Curating content the right way: why and how

Sharing new and engaging content builds your brand and your audience. We are all pretty across that concept. But what happens when the demand for new content becomes greater than our maximum capacity for creation? In an age where everyone can publish online, surely there’s a way of utilising the mass amount of content already available? Thankfully there is, and it’s known as content curation.

Why content curation?

According to Pawan Deshpande, CEO of Curata, content curation can improve your business competitiveness by providing a number of unique benefits, including building brand awareness, establishing credibility as a thought leader and incorporating outside voices.

As a content marketing expert, Beth Kanter, explains content curation is the “process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web, and presenting it in a meaningful and organised way, around a specific theme”.

Whereas content creation involves making content relevant to your audience from scratch – content curation is about gathering material produced by others and sharing it, for your audience’s engagement and benefit.

That’s not to say you just copy and paste the next article you find and publish it across your channels – that’s a big no-no. Instead, be smart about the content you source and how you tailor your sharing, so your audience is interested.

How to curate content?

Here’s an example using technology giant, Intel and their curated site iQ. Knowing their audience are tech-centric, Intel source and share content surrounding the latest technological innovations and conversations. By focusing on their audience’s interests, Intel can publish content that is both relevant to their brand and audience.

It’s easy to see why content curation has worked for Intel’s iQ. All articles are found and recommended by Intel’s tech-savvy employees, they are able to develop IQ as a resources hub for all things technology, subsequently establishing themselves as credible, well-read and up-to-date.

However, curating content may not work for everyone. Deshpande (as cited in Mark Sherbin’s article from the Content Marketing Institute) says the following three questions will help you decide whether content curation is for you and your brand.

1. Is there a dominant publication in your market? If there is already a well-established platform delivering information on similar topics to your audience, it’ll be tougher for you to get a foothold in the market using content curation. It’s not impossible, but becoming a ‘go-to’ for topics relevant to your audience is one of the main aims of content curation so ensure there is a space for you – or you are confident your content is significantly better than your rival’s, and readers will jump ship.
2. Are you picking content your audience is interested in? All content you curate should be audience-focused. If you can narrow your focus, you have a better chance of becoming the leading source of information on that topic. Find your niche and own it!
3. Is there enough content to curate out there? To effectively curate content, you must be able to consistently source information. Research how much content is being created before deciding to specialise in it.

Tools for curating content

So, how do I go about actually sourcing content?

Quite often finding relevant and high-quality content to curate is the hardest part. But don’t worry, there are many tools to do the hard work for you. An oldie, but a goodie is Google Alerts which delivers updates related to a specific search or keyword/s. Subscribing to newsletters is another great way to get content to your mailbox, but use this sparingly as it’s easy to suffer from inbox overload. You can then share the most relevant content with your audience.

When it comes to apps here are the top picks, curated from Ian Cleary’s article on RazorSocial.

• Curata: A content curation software allowing you to discover, organise and share content relevant to your interests. It uses technology that learns your “content taste” and delivers accordingly.
• Feedly: Works well for aggregating RSS feeds. You can create and categorise feeds of valuable content from articles, blogs and websites most relevant to you.
• Pocket: Probably the easiest tool to use on this list. It allows you to save articles, images or videos from the web and organise them in lists. If you download the Pocket software, you can save your content in just one click. It also analyses your saved articles and makes recommendations.
• it!: Great for the time-poor – this tool allows you to create boards of specific topics, to which you can then add related content.
• Triberr: Join a ‘tribe’ of bloggers to view all their latest blog posts and easily source high-quality and relevant content.

Content curation can be a great way to keep reminding your audience that you’re there, and you’re in the know. While there are a number of factors to consider before jumping in, there are many tools to help you find and schedule your content well. Happy curating!