Are you struggling to keep up with your audience's constant demand for fresh, engaging content? Don't worry; a content curation strategy might just be the answer you've been searching for.
Mastering content curation can boost your overall content marketing strategy, save time, and establish your brand as an industry authority.
Today, we'll dive into content curation, exploring its benefits, strategies, tips, and tools to help you succeed.
What you will learn
- What is content curation and how it forms part of your content and social media marketing strategy
- The benefits of a content curation strategy
- Tips for how to curate content so you can share valuable and high-quality posts and articles
- How to find curated content for your business
- Examples of curated content to help inspire the content that you curate
What is content curation?
Content curation is the process of selecting, organizing, and sharing high-quality and relevant content from other reliable and authoritative sources.
This kind of content helps you provide value to your audience, support your marketing team, and help boost your overall content strategy.
Think of it this way: Traditionally, a curator in a museum or art gallery curates content to better serve their audience.
They choose art pieces, sculptures, and other works that tell stories, add value, attract visitors, and improve engagement.
Similarly, you can add curated content to your content strategy to complement your original content and help you maintain a consistent presence on your website's blog and social media platforms for various benefits (more on this soon).
The content that you curate can be in the form of:
- A blog post covering a roundup of the best products in your niche
- A social media post by another brand that you shared with your followers
- An article about the best-quoted advice by influencers and industry leaders
- User generated content that showcases your brand in the best possible way
- YouTube videos that your followers will enjoy
- Memes that you can share on your social sites
One example of curated content on Twitter is this post by Starbucks.
They were the exclusive coffee sponsor at the 2023 Met Gala, so the company shared a Vogue article about where to watch it.
A curated blog post example would be "13 Best-Led Company CEOs Reveal Their Pro Tips for Leadership Success" on the Inc Africa website.
Besides the introduction that the Inc. staff had to put together, the rest of the article is just a roundup of quotes related to the topic:
The benefits of curated content
Curated content is a powerful tool in your content marketing arsenal, and for a good reason too.
Here are the main benefits you can expect to reap when you focus on content curation (in addition to creating content):
Improve audience engagement
When you curate valuable resources and information, you ensure that your readers have something to look forward to, keeping them engaged and coming back for more. Your brand also stays relevant and at the forefront of their minds, so they'll pick you to help solve their pain points.
An excellent example is The Newsette, which is a newsletter that links to the curator's favorite content pieces on a certain topic, both old and new, resulting in high audience engagement.
Sharing user generated content on the company's social media accounts helps keep their audience engaged and interested, making them feel valued and a part of the brand's community. The Newsette's Instagram page is full of valuable curated content:
Hovering over the Instagram tiles reveals how many of The Newsette's followers loved and commented on the curated post. The "toxic trait" post has more than 2,000 loves and nearly 30 comments.
Appear authoritative
Curating content from multiple reliable sources can position your brand as an authority in your field.
It shows that you have a keen eye for relevant content and can discern which pieces of information are valuable and important to your audience.
You should always credit the original author to establish credibility.
Your content may even receive increased exposure if the content creators appreciate your curation efforts and share your curated content.
By sharing high-quality content from other experts and providing your own insights, you further demonstrate your expertise in your industry and capture your audience's attention.
As a result, your brand becomes a go-to resource for relevant information and a thought leader in the eyes of your audience.
Even Duane Bailey agrees with how beneficial curated articles are for boosting your brand's authority
Build industry relationships
Curating content from key influencers or brands can help you build relationships with industry leaders and get their attention.
By sharing and tagging their content on your social channels, you provide your audience with valuable insights and showcase your appreciation for other experts' work.
These relationships can lead to collaborations, increased exposure for your brand, healthy backlinks, and even generate access to hidden gems of pre viral content that might not yet be mainstream.
Another benefit of curating content is that you build strong relationships with influencers and other brands, which can further help you establish brand credibility.
You also foster a supportive social community by sharing interesting content.
Statusbrew agrees with how content curation helps your brand build relationships (and apparently, it seems that many content marketers use newsletters for their curation efforts).
How to curate content in 5 steps
Now that you know what benefits you can reap by adding curated articles to your content marketing strategy, it's time to delve into some strategies to help you become a master content curator.
Follow these 5 steps to curate meaningful material to engage your own followers and get more customers.
1. Offer a hub with helpful content
Creating a hub of helpful content is an excellent way to make your brand a one-stop destination for all things related to your industry or niche.
