You are reading this article because you’re curious about content curation. Whether you’ve done it before and want to master it or want to try it for the first time, getting more information is always a good idea.
In this article, we will discuss what content curation is and take a look at the many benefits it has for marketing. We will also dive into some examples of content curation so you can see it in action.
What Is Content Curation Exactly?
This marketing strategy is the ability to find and share existing content with your audience so you don’t have to create something new. But it goes beyond that. You have to find high-quality content and repackage it so it has value to your audience. You can’t just throw already-made content at them and think it’s good enough.
👇 Here’s a breakdown of the content curation process 👇:
Source
Scour the internet for content that is relevant to your industry or niche. This content must have value and reflect your brand or company’s mission and image.
Filter
Once you’ve found content that you are happy with, you have to filter through it for the best of the best. Only keep the content that you know you’ll be proud of sharing.
Repackage
When practising the art of content curation, you want to make sure that the content that you share looks good. It has to be enticing, well-branded, easy to understand and navigate and consistently presented. Otherwise, your audience won’t be entertained and want to see more of what’s on offer from you.
You have to add value to the content. You want your audience to know why you chose this specific content to share with them Also, consider adding a small summary to the content. Your audience should know what they’ll be seeing.
Types of content
The beauty of content curation is that you can choose to use any content that already exists. It can be infographics, images, videos, informative articles, books, podcasts, news, lists, review, blog posts and more.
Share
The way you share the content you’ve curated is up to you. You can use your website, your blog or the social media platforms you’re active on. Or, you can go for a mix and use all of them. It’s really up to you and what you want to do to please your audience.
So, why should you consider content curation?
There is so much information out there that it’s almost impossible to create content that hasn’t been created before. Fortunately, you don’t have to. Your content just has to be interesting enough that your audience takes notice. But creating great content all the time can be draining – that is where content curation comes in.
You can still give your audience quality content but save yourself some time with content curation. It’s like a shortcut, but if done right you won’t end up taking a wrong turn. You’ll just reach your destination faster.
The Benefits Of Content Curation
Let’s take a look at what you can expect to benefit from curating content.
Credibility
Most brands share original content and that’s great, but sometimes you need to add a second (or third and fourth) voice to your content. When you combine your advice with that of others, you gain credibility. Your audience will see that you’re not just a ‘me, me, me’ brand but that you like to share the opinions of others in your industry. They’ll feel that you care enough about them that you want to share good content with them, even when it’s not your own.
Creates Connections
When you curate content from someone else, you show them that you value their opinion. This creates a connection with influencers and experts in your niche. You are endorsing their views and they’ll certainly appreciate it. This puts you on their radar and could open doors for future collaboration. Of course, you have to do content curation right, and the ethical way, for the best results.
Boosts Google Rankings
If you nail content curation, your search engine ranking can be increased. Of course, only if you nail it. Essentially, you are sharing duplicate content, but if you add value to it, there’s no issue. Add your own summary and links and your curated content could boost your Google ranking.
You Become An Authority
If you are able to consistently create, and curate, quality and relevant content for your audience, they will become even bigger fans of your brand. You will become their ‘go-to guy/gal’. You want to become your audience’s favourite source of information in your industry, and content curation helps with that goal.
Grow Your Community
When you’re sharing curated content (of value) you will get people talking. The feedback and conversations are great engagement for your brand. Be sure to respond to comments and interact with your audience for your community to see you’re really part of them.
You Become A Trend Spotter
When you’re spending a lot of time trying to find interesting content to share, you will automatically grow your knowledge. You will become more aware of trends in your industry, spotting them as they happen. This is great because you’ll become an even bigger expert in your niche.
Build Your Social Media Following
When you curate content while also creating it, you are putting out a lot more. This will give you more to share on your social media platforms. That, in turn, will result in more people clicking and following your brand. Your social media following will start to grow faster than without curated content.
Make sure to have quality content, share consistently and have a balance of original and curated content.
Those are just some of the benefits to enjoy when making use of content curation as part of your marketing strategy. Of course, seeing these kinds of results will take time and dedication. But your brand will certainly not regret putting in all the effort required to make curating content a success.
