Content curation in social media refers to the process of finding, selecting, and sharing relevant and valuable content with your audience on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. The goal of content curation is to provide your followers with a consistent stream of high-quality content that aligns with your brand’s messaging and values.
When curating content, it’s important to consider the source and credibility of the information, as well as how it aligns with your brand’s voice, tone, and messaging. It’s also essential to consider the timing and frequency of your content curation. You don’t want to overwhelm your followers with too much content.
What’s great about this social media marketing strategy is that that eliminates the need to create new content from scratch. You don’t need to spend time writing blog posts, making videos, or recording podcasts. You simply curate someone else’s content that’s relevant to your audience and share it with them.
The important part is making sure that you’re providing value through your curation and ensuring that you’re not just sharing content for the sake of sharing.
Content Curation Strategies
Content curation is a mix of art and science. It takes both time to find relevant content and time to keep creating meaningful content. As a curator, you must be discerning. You must be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.
You have to be selective about what you curate; otherwise, your audience will get bored pretty quickly. If you’re going to be successful at curating content on a regular basis then it’s important that each piece of curated content feels unique and interesting.
Fundamentally, the key to successful content curation is to have a content curation strategy that allows you to put together content that is both relevant, informative, and engaging.
This should be a crucial part of your content strategy because it will help you determine how much time and effort you need to put into curating, as well as what types of content you should be looking for online. This way you’ll be able to find the content that will work best for your audience and curate it in such a way that it feels fresh and new.
That said, here are some key content curation strategies you can use to curate content for your social media channels.
- Keep your audience in mind. Before you start curating content, you need to know who your audience is. If you’re a B2B company, then the content you curate will be different than if you were a B2C company. If you’re part of a larger organization, then the content that resonates with your audience may be very different than if you were an independent business.
- Know what topics or themes are relevant. You don’t want to just throw random tidbits of information at people. You want to make sure that whatever content you are sharing is relevant to your followers/following.
- Find a content curation tool that allows you to easily find and organize relevant, quality content. You can also use these tools to share your curated content with your audience on your social media platforms, and even measure your content marketing efforts.
- Create a daily or weekly digest that is sent directly to your audience, highlighting one or two of the best posts from your niche. You can also use this strategy to create editorial calendars for your social media accounts. This will help you keep track of what curated content you’ve published and when so that your accounts don’t become stale and repetitive.
Content Curation Tools
The number of available tools for content curation is increasing as the demand for curated content grows. Most of these tools can be used on desktop or mobile devices, and some can be accessed through web browsers.
There are also tools that allow you to create your own curated library of articles, videos, images, and more; while others allow you to use already-curated material in a variety of ways. Some tools focus on one topic or category while others are general purpose with no specific focus.
One of the biggest advantages of content curation tools is that they let you scale your work without hiring more people. You can use many of these tools for free at the beginning, but have to pay if you want to scale up your usage.
Most content curation tools have a free version with basic features, but you would need to upgrade if you want access to advanced features.
Some examples of content curation tools include:
Scoop.it
This content curation tool allows you to create your own curated content library. It can be used to create collections of interesting and useful articles, videos, images, and more. You can use it for free, however, it does have a pro version that offers additional features such as the ability to create newsletters, integration with Google Analytics, and much more
Feedalpha
feedalpha is not just a social media scheduling tool! There are many features available on the platform to help you with content creation. Some features:
- Canva Integration will allow you to create images on the platform.
- Import content allows you to use the content from your website or blog. It takes some of the key information from that URL and creates 3 social media posts for you. Saving you time and repurposing content.
- RSS Feed integration allows you to pull in articles and blogs from your favourite websites and share them in a few clicks.
- Content Feed is full of new and trending articles from around the world. you can search for any phrase or keyword you want. Get inspired by this content or share it to your social media accounts in a few clicks.
Curata
Curata is a content curation tool that helps you find and share relevant, timely content with your audience.
The key difference between this tool and others on the market is that Curata’s platform allows you to create custom content bundles based on your brand’s needs, which makes it highly customizable.
Feedly
Feedly is one of the most popular and effective curation tools on the market. With Feedly, you can save articles for later reading, and it will even suggest popular topics in your niche when you add new sites to your feed.
Feedly also has a pro version that offers additional features such as custom filters and tagging, the ability to create an unlimited number of feeds, and unlimited cloud storage.
Snip.ly
Snip.ly is a content curation tool that allows you to create links you can embed in your content. You can then share these links on social media, making it easy for others to view the embedded items without having to click through multiple pages of your website or blog.
The tool is simple and intuitive enough for anyone with basic computer skills, which makes it ideal for users who are new to using the internet but want to make their content more shareable.
Snip.ly’s free plan gives you access to all of its features. However, if you need more advanced options such as custom branding or analytics tracking capabilities (for example), there are paid plans available as well.
