Content Curation: An Easy Guide To Curating Content

Curation is the gathering of interesting, relevant, value-added information to present to an audience.

Ever been to a museum?

A museum curator carefully selects artifacts – from among dozens or even hundreds of items available – and presents them in a way that will best engage the viewing audience. Good museum curation maximizes the value and enjoyment of the visitor’s experience.

Content curation is much the same.

Meaning of Curation: A way to display great content

Content curation is the meaningful selection of relevant, interesting content that will best engage and excite your target audience. Curated content is gathered from third-party sources, whether it be thought leaders, influencers, publications, blogs, videos, podcasts or others. The curated content is then arranged and presented in a way that brings maximum value to your audience.

What’s the value of content curation?

The rise and growth of digital content is a truly mind-boggling phenomenon. According to content strategy specialist Mark Schaefer, the amount of web-based content doubles every 9 to 24 months. People on average spend 11 hours a day consuming content!

There’s a lot of content available out there – some of it is ‘meh’, but there’s also some great content that’s worth sharing.

When doing content curation, you are creating value in a number of ways:

• Doing the hard work for your audience- It’s impossible to consume all the available content in any given area of interest. There’s simply too much. By curating and sharing great content, you are separating the wheat from the chaff, and putting the content your audience is looking for right in their laps. And they’ll remember you for it.
• Giving your audience a positive, enriching experience- According to recent stats from the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is six times more likely than traditional marketing to convert leads to customers. How? By engaging people with content that enriches them or helps them in some way. You don’t need to create the content all on your own. Rather, curate the most engaging content that’s relevant to your audience, and share it with them. They’ll love you for it.
• Spreading influencer outreach – and your own- Influencer marketing is a non-stop growing trend. After all, who doesn’t want to be an influencer? When you curate and share third-party content, you are making yourself a part of the influencer network, and you’re associating your name with other influencers in your industry. And who knows? Maybe they’ll return the favor and share some of your great content!

How to Curate Content?

Select

Choose the right content for your audience.

Personalize

Add a short intro to create your own context.

Share

Present the content on the most appropriate channel.

Analyze

Check out the traffic stats. How did the content perform?

4 Tips for Successful Content Curation

1. Choose carefully

Select content that is valuable and exciting to your audience, yet at the same time supports your brand and message. Mix it up – blog posts, videos, quizzes. Keep it fun, informative and engaging.

2. Give it a personal twist

Don’t just click the ‘Share’ button. Create a short intro that gives the curated content a relevant context for your audience. Show them why it’s interesting, and what they can get out of it.

3. Experiment!

A great way to get to know your audience is by using curated content! It is much faster and easier to share existing content than creating new content from scratch. The traffic stats for your curated content can give you a good idea of what your customers enjoy, and what original content you should be producing.

4. Make it work for you

So they’ve read it and loved it. Now what? Give your audience a clear message of what to do next, with a Call to Action accompanying the curated content. It could be signing up to your newsletter, downloading your e-book, or requesting a product demo.

Whatever it is, make your curated content work for you!