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Jun 21, 2022
You've probably heard the expression "content is king" and the term "content marketing." But, just to be sure that we're on the same page, content marketing is defined by Mailchimp as:
"A marketing strategy used to attract, engage, and retain an audience by creating and sharing relevant articles, videos, podcasts, and other media."
Essentially, it's all about using the information you have to assist people in understanding and solving problems—usually with your product or service. And it's very effective.
However, take note of the word "creating." Content marketing is more than just writing blogs and pressing the publish button. It's also about "sharing" that content out there.
But it's not easy. It can be challenging to get your content noticed. And there are times when you don't have the time, knowledge, or budget to create content on every topic.
That's where content curation comes in—sharing relevant content that isn't necessarily your own.
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As the leading digital marketing company in Miami, we believe that content marketing can be divided into two categories: content creation and content curation.
Many industry experts create compelling content that provides in-depth insights into issues of interest to various audiences. It makes sense to share that content with your intended audience. This is what it means to curate content.
However, suppose you are an expert in your field. In that case, you may be able to provide valuable insights that will assist your audience in resolving their problems while also building trust in your brand. This is where content creation comes into play.
Curation and creation are critical components of building trust, so understanding their significance and striking a good balance between them is vital.
Social media is a powerful tool, mainly when used to share information with the entire world. And here are a few specific benefits to regularly sharing high-quality content with your audience:
Curating content from high-quality sources can help you gain credibility and exposure in your industry. Instead of sharing generic content, a thought leader focuses on sharing relevant and valuable content.
Here's an example of how content curation can help you establish authority in your industry:
Maria Popova is the creator of the website The Marginalian (formerly known as Brain Pickings). She has over five million social media fans and followers, but what makes her story even more impressive is how it began.
In 2006, The Marginalian began as a weekly email to seven of her friends. Today, Maria distributes a weekly digest of articles she finds interesting and inspiring.
It is best if you remember that a thought leader is someone who serves as a notable expert in a specific company, industry, or society and provides guidance and insight to those around them.
If you want to establish your credibility as a thought leader, you should have a positive reputation for assisting others with your knowledge and insight—something you can quickly achieve through social media content curation.
RELATED: What Is Thought Leadership? Everything You Need to Know
The constant demand for new content can be taxing on any marketing team. Take a moment to go over your content creation inventory. Most established websites that devote time and resources to content creation will generate the following assets:
VT is an excellent example of a company that uses curation to complement its social media efforts. The manager of their Facebook page curates content from other websites and content creators.
The screenshot below shows that the curated post received 68k reactions and over 6.7 million views.
It isn't easy to create high-quality content daily or consistently. Curation allows you to supplement your blogging and social media marketing efforts with content created by others.
By curating content, you increase the chances that search engines will direct your target audience to your social profiles or pages. Curating content broadens your search. While SEO is not the primary goal of content curation, it is a byproduct of the process.
Paying attention to trending news is an excellent example of SEO benefits when curating content, especially in terms of freshness and relevance. Curating trending content allows you to leverage search engine algorithms that focus on content freshness.
The image below depicts a popular search term, "Thor Chris Hemsworth."
The top results for this search query include top stories and tweets from several third-party publications, including tweets about the movie "Thor" and other social content, such as the @CentrFit's fitness content.
So, keep those creative juices flowing and create more trendy content that you can link to your industry to further boost your social media platforms' SEO.
RELATED: The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Optimization
As a content curator, you should be wary of sharing content for the sake of sharing content or prioritizing quantity over quality. Our digital marketing experts in Miami believe that instead of hoarding content, you should share only the best. So, where do you look for 'the best?'
Here are three content curation tools and platforms to help you find content sources:
Because more and more people are publishing content these days, you'll want to curate content from influencers and experts in your niche, as well as articles from influential blogs or news outlets.
In fact, content curation can be as simple as retweeting a thought-provoking tweet from an industry expert.
However, so much content is shared on Twitter that it can be overwhelming. This is where Twitter lists can help you.
Creating themed lists allows you to view a feed of the most recent tweets from a specific group of profiles.
RELATED: How To Use Twitter Lists
By doing so, you're less likely to miss out on new content from your favorite content creators.
Slack groups, like Twitter lists, are a great way to stay in touch with industry thought leaders. Most Slack communities have channels dedicated to sharing content, and because members are all 'in the know,' you can discover the best content before anyone else.
The two content curation platforms we've discussed thus far are excellent additions to your social media marketing toolkit. They do, however, require some of your time and effort.
Yes, they can deliver the content, but you must still ensure that it is something you are comfortable sharing with your audience. After that, you can manually publish it to social media.
Quuu can automate the entire process by sending you daily content recommendations based on specific topics you specify. It is also linked to your preferred social media scheduler, such as:
That means you can have your suggestions automatically or manually sent to your scheduler in your Quuu dashboard.
RELATED: 8 Top Social Media Scheduling Tools To Save Time
To help you stand out from the crowd, our digital marketing experts in Miami recommend various practices when sharing curated content on social media.
One is to give credit to the author and the content source. Not only does tagging high-profile content sources help you avoid plagiarism, but it can also increase your social media reach and engagement and help you build relationships with key industry players.
Along with giving credit to content sources, it’s also important to spend time crafting your captions. Captions play an essential role in attracting viewers while giving them a preview of what they can expect from your shared content.
We recommend the following copywriting tricks to increase the reach and engagement of your social media posts:
While our Miami digital marketing experts have shared with you what content curation is, its benefits, and some actionable examples to get you started, keep in mind that everyone can manage content curation in their own unique way.
The most important thing to remember when using content curation strategies is to:
Do you use content curation in your marketing stack? If so, please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
If not, what are you waiting for? It's time to collaborate with Digital Resource. We'll show you how to do it so your company can benefit from digital marketing.
Don't hesitate to get in touch with us so that you can begin curating content right away.
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