Benefits of Curating Content for Social Media
Breaks Up the Chore of Constant Content Creation
Most of us can admit that creating content is hard. It requires a lot of time and effort, which may be difficult to manage when you’re running a business. You can’t go wrong in the long run by getting into the habit of curating content for social media. Because not only does it break up the chore of constant content creation, but it also makes you look like an expert in your field.
Connects You With New Audiences
Your audience is always changing, and you can use curation to tap into new audiences. For example, if you’re a blogger who writes about dogs, you may find that by sharing relevant content from a variety of sources (not just your own), you can reach a different audience of dog owners.
This is a great way to get your content into the hands of new people, and it can also help you learn about their interests. You may even find that by sharing other people’s content, you’ll gain followers who aren’t as familiar with your brand yet but are interested in what you have to say.
Accentuates Your Brand Personality
It’s important for a brand to be known for having a personality. By curating content that aligns with your brand’s voice and personality, you’re creating opportunities for your audience to get to know you a little better.
If done right, curating content can be a great way for audiences to connect with the human side of your brand. (Remember: people are not buying from a robot)
But as exciting as it may be at first glance, keep in mind that this kind of connection comes with risks. For example, if the tone used in your curated content doesn’t match up with the tone you use in your other marketing content, it could confuse audiences and make them question whether you’re a real person. Or worse, you may come off as disingenuine, which can really hurt your business.
Expands Your Content Library
When you curate content, you can use it to fill in the gaps in your content library. This might mean finding more valuable content to share on your social media accounts like Facebook or LinkedIn, or simply creating a Pinterest board with relevant pins from other sources.
You can also use curated content to fill in the gaps in your content calendar. Whether that’s by creating an editorial calendar for yourself and using it as a guide for future posts or by incorporating curated topics into an existing topic-driven series.
Finally, curating can help you fill in some of the gaps in your overall social media strategy when used alongside other marketing tactics like social media ads and sponsored posts.
Helps Build Relationships With Influencers
The influencer marketing industry has grown rapidly in recent years, and it’s not hard to see why. Influencers can help you reach a new audience, build your brand and build relationships with customers.
When you use curated content, you can tap into the relationships that influencers have with their followers. When you share a post from an influencer, it not only gives them exposure to your audience but also allows you to establish credibility and trust with potential customers who may be following them.
Influencer marketing has become a key component of a successful content marketing strategy for many businesses. This is because most influencers have a large and loyal following on social media, which content marketers can tap into.
Helps Build Authority
Curating content for social media can help you build authority in your niche, which is a big deal. You can stand out from the crowd, be seen as an expert in what you do, and build trust with your audience by curating content that is related to them or their interests.
Being seen as an expert helps attract more followers who are interested in what you have to say. It also helps build a community around your brand.
Content Curation Tips
- Identify what topics your audience is interested in: When you’re curating content for your audience, it’s important to identify what topics they are interested in. You can also use social media and surveys as research tools for finding out what your target audience wants to read.
- Don’t post too much content: Don’t overwhelm your audience with too much content just because you are curating it. You should only post enough content to keep your audience interested and engaged.
- Curate content that is aligned with your brand’s mission and values: When curating content that is relevant to your audience, make sure that your brand’s mission and values align with the content you share.
- Find a balance between curated and original content: As you curate content, be sure to also create original content. You want your followers to see that you’re an authority on the topics you cover.
- Use different social media channels to reach different audiences: When you curate content, don’t just post it on one platform. Use different social media channels to reach different audiences. For example, you might use Facebook and Instagram to share curated content that’s more visual in nature while using Twitter to share news articles or blog posts.
- Always give credit to the source of the content you curate: When you curate content, always give credit to the source. You don’t want people to think that you’re stealing other people’s work.
- Don’t share poor-quality curated content: This means no clickbait, no low-quality images or videos, and no misleading headlines that will only disappoint the reader when they click through and find nothing relevant or of interest.
- Don’t just share content blindly: Only share stuff that you think your audience will enjoy and find useful or interesting. You might have a hunch about what they’ll be receptive to but ultimately, it’s better to know for sure than to go with your gut (or worse: someone else’s gut).
Final Thoughts
Social media content curation is one of the best ways to keep your social media accounts fresh and engaging.
It’s a great way to provide your target audience with a diverse range of information and perspectives on a particular topic, while also helping to increase the visibility and engagement of your brand.
Some of the potential benefits of social media content curation include increasing brand awareness, building a loyal audience, and improving the overall user experience. However, there are also some potential downsides to consider, such as the potential for spreading misinformation or biased content, as well as the risk of oversharing or overwhelming users with too much information.
So when curating content for social media for your business, it’s important that you take a strategic approach. The goal is to create content that’s relevant, informative, and valuable for your followers while also providing a good user experience.
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