creation. The consensus among prominent content curators is that it shouldn’t obscure or overpower your own work but instead highlight it. Put another way, content curation is not a substitute for genuine insight. If you spend all your time parroting the authorities in your field, you’ll be unable to establish yourself as one and will give readers no reason to listen to you. Learn how content marketing works.
Content curation is partially meant to give much needed context about your discipline to your followers. The key is to use that context to position yourself as a unique voice on the subject. Content curation is a scaffolding to your own creative process, not the endpoint.
Frame Curated Content in Your Own Voice
Perhaps the most important piece of advice that every content curation expert expresses is to frame curated content in your own voice. Part of that is ensuring that the content you’re sharing reflects you, your brand, and what you’re building, but it also means so much more.
When curating content, you must ask yourself why this piece matters to you, and if it matters to your audience. The answers to those questions should be shared as prominently as the content itself. Whether you make an argument for or against it, muse on a tangential topic, or even crack a joke about it, what’s important is that you explore why this piece resonates.
Take Away
There is no denying that content creation is certainly a powerful digital marketing tool. But that does not mean you should overlook the importance of content curation to accomplish business goals. Similar to content creation, content curation shows our audiences that we are not mired in hubris or stuck in self-imposed isolation in our fields. Remember the ultimate goal of content curation is to show why you are to be trusted as an authority in your field. Riposting mutely will not accomplish that—only by sharing your thoughts as well as your curated content will lead to success. Speak to one of our experts today