How to Curate Content That Will Help Grow Your Brand

How to Curate Content That Will Help Grow Your Brand

For those of you who have been part of the content marketing ecosystem for a while, I doubt this is your first time hearing about curated content. Here’s my list of everything you need to know to start curating content and growing your brand in the process. What is content curation and why should I do it? General ideology of effective content curation 5 examples of proper curated content 5 tools you can use to start curating content today How often should you be curating content? What is content curation and why should I do it? I want 5 articles ideas on social media. You can either curate their content or explore their content and see where they’re curating content from. By finding information that’s relevant to your audience and using it to create a piece of content that’s custom-tailored to help them. Interestingly enough, that also happens to be one of the fundamentals of an effective social media marketing campaign. What’s your experience with curating content on social media been like?

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curation

Let’s face facts.

Putting together even the most basic marketing campaign can take a toll on you.

Forget about having enough manpower. There’s no getting around the fact that creating new content from scratch on a regular basis gets draining pretty quickly.

And to make things worse, the needs of the average consumer keep growing.

HubSpot found a clear and direct correlation between the number of monthly blog posts and inbound traffic.

10.1

I doubt I have to tell you that your audience wants more content, and they want it right now.

But what if there was a way for everyone to get what they want?

Your audience gets fresh, relevant content on a regular basis, and you aren’t stuck trying to reinvent the wheel every week day.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Wrong.

Welcome to the world of curated content.

For those of you who have been part of the content marketing ecosystem for a while, I doubt this is your first time hearing about curated content.

And I can already hear some of you now.

“But Neil, content curation is just stealing other people’s content and posting it on your blog and social media accounts!”

I hear you. And honestly, it’s a darn shame that a few people’s poor choices have tainted this tactic’s reputation.

Let me clear this up right now. Plagiarism is not content curation.

Curata does a great job of highlighting the benefits of content curation with its infographic below.

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Ironically, taking credit away from other influencers in your industry is the last thing you want to do when you’re curating content!

If you play your cards right and understand the fundamentals of curating content, forget about just growing your brand.

Armed with the knowledge and tools below, you’ll be able to maximize the success of your marketing efforts and become a legitimate online authority.

But before we dive down that rabbit hole, we’ve got some groundwork to cover.

If you’re new to the content marketing industry, these next few sections are a must-read.

Trust me: You’re going to want to get familiar with the basics before we start sinking our teeth into this.

If you’re an industry veteran, then feel free to skip around to whatever section you need help with below.

That being said, even if you’re already familiar with content curation, you should come back and read the entire article if you want to pick up on some of my personal insights.

Here’s my list of everything you need to know to start curating content and growing your brand in the process.

  • What is content curation and why should I do it?
  • How do I curate content properly?
  • General ideology of effective content curation
  • 5 examples of proper curated content
  • 5 tools you can use to start curating content today
  • How often should you be curating content?
  • Where should you be sharing your curated content?
  • Curation on blogs versus social media

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get to the fun stuff!

What is content curation and why should I do it?

It’d be easy to just drop a definition here and move on. But there’s a difference between knowing the textbook definition and understanding what quality content curation looks like.

As far as definitions go, here’s what we’ll be working with (just to make sure we’re on the same page).

Content curation is, at its core, the presentation of relevant information, initially relying on the collection of other people’s high-quality content.

Any content that ends up being part of your marketing campaign — whether it’s basic, complex, or somewhere in between — needs to provide tangible value to your readers.

And content curation can help businesses overcome quite a few hurdles, as shown below.

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The content you curate should always be held to the same standard as your original content.

Relevant, high-quality information is what your audience needs, and there are some serious perks that come with being associated with lots of value-rich content.

But my definition of effective content curation goes beyond just collecting other’s people content and throwing it up on your blog or social media accounts.

To make the most out of this process, you need to focus on the presentation of that content.

Or more specifically, how you can use that content to strengthen the reputation of your own brand.

Think of it this way.

Could you present your audience with valuable content that you’ve found online? Sure. That could certainly help with branding.

But you know what’s even better than that?

Taking that content you’ve found and leveraging it to create new content that offers a uniquely personal perspective.

Just look at what Search Engine Land did with this news of a potential Google algorithm update.

10.4

Why is this better?

Because with that little bit of extra work, you can now have your cake and eat it too.

Let me explain.

I’ll be the first to admit that creating original, compelling content consistently can be a tall order for anyone — industry veteran or not.

The occasional bout of writer’s block alone can stop you dead in your tracks. If you’ve been struggling with that lately, you’re not alone.

Content curation is such an effective solution to this problem because it handles the trickiest part of creating original content: Inspiration.

Plus, you also end up strengthening your position as an online authority.

The curated content is clearly labeled and referenced, ensuring that the creators get credit for their amazing work.

And your blog becomes the place where your audience gets access to the latest industry data, courtesy of you and your marketing strategy.

Still not convinced?

All right, let’s try something really quickly.

Quick! I want 5 articles ideas on social media. And they have to be relevant to the status of the digital media marketing landscape today.

Not that easy, right?

Okay, this time imagine that you just found a list of 25 interesting marketing statistics for the last 12 months, like this one from Contently.

It’s going to be a lot easier to come up with 5 ideas if you’re armed with that list, isn’t it?

And that’s my point.

You could absolutely stop at just sharing the content you find.

But why the heck would you give up the chance to create decidedly relevant content and develop your presence as an online authority?

How do I curate content properly?

So now that we’ve established the massive upside of curating content properly, there’s really only one question left.

What does curating content properly actually look like?

Like most things in the world of digital media marketing, there’s a short answer and a long answer.

The short answer is that, to curate content properly, there are only 4 general guidelines.

  • Figure out which topics to cover.
  • Categorize and organize the content you find.
  • Decide how you can build on the value of that content.

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