This destination could be a content hub, like an academy.
The only con is that these academy-like hubs are usually restricted to your original content, like the HubSpot Academy that offers globally recognized certifications and courses to their audiences.
LearningSEO.io, on the other hand, has an academy of sorts that the content marketers keep up to date.
The company has created a content hub with all things SEO, curated from various industry experts. For example, the Introduction to SEO in the SEO Fundamentals section has relevant pieces from Google (of course, right), Content King, and others.
What I like about this content hub is the aggregate content section of SEO learning tips with quotes from The Rank Machine and Mark Johnstone.
To begin, identify a topic and conduct keyword research using tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs (or our very own Keyword Research tool).
Organizing specific keywords by intent helps you understand what the user is looking for when they type their query into a search engine.
Plus, you and other content marketers get to create high-quality, valuable, entertaining, and/or educational content that caters to the users' needs.
Optimizing your URL structures and strategizing user flow will make your hub easier to locate and navigate, ensuring a seamless user experience.
By providing a well-organized hub, you can fulfill your audience's needs and ensure they keep coming back for more.
And you position your brand as a topic authority, building trust, and credibility with your audience.
2. Create blog content roundups
Blog content roundups are an effective way to curate content by gathering insights and opinions from experts on a specific topic, which boosts your brand authority.
You can also add your own thoughts to these roundups to showcase industry-specific insight.
Start by selecting a target keyword and researching potential experts to include in your roundup.
Reach out to these experts, asking relevant questions that will add even more value to your audience.
Once you've collected responses, style your post and share it on your social channels, making sure to tag the participating experts.
Or ensure you link to the original source if you create curated posts on your blog.
There are many examples of roundups across the web, especially regarding statistics on a particular topic.
One such roundup is Databox and its "Best Marketing Benchmark Reports."
Content roundups provide your audience with valuable insights and help build relationships with industry influencers who may share your curated post, increasing your brand's exposure.
3. Start a newsletter
Email gives you direct access to your community, making it a powerful channel for sharing curated content.
Plus, you have a way of offering value to your audience before you even start a conversation with them, which gives you a good foot to start the relationship as you pique their interest. User-specific content is more likely to push them through the marketing or sales funnel.
So create email newsletters to send out on a weekly, biweekly, bimonthly, or monthly basis.
By providing a mix of your own original content and curated insights from other people's content, you (aka your brand) remain visible while keeping your subscribers engaged and informed.
Consider selecting a theme or topic for each newsletter edition and curating great content that aligns with it.
This approach ensures that your newsletter remains interesting and relevant to your audience, further establishing your brand as a thought leader in your industry.
Many websites prompt you to sign up for a newsletter to find relevant topics quickly and easily in your box. An example would be SEO expert, Steve Toth's curated email newsletter called SEO Notebook.
4. Publish a blog
Content curation helps establish brand expertise when you publish a blog using curated content like industry news and insight. While you don't explicitly sell your own content, you still showcase your ability to identify valuable content for your audience.
Publishing a curated blog is ideal if you want to establish yourself as a dominant market leader, whether you are in a specific industry or your own blog isn't already sorted.
Think with Google is one example of a company that doesn't sell Google's services in an "in your face" kinda way, but the content creators offer valuable content and additional resources on a wide range of topics.
You can also look at the Michelin Guide, which is a good example of content curation, covering best-of articles, magazine style posts, and guides of the best restaurants around the world.
5. Use videos and podcasts
Videos and podcasts are powerful tools to showcase your brand's knowledge, expertise, and personality while engaging with your audience.
These multimedia content forms help generate leads, attract new customers, and boost brand awareness and authority.
Utilize tools like Adobe Premiere Pro, Audacity, and GarageBand to create high-quality videos and podcasts.
Successful examples of videos and podcasts include the TED Talks series and the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
You provide your audience with valuable insights when you incorporate curated content like a daily or weekly roundup of important news or content pieces into your videos and podcasts.
How to find content to curate
You can find content to curate by following other brands and influencers and social media channels like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
You can also sign up to email newsletters and other gated content, leverage news sites for industry-related news, and use search engines to find relevant and valuable information your audience will love.
There's also the option of using content curation tools like Google Alerts, Curata, Google Trends, Curate by UpContent, Flipboard, Pocket, and Twitter.Lists.
