Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Content Curation

Content is definitely king! Without top-shelf content, you will not be successful at attracting prospective clients or keeping your existing clients engaged and wanting more and more of what you have to say.

The content options that you can choose

Content that you write yourself

Interestingly, the more great-quality content you share with your online connections, the more content of the same quality your readers will crave. With that said, you shouldn’t think that you must be confined by the types of content that you share with other people.

There is no doubt that people will want to read what you have to say. After all, if they are interested in what you are selling, they are probably also interested in what you are thinking. However, that does not mean that you shouldn’t leverage the wisdom of other people as well.

Curated content

Curated content, which is content that has been written by other people (including influencers in your industry and other people with valuable things to share), is also extremely effective and you should seriously consider presenting a mix of your original content and curated content as part of your content offering. If you decide to use some curated content, you will share the other person’s content and you will include your own commentary on that piece of content at the end of the article. Of course, it goes without saying that you must also have an attribution line to ensure that the original author get credit for his or her work. Otherwise, it is called plagiarism.

The concept of curation has been around for a very long time. Museum’s have been doing it for centuries with artwork. If it makes things clearer to you and you are able to wrap your mind around it more easily, think of the content as a work of art. 

The benefits of using curated content

There are many advantages to using curated content (some of the time). First of all, it helps your readers out because they may not have the time or knowledge to grasp a particular subject yet they may be interested in learning about it. That is where your services come into play. You can supply your readers with valuable, educational information and that information will expand their knowledge base relatively quickly. Additionally, curated content can make a big difference in the number of people who you can attract online. After all, you should constantly have the goal of increasing your professional reputation and that is a really good way of doing that. 

The use of content curation is becoming more and more common with marketers lately. Content curation offers relevant, appropriate, timely content to the readers and there is no doubt that it is a value-added service. It certainly has those advantages over original content, which requires a great deal more effort. When choosing curated content:

• You need to be careful about your content choices: It is very important to exercise caution when it comes to the topics that you are choosing among the curated articles. Additionally, you must establish how often you are going to post the curated content and where you are going to share the curated content. Once you have determined that strategy, you can start to choose the actual content.

• You need to trust your content: The way to make sure that you can trust the curated content that you are sharing is by having confidence in the sources of that content. The stories that are being told must be relevant to your readers and they must have that essential human element. It may help you to establish what your readers are interested in reading. Just ask them.

• The content should improve your brand: If you find the most interesting, relevant topics possible, that content will cause your brand to improve. If that occurs, you will be on your way to becoming an influencer.

• The content must be relevant: As stated previously, you must determine exactly what your readers want to read. If you do that, you can ensure that your content is always relevant. You need to be able to put yourself in their shoes. If you are able to do that, your content will be good to go.

• Present the content in as many forms as possible: It is important that you think outside of the box. There are many interesting ways to present content, such as videos. It is important to remember that although words on the page are great, there are many people who are visual. Videos and graphic images work much more effectively for those readers.

Choosing the most appropriate curated content

The fact is that it is pretty easy to find curated content. However, it is another thing entirely to choose the perfectly curated content to share with your readers. It is important to keep in mind here that it isn’t just a matter of taking an article and posting it. It is a lot more involved than that. Don’t forget that you must add your own commentary at the end of the curated content. In fact, that commentary is what will help your relationship with your readers to continue to deepen. Some points to keep in mind are: Do you agree with what the author of the content is saying? Is there anything missing from the content? Is there a strong connection between what the writer is saying and how you do business? Those are all important points to cover.

Where do you plan to share the curated content?

That is an extremely important question to be answered at this point. There are several different places where you should consider sharing the curated content. Those are blogs, newsletters, on your website, and other social media channels of your choosing. Of course, the variables are the length of the content, the format, etc. Keep in mind that you can capture the analytics of your curated content and how well received it is for any given piece of content.

Conclusion

Using curated content is a great move on your part, as long as you mix it with original content. If you are not so familiar with the concept of using curated content, now is a really good time to do some research. It will help you to uncover why it is such a great idea for your business. Once you understand, it will put you in the great position of shining brightly in the eyes of your readers. You will totally be doing them a service. After all, curated content is so much more than regurgitated content from someone else. It is valuable content to which you have added your human touch.

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