When you’re a small business or independent blogger working to build robust content for your audience, strategy is everything. With limited hours in the day and only so many resources, it’s important to make smart decisions that maximize the quantity of your content without letting quality slide. Implementing a content curation strategy is a great way to keep your audience engaged and supercharge your click-through rate without wasting valuable time and energy generating ideas for new content.
What is content curation?
Content curation is the process of finding and selecting existing content to share with your audience. The content you curate can consist of blog posts written by independent bloggers, infographics, influencer videos, articles on trending topics, podcast episodes, and more—as long as it’s relevant to your brand, it can be considered curated content. You can employ content curation strategies on your company website, social media accounts—think Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, and LinkedIn—or in your email marketing materials. However, note that it’s important to always credit the author of the content and link back to the original post.
Content curation vs. content creation
The difference between content curation and content creation is simple: Content curation is the process of selecting existing resources to share with your followers and content creation is the process of making your own original content to post and share with your audience. The content that you share via content curation and content creation is the same—articles, videos, infographics, etc.—but the method of acquiring it is how the two strategies differ.
How can a content curation strategy benefit my brand?
The benefit of creating your own content is that it gives you the opportunity to speak in your brand voice and customize your message for your specific audience. So, what are the benefits of content curation? Turns out there are quite a few!
Save time
First and foremost, employing a content curation strategy on your website or social media accounts can save you a boatload of time. Especially when you’re just starting out, time equals money, so maximizing your time is essential. If you have to focus energy elsewhere—like keeping tabs on competitors or reporting on data analytics—and don’t have time to create your own unique content for followers, employing a content curation strategy for the content you share can help.
Position your brand as a thought leader
While it’s easy to repost something, curating content gives you the opportunity to take things a step further by adding your own insights. If you’re sharing curated content on your social media account, take some of the time you’ve saved by using existing content instead of creating your own to write a few lines commenting on the post you’re sharing. Adding a question, pulling out a quote, or contributing your opinion is a great way to engage your followers and build credibility in your industry.
Another benefit of curating content? You’ll naturally become an expert by engaging with so much content in your field. Your audience will be able to recognize authentic engagement and will start turning to your website or social media accounts for industry insights.
Networking opportunities
Influencer marketing is a powerful way to get the word out about your brand or small business. When you start sharing an influencer’s content, chances are they’ll notice and start engaging back. Sharing content is a great way to build a relationship with influencers like bloggers and other content creators that is mutually beneficial.
Content curation also helps you connect with other thought leaders and experts in your field. As noted above, adding a question or insight to curated content before reposting invites others to get involved in the conversation. If there are particular figures in your field that you’re interested in engaging with, reposting their content is a great way to open a dialogue.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefits
Even if SEO isn’t your primary goal, having more content on your website naturally increases the opportunities for search engines to drive to your page. Sharing a post with quality curated content can also increase the number of backlinks—links on other websites that drive back to your own—which is an important aspect of SEO.
How to get started doing content curation
Ready to get started? The first step is gathering resources that will help you research and identify content. Using an RSS reader to compile RSS feeds of relevant content, setting up Google Alerts for specific keywords, compiling lists of profiles on Twitter and other social media platforms, and signing up for email newsletters are all great places to begin gathering content.