A stretch of your time and content resources that is. Curating content in its many forms is definitely a time saver, especially if you are a small staff (of one?) or you have a heavy content schedule.

Curating content is not difficult by any means, and it is by far a way to not only provide engaging content to your subscribers and the internet at large, it always produces authority.

If you want to learn about content curation, you’ve come to the right blog.  Although we don’t curate much in the way of articles and so forth, we have been known to swipe and deploy others’ content (with their permission, of course).

Although this article is not an all-inclusive guide, you will come away with a few tips and tricks to extend your content library, build your authority to your subscribers (I’ll tell you how in a minute), but also fill in or expand your content calendar. 

It’s a great way to show off your expertise, relaying the unspoken message to your readers/viewers/listeners that you are in the know, you’re part of the well-read authority figures, and someone that can be relied upon to spread the news for knowledge gain.

What is Content Curation?

Simply put, it’s someone else’s  content that you have cherry picked and added your own information to it.  Simple, right? Not as simple as it sounds, I’ll say.

It’s content that comes from a variety of sources that all show leadership in their field of expertise. So, by adding your own  personal evaluation or disagreement with the top influencers, you can become a bit more of an authority figure by proxy. 

By using content pieces interwoven into your own, your subscribers will become more knowledgeable from more than just your word.  As knowledgeable as you might be, many heads make for better decision-making, more insight, a well-rounded perspective, and an opportunity to allow your subscribers a different point of view.

Image source: Curata.com 

The Benefits of Content Curation

Without going into the heavy detail, these benefits are pretty self-explanatory. They are:

• It keeps your subscribers AND you informed and more well-rounded. You learn more by combing through topics of the day and who is saying what. Your peeps get your view and that of some of the experts in  your field.
• It saves you time. By curating content and adding your own twist to it, you can produce more content in less time. That way you can begin to post or create more frequently, expand your offerings by sharing it in more than one form (podcast turned transcription et al), and also by cutting down on the number of writers you might rely on for fresh content.
• It makes you appear well-read and knowledgeable. By sharing the latest and greatest content from the “top influencers” with your summation, opinion, viewpoint or argument, your status will increase.
• You get to become known by the “top influencers” by sharing and commenting on their work, making comments on their blog articles, web pages, videos, etc.

On top of all that your business should begin to take an uptick if your content is seen by more people. Of course, that is a long-term benefit that you may have to wait a while to realize.

How Do You Curate Content?

Let me count the ways. 

• One of the quickest ways to curate important content is to stick close to your main segment of the marketplace. You wouldn’t curate info on baking a West Virginia Ham if you are in the IT sector. So stay in your lane.
• Pull a quote from one or two top influencers that are talking about your topic and insert them into your piece at the appropriate point in your content. The quotation or excerpt from a master’s piece can reinforce the point you are trying to make or further explain what you are sharing.
• You’ll want to curate content for the different segments of your ideal audience, if you have more than one. For instance, my ideal audience are dentists, physicians, attorneys, CPAs and the like.  They are also men and women.  I need to determine which segment the topic of my main idea is and identify content that will directly correlate with that particular segment. And, then each time you curate on that specific topic, rotate between the segments. That way no one will feel left out.  AND, schedule it as much as you possibly can.
• Pay attention to the news cycle that pertains to your industry or market segment. If what’s happening is of interest to your subscribers, locate the best and most intriguing content, whether it be video, podcast, television news item, or off the front page of the newspaper. Work what’s being shared broadly and make it fit into your messaging.
• You can take complete pieces from those you highly respect and just add a preliminary comment of a paragraph or just a few sentences so that your peeps know from whom the information is being shared, and your content piece is top news, poignant, on target with your audience, and took only a few minutes.
• You make certain that every piece of curated content is attributed to the original creator. You don’t want to fall victim to the copyright police, do you?
• Create a ratio and schedule it. For every 8-10 pieces of original content, curate 1 or 2, don’t get lazy and take curation as the easy road.  Your brand must be able to stand on its own two feet. If you post content every day in several formats, curate one on a channel once and another channel in a few days. 

Say, a blog article curated to use as a major curation where you start with an opening paragraph. Turn it into a podcast by inserting important parts of the information to shore up you point for the episode. 

There are all sorts of tools available to making content curation a snap, but we don’t have time for them in this article. I promise to get into the Top 6 Tools for Content Curation in a few weeks.  Until then,

Cheers!