Content curation is a common strategy for social media marketers. In fact, 82% of marketers have added content curation to their marketing strategy. It is more about just sharing other brands’ content, it’s about finding what your audience wants to keep them coming back to you. Just because you (as a business owner or marketing professional) like something doesn’t mean it necessarily creates value for your audience. It’s not always as simple as: if you like it, share it. There are some important tips you should utilize when working with curated content:
Benefits of Content Curation
Save Time: Curated content can save you some time in that busy schedule of yours. It is faster to simply click share rather than come up with an entirely new post from scratch. Designing original content takes time and content curation can help out with that.
Build Relationships: Networking is key to growing your business, we all know that. Content curation is a great way to build relationships with other brands. Let the original creator know you’ve shared it whenever you curate (share other companies’ posts or articles) content by tagging them to catch their attention. This can result in a start of a conversation or even a follow. You never know what could happen!
Diversify Your Content Calendar: The main focus on your content calendar should always be original content that matches your brand’s voice and opinions. But sometimes it’s good to give a little diversity in your content. Sharing new ideas and differing opinions from other industry experts can add variety to your profile. This shows your audience that you are here to offer them a variety of perspectives and ideas and that you are part of the overall conversation.
5 Tips When Working With Curated Content
Know Your Audience: This is an important tip for any marketing strategy you use. You have to put thought into how this piece of content will align with your audience and what they want to see. It’s more than just a piece of content you are sharing. It needs to be relevant and relatable to be beneficial to your target audience.
Credit Your Sources: Always give credit when credit is due. There are many ways to give creators credit when you share their ideas. You can simply tag them and link to the original piece of content. You can even mention them somewhere at the bottom if you don’t have room for it. You do not want to be that brand that steals other people’s content and passes it off as your own. It won’t look good for your brand, and it definitely won’t help you build relationships.
Add Your Thoughts: It's good to share curated content, but remember that ultimately your followers are there for you and what you think. This doesn’t mean you have to do this for every piece of curated content, but if you have some thoughts on the idea, it won’t hurt to share them. A simple sentence or two introducing the content and why you think your audience will find it helpful can go a long way.
Schedule Curated Content in Advance: Scheduling not only original but curated content is the ultimate time-saver for content marketing. Scheduling content helps you ensure it’s going to get done and allows you to see any gaps in your content. This ultimately helps you see exactly what your month of content will look like. You don’t want too much of any certain type of content so scheduling will help you add variety.
Many platforms help you schedule your content, but we suggest Sprout Social. Sprout Social allows you to manage and schedule content for multiple social media platforms as well as see your peak performance time. Using platforms like these allows you to see your content calendar, look for gaps, and not worry about
Offer the Right Content Mix: Your content calendar must have a multitude of various content, including your curated content. You want a good mix of original content and curated content to give your audience some diversity. Your goal is to attract your audience the most with your original content and then keep them engaged with curated content. Too much-curated content can come off as not putting in a lot of effort so make sure you have a good ratio for your audience.
Content Creation Tools
ShareIt: This is a free content curation tool useful for social media and blogging teams. All you do is type out a keyword and it will curate a relevant list of content pieces and social handles.
BuzzSumo: This is one of the most popular content curation tools. Type in a keyword and BuzzSumo will pull a list of the most shared content on the subject.
Quuu: This is the only content curation software that suggests content by humans and not pre-set algorithms. They pull content from almost 5oo categories with various topics.
Triberr: This content creation tool allows you to find and curate content and allows you to promote your original content.
Content curation can be extremely beneficial in your marketing strategy if it’s done the right way. Before adding content curation into your marketing plan, make sure you have a solid marketing strategy. If you need help with any aspect of your marketing strategy, 30|90 Marketing Is here to help. Reach out today to see what we can do to enhance your marketing strategy!