Content Curation
Content curation entails searching for relevant and quality content for online readers or followers. Customers enjoy meaningful material that’s engaging and well-organized. Today’s expanding marketing and blogging industries are in high demand of information from customers.
The benefits of content curation have made it gain fame among marketers and bloggers. If you want to search for quality information for your customers or followers and don’t know where to start, this article is for you.
You shall learn everything you need to know about content curation. You will learn how to add your voice to your collected content to make it more valuable. After this guide, your customers will love, comment, and share your content.
But before then, let us distinguish between content curation and content creation because many people don’t know the difference.
The Difference between Content Curation and Content Creation
Though these two concepts involve creating content, they are not the same.
Content creation involves creating content from other people’s information. The content you make from the different sources isn’t your original. But in content creation, it is vice versa. You get to create the content from scratch.
If creating a video, podcast, or blog, every detail is out of your knowledge and creativity in content creation. Unlike in content curation, you design and promote your content.
Content curation offers constant value to followers or customers in a faster way than content creation. For optimal results, you need to collect and create your strategy with a strategy. If it’s your first time learning about curating content, you must get enlightened about its benefits.
The Usefulness of Content Curation
The benefits of content curation are many, but we shall discuss the main ones.
- Recognition as an expert
When people get value from your content, they gain trust and recognize you as someone who knows what they are doing. That is why your followers will share your content with as many people as possible and comment or give great feedback.
Customers or followers get your business’s impression based on what they see and read. What does this mean? If you give quality content, then your followers will regard you the same. Give content that will make your fans, followers, or clients think of you or brand as you want them to.
Also, know how to convey that message based on the platform. For example, you may need to post your content in a different format on your website than on your Twitter or Pinterest platforms. Well-written, structured, and presented information on any platform like social media portrays your expertise.
- Saves Time and Energy
Have you ever tried creating something from scratch? The energy and time involved in being innovative can be draining. It may also be expensive when you need to buy the materials and equipment required for creating such content. For example, you may require to buy a good camera for your videos. But it’s the other way round with content curation. You use less time to create content because it already exists from various sources.
You only need to compile and arrange it into meaningful information.
- It announces Your Presence.
By sharing valuable content to your customers, it indicates to them that you are around and concerned. Your followers and fans can be able to see that you care about them. When you keep on posting such valuable information frequently, it announces your presence.
By checking on your status, screens, and feeds, clients can know if you are available and for how long.
- Helps Expand Your Network
When people are happy with the information you send them, they can share it around with others. In doing so, they help market you or your brand. So, as you help others, they also help you. As a result, you get connected to more customers and influencers in your business sector.
The shared content can spark a conversation in all your social media platforms and help reach thousands of valuable customers and industry players.
- Knowledge Acquisition
Through constant research about your customers and what they want, you also frequently research what will benefit them. In return, you acquire a lot of knowledge in the process.
When your fans, followers, or clients comment on your content, they share more information, experiences, and opinions. You also get to learn a lot and stay informed.
With the above information about curated content benefits, you may want to know how to do it correctly. Here is the insight;
Doing Content Curation the Right Way
- Choosing the Topic
Every content has a topic. Depending on what your customers or followers love, you will need to first look for an attractive title. Then search its content from various reliable sources. Thanks to the advent of technology, there are tools to help you with this.
But before you create the content, it would be essential to consider the following;
- The audience to share the content with
- The value of the content
- Whether the sources are reliable and authentic
- Whether your content is unique
- Whether the content will make a difference to your client
If the above points get fulfilled, it’s time to share your content. If sharing it on the social media platform, consider the ‘thirds rule’ of social media. It states that a third of the content should involve;
- Conversations
- Personal brand
- Curated content
- Know and Understand Your Customers
You cannot do content curation for the sake of it. There must be a good reason why. To develop the best content, you must know your audience and what they are looking for. Then create content that will enlighten your audience and answer their questions.
For example, if sharing content with your followers like about top applications to use on your mobile device, ask yourself if it fits the considerations explained earlier. You may wonder why. It is because the content is about them.
Sharing such content indicates that you care about your fans, customers, and followers, and you want them to succeed, make concrete decisions, or have valuable knowledge about something.
- Share Only Quality Information
After knowing your audience, share with them only what matters to them. Irrelevant content may make your followers despise your content, and you may lose most of your followers. Can you risk losing your fans or customers to unnecessary information? It’s not worth it.
- Be Unique
Try to develop your brand or identity that your customers or fans can identify you with. Then be consistent with your identity. It doesn’t do you good to change your brand now and then. You will confuse and scare your customers away.
Then come up with a schedule on how you share your content with your audience. For example, it could be weekly or twice per month. Let your customers, followers, and fans know your schedule such that they get already prepared to receive your post on that particular day and platform.
- Market Yourself
A little promotion about yourself won’t hurt. After all, you aren’t sharing all these valuable content for anything. Are you? Let people know who you are and what you’re up to. It could help you make massive sales or benefit from other things like great connections.
Conclusion
As illustrated above, content curative is essential for marketers and bloggers. If done correctly, as discussed above, your clients, fans, or follower base enjoy valuable content and increase in numbers.