Do you know that 27 million pieces of content are shared daily on the Internet? Quite impressive, isn’t it? And if we add the fact that the average attention span is a mere eight seconds, it is fair to assume that a majority of this content will go unnoticed.
Fortunately for us, there is curation. Often mistaken for aggregation, curation is the process of filtering through the huge amount of digital content available, selecting the best quality information, and then organizing and sharing it with your audience in a customized way.
Many individuals and brands now use curation as part of their content strategy. It is the case, for example, of a little over half of B2B marketers. And apparently, it is a very efficient practice: 40 percent of them see positive results.
Why does it work?
Here are six major reasons.
1. A Great Ally to Creation
Solo-entrepreneurs and small business owners know it. Content creation is a time- and resource-intensive process. And when you have deadlines to meet, stress may often trigger lack of inspiration.
With curation, you can take a breather while:
- Continuing to serve the needs of your audience.
- Coming up with fresh ideas for your own content strategy.
- Offering a diversity of content that you may not have thought of covering yourself.
2. Staying on Top of Trends and News
Curators are among the most informed individuals in their industry. That is because they follow hundreds of blogs and reputable sources via newsletters and services like Feedly, Paper.li, Google Alerts, and Topsy.
And they only share what they know will be the most beneficial to us. Here are a few great and free themes to set up a news site.
It is a good idea to use Buzzsumo Trends Tracker as well as Site Checker to keep an eye on industry news and key news in your niche:
3. Establishing Credibility and Trust
We do not just love recommendations from friends and peers. We also crave information from reliable sources, especially if they take the time to explain how these recommendations will help achieve our goals, make our lives easier and, or, answer our most pressing questions.
Curators do not just pick content at random. They carefully select it based on what they know of their audience, while adding some context and rewriting titles to help make the pieces more relatable, if need be.
To better tie your visitors to your site, use web push notifications which will alert your site users of your new content.
4. Telling Your Brand’s Story through Curation
As a small business owner or solo-entrepreneur, remember this: All the things you do online have an impact on the public perception of your brand.
Every article, video, picture, and message you curate provides insights into your interests, ideas, and your work ethics. And the more commentary you provide, the more you reveal of yourself.
People buy products from brands with personality. They want to feel the human touch and know that you stand for something in your industry.
Curation is part of the storytelling process just as much as creation is.
To create a more optimized context for your content curation needs, use Text Optimizer, a semantic analysis tool that identifies underlying concepts for your search query. Run your (or your competitor’s) brand name through the tool to identify which concepts it is associated with:
5. Increasing Brand Awareness and Exposure
The beauty of curation is that it allows you to show your audience that:
- You know them.
- You care about their needs.
- You want to build relationships with them.
When people feel acknowledged and listened to, they will tell their friends and peers about it and the person or company that helped make it a reality.
According to Australia-based marketing agency Digital Eagles, awareness lies at the foundation of your key sales funnel:
The content creators whom you recommend will notice you as well. First, you will get public thank yous. However, the more you continue sharing their content, the more likely they are to return the favor or mention you on their blogs. The sky’s the limit afterwards: potential partnerships, recommendations, and word of mouth…
Measuring your content curation channel is easy using tools like Finteza thanks to its conversion visualization funnel feature:
6. Building a Community of Advocates
Because of their work, curators are connected to some of the biggest thought leaders and experts in their niches. The more you share useful information with your audience, the more those people will want to partner with you.
Why? Because they see your commitment to quality, the way you care about others, the positive reactions to your curations, and the recommendations from your peers. That makes you a leader and expert in their eyes, too.
It is a good idea to set up your community on a new domain to have more freedom as it comes to curating and community building tools. This brand name generator is a good tool to find a cool domain to start building your community. Namify is the best brand name generator out there which not only find coolest names but also checks their availability on social media and create a logo for you:
From there all you need is to set up a WordPress site and use plugins to customize it based on your purposes. Here are some of the best WordPress plugins to choose from.
Conclusion
Don’t get too stuck in your thinking or routines…leave open the possibility of the new and change up a few things or many.
Learn to love the huge expanse of space and possibilities in the mindful curation role of differentiation and experimentation—there is much to be gained and little—if anything—to lose.
Learn as you go on this journey and be open to new people and ideas; the best curators are not only mindful in their roles but generous in going down a wide variety of paths with the overt or passive guidance of others.