The purpose of every business is to provide value for customers. This is especially true when it comes to content shared online. The web has become a community dominated by social interaction, and your customers are starving for quality content from reliable sources. When someone chooses to follow you online they expect you to provide that content, and it’s your responsibility to deliver.
What is Content Curation?
Content curation is a process that helps you share the best content and engage with your online followers. Content curation differs greatly from content marketing. Content marketing involves creating new content to be shared with your followers on the web. Content curation is the process of discovering and sorting through large amounts of existing web content, organizing what you find, and presenting what is most valuable to your audience in an organized way.
In simple terms, it’s sifting through the dirt to find the diamonds, then sharing those diamonds with the people you care about (your audience). Content curation is really as easy as 1-2-3: Discover. Organize. Share.
Why Content Curation is Valuable
We all have a friend who loves to share the diamonds they find with us. They’ll probably send you a link and say, “Check out this awesome article I found today about (such-and-such)!” They save us time and provide us with information we care about, and we love them for it. Think about this: as a content curator, you have a unique opportunity to be that trusted friend to each of your current and potential customers. As you share relevant information about topics that interest them, they’ll start to trust you. And once they trust you, they’ll remember you, turn to you again in the future, and likely share you with their friends.
So why share content that other people, maybe even your competitors, have created? First, it shows that you are knowledgeable, confident, aware of competition, and understand your industry. It’s also a gateway to connect with the audience of the brand’s content you’re sharing. It strengthens your online presence and fosters a relationship with your audience, letting them know you can be trusted and that you understand their needs. It also enriches your blog and social media platforms by giving you a voice in trending topics. By providing content your customers want, you increase the likelihood of them turning to you for something else they’ll want in the future (like your product/service).
Now What Do I Do With the Content?
However you decide to implement content curation in your organization, your methods should help you accomplish the goals of your marketing strategy. Here are a few suggestions:
Blog Posts. Consider compiling a weekly or monthly blog post containing curated resources for your readers. This gives your customers the best content all in one place so they don’t have to do any extensive browsing themselves. Categorize and be consistent. For example: “This Week’s Top 10 in Entrepreneurial News”, “Our Top 10 Most Read Articles of the Week”, or “This Week in Digital Marketing.” Also, make sure the content you include is relevant for your audience. For example, if you are a carpet cleaning company you wouldn’t necessarily want to publish a blog post with articles about women’s fashion or it could lead to some unsubscribers.
Email Newsletters. Did you know that email is the second most popular digital marketing channel? If you already have a list of blog subscribers, a simple weekly or monthly email newsletter with a few curated articles could be a great resource for them. It saves your readers time and is also a platform to promote your own content. The Moz Top 10 is a great example. At Kite Media we also compile our favorite finds throughout the month, throw in our own latest blog posts, and send it all in one simple newsletter. You can subscribe HERE. It’s also helpful to include a form somewhere on your website for people to join your email newsletter, like the one found on our blog page.
Social Media. Hootsuite’s nifty Social Media Rule of Thirds is an excellent standard to base your social media efforts off of.
If all your social media posts are salesy, obnoxious, and dominated by a “buy this!” attitude, your audience will likely become annoyed and unfollow you. There are more tactful ways to promote your business without turning customers off, like providing value by sharing good content. You can schedule posts in advance using tools like Hootsuite or Buffer, and also share trending content in real time.
Content Curation Best Practices
- Even if you think you know what an article is about, make sure you read all of it first before sharing.
- Save good content when you stumble upon it for use in future posts. This can be done with a simple spreadsheet, a bookmark in your browser history, or an online service which we’ll discuss later.
- If you find a bunch of good content, don’t overwhelm your audience by publishing it all at once. Schedule the content to be sent out automatically over time, and remember to add real time content too.
- Always give credit to the author of the content you share and include the proper source link. It can be beneficial for both you and the author if you reach out via email or include their social media handle in your post. Make sure they’re aware that you’re sharing their content.
- Don’t just click and share. Provide insight and reflection for the content you’re sharing. Add your own voice with concise commentary in your post.
- Use an aggregator/content management tool. These online services can find, curate, and publish great content for you based on whatever topic or criteria you put in. Here are a few of our favorites:
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With the vast amount of web surfers seeking good content and the competitive nature of businesses finding and sharing the best content fast, the question is not IF but WHEN you’ll need to implement content curation as part of your marketing strategy. Maybe you have an in-house content team, or maybe you’ve hired an internet marketing guru like Kite Media to handle it for you. Whatever your strategy, we hope you’ve found this article helpful. Happy curating!
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