12 Expert Tips on How to Master Your Content Curation Strategy

Do you always find yourself not having enough time to create content for your blog? Or maybe you are short on writers who can publish articles regularly.

Then, it’s time to consider content curation as part of your marketing strategy!

Content curation is the process of discovering and selecting content that is relevant to a particular subject or area of interest for your target audience. Curata defined content curation as:

• Performed by a person, not simply a computer algorithm.
• Being discerning, discriminative, and selective.
• Added value. You offer perspective, insight, guidance.
• Not a one-time event or activity.
• Informed by a laser focus on your audience.

If you’re interested in implementing content curation, find out how these experts are doing it successfully.

How to Master Your Content Curation Strategy: 12 Expert Tips

1. Create a curated newsletter.
2. Set your goals.
3. Use Google Alerts and Twitter.
4. Add value to your readers.
5. Implement a strategy and reap the benefits.
6. Stay updated.
7. Sharing vs. curating.
8. Find the best content for your audience.
9. It’s all about good content.
10. Pique your audience’s curiosity.
11. Use the right tool.
12. Publish and repurpose content.

Create a Curated Newsletter

I position my Weekend Update Newsletter as my reader’s “weekly professional development required reading.” The newsletter is simply a curated email of written content, audio content, and questions from my private Facebook Group that I determine are the most important for my readers to consume.

I’ve been creating my newsletter for years, and the three most important lessons I’ve learned are:

1. While this might go without saying, you absolutely need to understand who your reader is and what their challenges are.
2. You need to be a consumer of content yourself. You need to read, listen, and watch as much content as you can from the industry you are trying to curate.
3. You need to have your content organized, and I use and recommend the RSS reader Feedly. Good luck and happy curating!

Brendan Schneider

I help schools and non-profits properly implement and use inbound marketing and social media to achieve their recruitment and retention goals.
SchneiderB Media

Set Your Goals

It’s very important to establish from the start what exactly you want to achieve with content curation:

• more influence in your niche,
• promoting your business,
• generating more followers and engagement, etc.

This will help you decide what channels to use, what types of content to share, and what content formats to use in order to ultimately achieve your goals.

Another important part: don’t just share links and be done with it. Give your input, make a comment on what you’ve read or seen, explain why people should check out that piece of content, be funny – that makes the difference between simply sharing content and curating content.

Lilach Bullock

Highly regarded on the world speaker circuit, Lilach is a hugely connected and influential entrepreneur, listed in Forbes as one of the top 20 women social media power influencers.
Lilach Bullock

Use Google Alerts and Twitter

I’ve found Google Alerts and Twitter very valuable to find and curate content that might be of interest to my audiences.

I monitor certain Google Alert keywords and get emails when something potentially of interest pops up. I often use this content to share on social media and in my blog posts.

A similar concept applies to Twitter, though, Twitter is more hit and miss it seems.

Christoph Trappe

Global keynote speaker, storytelling expert, digital transformationist, author.
The Authentic Storytelling Project

 

Add Value to Your Readers

While content curation is good for SEO and the marketing of your business, you’ll get more long-term results if you remember that your audience is not there to help you.

Everything you write, curate and promote must be of the greatest value of the readers or viewers. Make it all about them, and they will reward you with attention and interest.

Warren Whitlock

Top online influencer for blockchain, marketing, technology and energy.
Warren Whitlock

 

Implement a Strategy and Reap the Benefits

My advice on how to have an effective content curation strategy is two-fold (one part strategy and one part tactics).

First, find out what your customers want or need to know what they care about, and what matters to them, and then feed them a steady diet of relevant information using a mix of original and curated content.

Second, to make that task easier, use a curation platform or feed reader that scans the web looking for such information and can, preferably, also distribute it to your social channels, blog, or email newsletter (with your annotations or commentary included, of course; it’s not just copy/paste that you’re looking to do, but establishing yourself as an industry thought leader).

As I see it, the benefits of content curation are at least three-fold:

1. Curation can save you valuable time and resources,
2. builds trust and credibility for your brand, and
3. educates and engages your customers.

They will appreciate your efforts because it relieves them of the need to source content on their own. Hopefully, that means you get their attention, trust, loyalty, and business, and not your competitor.

Paul Chaney

Paul Chaney is a digital marketing veteran who has more than 20 years of experience learning the tricks of the trade. Currently, he is digital marketing manager for Transparent BPO, a contact center company with headquarters in Belize.
Transparent BPO

Stay Updated

In order to be successful with content curation, you have to regularly keep up with industry news. It’s easiest to be effective if you sign up to receive email updates from these top media sources (or add them to your favorite RSS reader).

Once you have access to a lot of raw material, consider your audience. If they’ve already been over-exposed to a certain piece of news, you probably won’t be doing them any favors by re-sharing it.

