Staying on top of your social media game isn’t only about creating your own content, it’s also about curating content. Curating content means sharing articles, images, videos, etc. that were created and published by someone else.
You should know by now that a brand’s social media relevance relies on fresh, quality content posted regularly. But, unless your business’ sole purpose is social media and blogging, you probably don’t have enough time or resources to create unique content every day. Even if you did, content curation still comes in handy, as you become a source of authority and information for your niche audience when you consistently share new and trending topics.
Therefore, content curation is one of the best tactics to preserve your brand’s social media presence without really having to do a lot of work.
Without further ado, here are some smart tips for curating content:
- Understand what your audience wants
As with any other part of your business, you provide things that satisfy your consumers’ demands. It’s the sole reason why your brand exists. So, when providing content, you have to think about what your niche audience actually cares about.
If you’re simply posting any content with your industry’s label on it, you’re just posting spam and driving your consumers away. That’s why the quality and relevance of what you post is important, and it must meet consumer’s demands.
The best way to understand what your audience wants is by doing a little content research. Tools like BuzzSumo allow you to search for keywords in your industry and filter results based on the most popular content. The results are updated every day; thus this can be an incredibly reliable and easy way to get insights about what your audience actually likes to see.
- Find out what content is the best to curate
When you find the most trending and shared content based on your keywords using the same BuzzSumo tool from step 1, you can figure out the best content to curate for your own social. While BuzzSumo only allows a limited number of free searches a month, there are plenty of other free resources that can make content curating a piece of cake.
First, in any industry, you should always try to be up-to-date on industry news. This will not only keep you up to speed, but it’s an easy way to find relevant content ideas.
Another great free resource made for content curation is Quuu. Quu sources original content and links with social media scheduling tools like Buffer (who also offers free plans) to deliver suggestions to your content calendar. Then, all you have to do is review and post content without even needing to search for it.
But this segues into the next topic…
- Review the content (actually)
When I said review the content you are going to post, I meant actually review it. Some tools can literally put content curation on autopilot, making curating content seem almost too easy to believe! And, it is too easy.
Leaving content curating to pure automation means putting all your trust into a machine, which can lead to content posted that is either irrelevant or even inappropriate for your audience. Do you want to post things that not even you would find relevant, educational, or promotion-worthy? Probably not. Make sure you use content curation tools wisely and make them worthwhile.
- Connect with relevant blogs, eZines, and feeds
If you find websites with content that is relevant to your field or industry, you should probably follow them or at least check back in on them regularly for content.
Use email subscriptions, alerts to social posts, or google notifications to your advantage, you can use these to stay on top of trends and be one of the first to post about trending topics (more traffic to you).
Even better, if there is a particular blog/eZine/feed that you’re consistently sharing from you should consider building a relationship with the website owners. You could see plenty of personal benefits from this, from receiving fresh content before it’s even posted to potentially getting a shout out on the blog. It’s a mutually benefiting relationship, you share their content and expand their reach and vice versa.
- Don’t be desperate
There will come times when you might feel like there’s nothing relevant for you to curate, or you’re running out of ideas. When this happens, you might just make do with posting some sort of low-quality content to at least post something.
Don’t let these feelings fool you. Posting just any piece of tasteless content still reflects your brand’s image on social media, and your followers will notice (and be dissatisfied).
Keep on top of the game and plan ahead of time. Apps like Pocket (an app that allows you to save content, no matter where it’s hosted) allow you to always have a steady stream of quality backup articles on hand.
Finally, remember that you are not just a news outlet, and creating your own content is still crucial for your business. Content curation should just be a supplement to your work, and it should be just as tasteful as your own creations.
As long as you put out quality content and care about your audience, you will get the most out of your campaigns, with just a little less effort.
