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It’s tough getting your business or brand to stay top-of-mind for your audience. But with strategic content curation, you can become the go-to industry source they’re looking for.
There’s one problem, though: So. Much. Content. Those three words probably sum up the internet as a whole. As days pass, more and more content gets published, good or bad.
In fact, in a recent post on the Skyscraper Technique
BuzzSumo found that, compared with 2016, we have published a staggering 64% more content over the last year – and that’s based on a pretty conclusive analysis of 1.7bn articles.
This is a serious blow to digital marketers everywhere. They have to compete more strenuously for the market’s attention and have an advanced content ideation strategy just to keep up with their competitors.
Every piece of content your competitors create is another item to compete with. Furthermore, every piece of content that even non-competitors create is also competing for the attention of your audience.
But what if it’s actually the opposite?
What if you could use all that non-competitive content to your own advantage? What if all content could become stepping stones in creating an entirely solid piece? What if you can use other’s work legally, and still get big benefits
for your own business?
My friends, we are talking about content curation
, a not-so-new concept that top marketers have been utilizing for years now. Proper content curation can yield extremely big results that might surprise you.
In this article, we will be covering:
- Ways to distribute curated content
- Types of content curation
- How to find content to curate
This is all in an effort to teach you how to leverage other people’s content to stay top-of-the-mind for your audience.
What does content curation mean?
To some, content curation means carefully selecting, commenting on and distributing the highest quality content created by others.
But the content curation process can also involve creating owned
content that is inspired
by the quality content of others.
Heidi Cohen
makes an important distinction between content aggregation and content curation.
Aggregated content simply involves distributing a compilation of content (ie. a list), but when you curate content you are adding an additional layer; your own unique opinion
or perspective
.
Why is content curation important?
Content curation gives you the opportunity to raise your brand awareness, assert yourself as a thought leader and, most importantly, build strong connections with your audience.
In many ways, content curation is about community – especially when you’re sharing other people’s ideas.
Communities have each others’ backs. Your own content will naturally do better if you’ve got a network of people personally vouching for it. And they’ll do this for one of two reasons:
- Because of the value you add to their lives
- Because you have done the same for them
Remember ‘Like for like’ requests on Myspace or Instagram? Or link trades by way of guest posting?
Well curating content is not too dissimilar – you’re still sharing someone else’s ideas and driving engagement their way – but the key difference is you’re not demanding they reciprocate.
By being sincere about your reasons for sharing someone else’s content, and thinking beyond the transaction, you’ll naturally build up strong connections which will pay dividends in future.
When you’re done sharing, you can then turn your curation into conversation. Discuss what it is you found interesting about a certain piece of content, give feedback to the creator or ask them questions in a public forum. This softly-softly approach is a brilliant way to build a strong network.
Content curation can therefore lead to all kinds of positive outcomes, whether that be reciprocal links, content collaborations or ongoing engagement.
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