How To Do Content Curation The Right Way
As with everything in life, there is a right way and a wrong way to curate content. We’d hate to see you do things incorrectly and risk getting into trouble. So, we’ll briefly discuss how to approach content curation the right way.
Permission
You must always ask for permission when you plan to curate someone’s content. If you don’t, you can get into legal trouble regarding copyright. This will greatly damage your brand’s reputation and standing in your community.
Credit
You should always link back to your source and give them credit. This is how you’ll build the relationships we talked about earlier. In addition, if you’re crediting others your content will look well-researched and much more credible.
Add Your Personal Take
By adding a summary, you add value to the curated content. You have to use your own words and opinion for this. Using the original creator’s opening paragraph or metadata just looks like lazy content creation.
Quality
We’ve mentioned this and will repeat it because it’s very important. You must use content that is of the highest quality. Why would your audience spend time on something that the original creator’s audience didn’t want to see?
Plan Ahead
To spare yourself the frustration and stress of last-minute content hunting, we suggest that you regularly save content that you can share. Make it a habit to save as much content as you can save so you don’t have to struggle to find something when there’s a deadline to meet. This will also help you keep up the quality of your content when you don’t have to ‘settle’ for something because you’ve got nothing else.
5 Examples Of Content Creation You Can Learn From
The following examples are just a brief look at how you can approach the curation of content and is certainly not a ‘do only this’ suggestion.
Zest
This is a Chrome-based extension ideally made for marketers. Zest allows them to discover and share industry content. This is actually the kind of tool you’d want to make use of for good content curation.
Any content that Zest curates from other creators are always selected manually to make sure it is what people actually want to see. Zest doesn’t create its own content and makes the most by curating from others.
Because of the consistent quality that is on offer from this tool, it has become the top source for curation for many marketers. It is easy to use and very appealing too.
SparkToro Trending
Focused on the marketing industry, SparToro Trending shows readers the top news related to it. There is a variety of content normally on offer from this site, such as tweets and articles.
You’ll access the most trending topic in SparkToro’s feed with links so you can be taken to the original source. There is also a Share Insights option that shows you top tweets about similar articles and the same topic. You’ll get a better idea of how popular the kind of content you clicked on is.
It is a great tool and example of content curation in action.
Digg
As a famous news aggregator, Digg has grown quite a lot in popularity. It curates content for its front page, only selecting the best and most trendy news. A variety of topics is covered by Digg, including politics, entertainment, science, sports and viral memes.
Digg uses social signals and data that helps them find the kind of content that people really want to spend time on. This is another example of content curation that also shows how curating works. (Yes, it is rather ironic)
The Huffington Post
This site needs no introduction and is very good at curating content. The Huffington Post does do original reporting as well, though. Here, you will see a mixture of curated and created content. There is also sponsored content to be found on the site.
If you’re looking for content as well as inspiration, head over to this site. You might be surprised at what you learn.
Lodging Interactive – Hospitality Social Media News
This is a marketing service that is focused on resorts and hotels. But they have a bi-weekly newsletter that is very informative. However, they don’t write the news they share, so have to curate content
Lodging Interactive links to posts from social media and experts who are first with the news and then they add their own elaboration to the content. As a result, their content is relevant to their audience. That’s how content curation works.
The newsletter shows the audience that there is a lot of expertise behind its curation and that is always appreciated.
Learning From Curation Examples
For the best results, you want to put a lot of thought into how you do your content curation. It is an invaluable tool for any content marketer and should be part of any marketing strategy. We suggest that you don’t just rely on the examples we shared.
Find your own examples and learn from them as well. Learn as much as you can. Then you will be able to execute curation much better and with higher success rates.
Conclusion
As you can tell by now, there are many reasons why you should be curating content. It is a great way to add value to your content while saving you time. The kind of content that you curate will, of course, depend on your industry and strategy. But don’t neglect content creation because it will make a difference and add to the overall quality of your blogs and articles.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, you should check out our blog. We share all kinds of useful advice with our readers. You’ll learn a lot about digital marketing in general because we discuss all aspects of it. From user-generated content to the best content creation strategies – we’ve got you covered.
Also give our social media planner tool, SocialPlanner, a look. It is one of the best planning tools out there! If you combine the knowledge we share with the benefits of this tool, your marketing strategy will be rock-solid.