That said, if you have a unique angle to tack onto it as part of your curation process, then it can be valuable. In general, try to focus on sharing content that is valuable and interesting in light of what else your audience is already likely being exposed to.

Maddy Osman

Maddy Osman is an SEO content writer who helps connect companies with relevant search prospects. Learn more about her process and experience on her website, www.The-Blogsmith.com and read her latest articles on Twitter: @MaddyOsman.
The Blogsmith

Sharing vs Curating

To me, great content curation isn’t just sharing other people’s content on social, it means finding complex content in your industry (that your audience needs to know and understand) and then making sense out of it.

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Add your own point of view, tips, and insights that make it easy for your audience to apply the knowledge featured in the content you curated.

Ivana Taylor

Ivana Taylor shares low cost marketing tools, tips and strategies on $17 a Day. She’s a D&B, Fast Company Top Influencer and Host #BizapaloozaChat Mondays 2pm ET. and Thursdays at 8pm ET.
DIYMarketers

Find the Best Content for Your Audience

I created a list of about 12 websites that consistently share content my audience is interested in. Every week, my assistant reviews the most-recent published content on those sites and sends me a list of eight to ten strong articles.

From that list, I choose five or six to share on social media, and three to share in my Weekend Digest newsletter. My audience loves this — I’m finding the best of the best for them!

Pamela Wilson

Pamela Wilson is an author, keynote speaker, business coach, and online educator. If you want to build an online business around your hard-earned professional expertise, register for the free Plan & Grow BIG method at bigbrandsystem.com
BIG Brand System

It’s All About Good Content

Good content is easy because it is all about creating content that achieves your goals…not what is “good” and “not good.” There is no prescription for how to create good content.

There is a strategy for creating content that works…and that is testing, retesting, and continually observing how your audience grows and reacts.

I like to say the best content is a conversation, and empowering that to happen requires being in touch with results, listening…and allowing your team to adjust accordingly.

But if good content is king, distribution, syndication, and connection is definitely the queen, because she drives the bus!

You already know your brand should be producing an ongoing stream of great content—the best content results have been proven to come from a combination of quantity and quality.

But producing an ongoing stream of great content can be a daunting task, which is why it’s important to get the most use you can out of the content you produce that works.

If your content is good, you should be able to ride it until the wheels fall off. Re-sharing and reposting the good stuff is a critical distribution tactic that can help you get the best mileage.

Ted Rubin

Ted Rubin is a leading Social Marketing Strategist, Keynote Speaker, CMO of Photofy, MC/HOST of Brand Innovators monthly Marketing Summits, and Co-Founder of Prevailing Path. In March 2009 he started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return on Relationship, hashtag #RonR. His book, Return on Relationship, was released January 2013, How To Look People in the Eye Digitally January 2105 and The Age of Influence… Selling to the Digitally Connected Customer May 2017. Ted is currently writing his latest book, along with business partner and Retail Thought Leader John Andrews titled Retail Relevancy. Connect with Ted at TedRubin.com or @TedRubin
Ted Rubin’s Straight Talk

Pique Your Audience’s Curiosity

Think about unique aspects or questions that your target audience might have–concerns they might be scared to ask but are curious to know the answer to, or interesting spins on tried and true subjects.

I also use Google Alerts to be notified immediately when a new study or position paper comes out in my industry, meaning I’m on the cutting edge as the first to respond to it.

Laura Pennington

Laura Pennington is a freelance writer for law firms and coach to aspiring six-figure freelancers.
Better Biz Academy

 

Use the Right Tool

To make your job easier and efficient, use BuzzSumo to curate content. It will help you get good content ideas that you can use in your content curation marketing.

My advice: Don’t spend weeks and months curating content yourself, use the right tool to find excellent and high-value articles.

Bill Achola

Bill Acholla is a digital entrepreneur helping small business owners build their business through content marketing.
Bill Achola

 

Publish and Repurpose Content

One of the best ways to implement content curation into your existing blog or content promotion efforts is to of course publish content on your own site, then sharing it with your internal mailing list and social media.

However, there are other great methods as well, such as turning your best content into an infographic and submitting it to different directories and putting in the necessary manual outreach to get other sites to pick it up.

Another great method is to do guest blogging on other big sites, then reference your content whenever it fits in. Try these methods today, and start seeing more traffic and better search rankings tomorrow!

Zac Johnson

Zac Johnson is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in the world of online marketing and branding.
Blogging.org

 

Wrapping Up

Content curation offers a lot of benefits to your business. But to be successful, you need to follow the right principles.

It’s important that your curated content is not just copied from other sources. You need to add value, share your perspective and tips that will benefit your readers.

What content curation strategy/strategies did you find useful? Let us know in the comments below!