Content curation is an important part of every marketing strategy. Content and social media professionals need to understand their audiences and decide on a good mix of original and curated content.
There are great content pieces on the internet already, and sometimes it doesn’t make sense to create your own. Also, sharing is caring. So curating content can help you gain new friends in the industry and open the door to amazing co-marketing opportunities.
Even though many people may put content marketing and content creation in the same basket, this is far from the truth. In fact, only 58% of marketers say original written content is the most important type of content. Others believe curated content is as important.
If you want to know what curated content is and how to best leverage it, keep reading to find out!
What Is Content Curation
Content curation is the process of sharing existing content found on the internet instead of creating your own. Even though it sounds very simple, a good content creation strategy is much more than that.
In general, the content curation process consists of 3 critical steps.
1. Discover
In the sea of the available content on the internet, finding something different, authentic, and engaging is not so easy. Moreover, the best content is often hidden and may not appear on the first page of Google.
To discover the best content covering certain topics, try subscribing to the top newsletters in your industry, search for the most engaging posts on social media by hashtags, or scan through some popular portals and content aggregators.
2. Read
Read the entire content, not just the title and intro. When you share someone else’s content on your company’s profiles, you need to make sure it’s worth it.
It is not realistic that you share everything you find and read. Instead, bookmark your favorites and make a curated content schedule in advance.
3. Share
Why, when, and how you curate content is critical for your strategy. Think out of the box and investigate social media and other channels that may not be so obvious. Discovering new marketing and communications channels may significantly broaden your audience and create new opportunities for your business.
More on this topic later in the blog!
💡 More resources: If you are in B2B business, LinkedIn marketing is probably important to you. If so, check out our LinkedIn marketing strategy guide!
What Are the Benefits of Curated Content
A few years back, marketing was all about content creation. Today, however, people don’t expect that you have your own piece of content for every topic relevant to your business. Many also appreciate the effort of finding the right content and delivering it to your readers’ plates.
Let’s take a look at the biggest benefits of curated content.
Brand trust
Building brand trust is one of the biggest priorities for every marketer. The more people trust brands, the more likely they are to buy and become loyal customers. Curated content can help you strengthen your company’s brand trust.
How?
According to research, 45% of consumers will unfollow a brand on social media if the shared content is too self-promotional. So in order to avoid such a reputation, start finding and sharing others’ content as well.
Time saver
Sometimes, creating original content from scratch can be very time-consuming. Additionally, 49% of content marketers struggle to find subject matter experts to create content for their companies. 34% of them say long decision-making process is their biggest challenge when creating content internally.
Curated content should, therefore, be considered by all content marketers. In some cases, it is a better option and can save you the time and money needed to create your own content.
Thought leadership
If you really put effort into choosing content from subject matter experts, your company will also be perceived as a thought leader.
The very fact that you can filter through the noise and identify the best quality content on a certain topic shows that you’re an expert in the field.
Networking and co-marketing
Content curation is one of the best ways to make friends online. And having online friends can open many new opportunities and co-marketing campaigns.
Before sharing others’ content, consider reaching out to the author, asking whether they mind their content being reshared on your company’s profiles. This way, you get to know the author and potentially start a conversation about a joint marketing effort.
8 Best Content Curation Practices
If you want to master your content curation efforts, check out these best practices.
Know your audience
More than half of content marketers struggle to create content that appeals to multi-level roles within their target audience. This is why curated content comes in handy.
It is expensive and time-consuming to write on everything your target audience is interested in. However, you need to understand what those interests are and choose content based on your insights.
Choose content carefully
Once you know what your audience wants to read, choose the content carefully. Don’t just pick one of the top search results on Google search results. Dig deeper into the topic. Discover who are the thought leaders in your industry and look for their articles.
Depending on the industry, consider scientific research that has more credibility among the readers because it’s backed by real data.
Sometimes, content from not-so-well-known micro-influencers may be exactly what you need!
Recognize the author’s work
One of the must-follow principles of content curation is citation. In other words, never forget to mention the author of the piece you share. If you are sharing someone’s content on social media, the best is to tag them.
Giving kudos to the authors is not only ethical but also helps boost your social media marketing and increase your brand’s visibility. This is particularly true when tagging people with a large number of followers.
Find content that mentions your brand
ALWAYS curate content that mentions your brand name. This is a perfect opportunity to strengthen your company’s positioning and brand awareness.
In case more brands are mentioned in the same article, consider mentioning them in your social post as well. The more profiles you tag, the more visibility you will achieve.
In order to make sure that you don’t miss your company’s mentions, consider implementing a brand monitoring or social mentions tool.
Add your own thoughts
When you curate content, make sure you add your thoughts and opinions about it. If what you share is relevant to your business, tell the audience how. If your product or service solves a trending problem in the industry, then explain how.
If you just agree or disagree with a certain statement, then say it. In any case, you should never share content just for the sake of it. Instead, it should have a clear purpose and be aligned with your company’s overall marketing and content strategy.
Test various distribution channels
Over 38% of content marketers have difficulties reaching their target audiences. So choosing the right distribution channels is critical. Curated content can have a bigger impact than any paid ad if done right.
You just need to hit the right audience on the right channels.
Remember that social media is not the only option. You can, for example, find relevant Slack groups where your audience may live. Try sharing content there, and if the author is a member of the group, don’t forget to mention him!
Engage your employees
Previously mentioned research by Content Marketing Institute showed that 48% of content marketers rate internal communications and team silos as their biggest challenge.
On the other hand, your employees should play an important role in curating both your company’s content and external content relevant to their jobs. This is particularly true for employees in sales who want to leverage social selling to improve their results.
To enable employees to curate content on their own social networks, companies need to make sharing easy and rewarding!
More about the topic in the next section!
💡 Also, learn about how to master your organization’s social selling strategy!
Use the right technology
Besides a social monitoring tool to track your brand mentions, you need a content distribution tool to curate content. If your goal is to share content only from your company’s profiles, then software like Buffer will do it.
However, if you want a bigger impact and want to encourage your employees to share the same content on their social profiles, then you need an employee advocacy app. Such apps make it easy for employees to find and share content on their profiles and, therefore, significantly extend your company’s online reach.
Enabling Employees to Curate Content
In the previous section, we have briefly mentioned employee advocacy. Brand ambassadorship in the workplace can be the most powerful way to curate both internal and external content. It can help your organization boost its visibility, improve brand awareness, and generate more high-quality leads.
Furthermore, employees who engage in social selling often become trusted thought leaders in their industries, and they are more successful in strengthening their personal brands.
However, employee advocacy should be easy and fun for employees. Content-to-be-shared should be right at their fingertips and shareable with a few clicks. Organizations should gamify the entire process to drive more engagement and measure the impact of advocacy on the company’s performance.
If you are looking for powerful employee advocacy software for your organization, check out how Haiilo can help!
Want to learn more? Check out our content curation guideline!