One of the main benefits of using these tools is to help you capitalize on the content curation process quickly and effectively so you can share valuable and high quality content with your followers ASAP.
Here are a few more tips to help you find topics and curated content:
- Google Trends: Google Trends enables you to see what content gets the most attention through searches and shares. Track mentions of your own company or even your competitors. It also shows you what the citizens of a specific country are currently searching for; for example, Americans are searching for "Kamala Harris," "Memorial Day meaning," "Arsenal," and "debt ceiling deal."
- Content curation tools: Use free tools to scale your content curation strategies, like newsletters from The Hustle and The Daily Carnage. You can also use paid tools, such as BuzzSumo, to help you find relevant content to share.
- Social media trends: What's trending on social media also reveals what your audience likes. Use hashtags to help you search for topics and popular content on social sites like Twitter and Instagram. Then simply share the content on your specific accounts, schedule it on your content calendar, and give credit where it's due.
- Industry newsletters: Signing up for the newsletter will also provide insight into what other brands and even your competitors are sharing. Content in these newsletters can spark ideas to help you curate content, and there's also the possibility that you share this curated content with your audience.
- News and internet: Scouring news sites and the internet via search engines further opens opportunities for content curators to find what's relevant, engaging, and meaningful. Use specific search terms to help you find specific content on Google and on news websites.
5 examples of curated content
Ready to be inspired so you can get started with an excellent content curation strategy to reap some benefits?
Codecademy’s career paths
One example of curated content is Codecademy's career paths page on its website. The company has curated interviews, prep, and tests from across the web to provide value for its audience.
Selzy’s resource page
If you ever wanted to learn about email marketing, Selzy's resource page on this exact topic should be one of your go-tos.
The roundup has the best resources on email marketing:
- Blog posts
- Books
- Groups or communities you can join to chat with like-minded folks
- Podcasts
- Email templates and inspiration
- Design, copywriting, list cleaning, subject line testing, email previewing (and more) tools
- Research resources
- People (or influencers) you should follow and learn from
- Newsletters
- Courses to do so you can learn more and hone your skills
SEO Notebook’s newsletter
Steve Toth sends out a weekly newsletter, called the SEO Notebook, with curated insights into the world of search engine optimization.
In an email I received, he covered Google's Bard, reactive link building and how you can boost your organic traffic.
Chess Klub’s expert roundups
An example of a curated blog post is the expert roundup from Chess Club.
The content creators share advice from chess experts to help you win Candidate Masters in the Game.
Expect advice from 17 professional chess players in this roundup.
LiveStrong.com's cooking article
Another article that included curated content is LiveStrong's "7 Expert Tips That Make Cooking at Home a Breeze." While the content curator included her own content and custom images, she also compiled expert tips to help readers.
Key takeaways
- Content creation and content curation aren't the same thing. Content curation is a process whereby content marketers choose, organize, compile, and share content that's been published by influences, industry experts, and other brands. But when you create content, it's original and fresh.
- A key aspect of curating content is finding meaningful, valuable, relatable, and engaging content for your audience.
- There are various benefits of adding curated posts to your content strategy.
- For one, content curation saves time since you can use content created by others (and remember to assign credit to the source).
- When you curate articles, social media posts, and other content, you also boost engagement with your audience, appear authoritative, and build industry relationships.
- There are 5 steps you should follow to start curating content: (1) Provide your audience with a hub of helpful content, (2) create roundup posts, (3), start a newsletter and share via email in just a few clicks, (4) publish a blog, (5) use podcasts and videos.
- Finding curated content may seem quite challenging, but it isn't when you follow industry experts, influencers, and even your competitors.
- Also use Google Trends, content curation tools, social media trends, industry newsletters, news, and the world wide web to find high quality content.
- Great examples of curated content include the career paths page from Codecademy, Selzy's email marketing resource page, SEO Notebook's email newsletter, and the expert roundup posts by Chess Klub and LiveStrong.
Conclusion
Mastering content curation is essential for anyone looking to elevate their content marketing strategy. By selecting, organizing, and sharing content from various sources, you improve audience engagement, appear authoritative, and build industry relationships.
Implementing strategies, such as offering a hub of helpful content, creating blog content roundups, starting an email newsletter, publishing a blog, and using videos and podcasts can help you become a pro at content curation.
So, are you ready to take your content marketing game to new heights? Let us know your pro tips for content curation in the comments below.
