How to perform content curation

July 24, 2020

By carolc

One of the main objectives of content marketing is to know information of interest, current and very useful. This is one of the essential strategies to achieve and maintain a good position in the web world. And one of the fundamental tasks of any good marketing strategy is content curation.

What is content curation?

It is a process that includes the tasks of searching, filtering, organizing and adding value to information that has been published by someone else, to be shared with your target audience. This is a matter of utmost importance in any content marketing strategy.

People who professionally execute this process are called “content curators”. Essentially they are those people who have the ability to identify the truly relevant information for their audience, and proceed with the curation of it.

What are the benefits of content curation?

Putting content curation into practice offers several advantages, among which we can mention the following:

It is a highly effective process that can help you come up with new themes to enrich your digital content.
Help improve your positioning in the web world. By working with highly relevant information, the chances of it being shared are greater, which promotes your optimization in Google.
Increase the visibility of your product, brand or company. It is common for users to come back for more information, if you provide high-quality data. This can make you a benchmark within your area, and enhance your brand awareness.
Thanks to the quality of the content you publish, you will be able to increase the number of readers or followers.
Content curation gives you the possibility to establish new agreements with allies, for the benefit of your marketing plan. This also allows you to expand your network of contacts.

How to perform content curation?

If you want to perform successful content curation, you just have to follow a few simple steps:

Identify what your audience needs

The first thing you should do is identify what the needs and interests of your target audience are. You must know for sure what is the type of content that will be attractive, useful and valuable.

Research for appropriate information on the Internet

At this point you already know very well what type of information you should obtain, so you can start looking for it. You can carry out your exploration through web search engines, through social networks, blogs, web pages, etc.

You need to make sure you find valuable information for your audience, so you can take your time.

Select the best information

When you already have a good amount of content, it is essential that you filter and only choose the most appropriate one. You must carefully read all the information you have found, to select the best of everything.

Organize the information

Once you have finished the filtering phase, you must proceed with the organization phase. Organize all the information you have selected and store it in a safe and proper place. You should also save all sources of information.

Add value to content

Based on the information you have chosen, you must create new content that provides data of great value and utility to your audience. To do this, you must put into practice all your skills and knowledge, and include content that constitutes added value.

Additionally, you should make sure to use appropriate language. As you create new content, keep in mind to use the best format and remember to consider the estimated reading time of your posts.

Share content

When you have your new content ready, you can proceed to the next step, which is to share it with your audience.

It is important that you use the best means to share it. Correctly use your website or blog, your social media accounts, among others.

Track results

Finally, you should follow up on the response you get from your users or followers, regarding your posts. You must identify which content was most attractive to your audience and which ones have a high level of engagement.

Based on this information, you can adjust and improve your marketing strategy, and direct content curation to topics of greater interest to your audience.

What mistakes should you avoid in content curation?

During the information curation process, you must be careful not to make any of the following mistakes:

Not knowing what you want to achieve. Not knowing the objective for which you are performing the content cure is a huge mistake. You must be clear about what you are doing the curation process for. Do you want to offer a tutorial to your audience? Do you want to conquer a new niche? Are you looking to improve your positioning? You must determine a goal and act to achieve it.
Select information of little value to your audience. You should never choose information of low value to your audience, this could cause you to lose followers or visitors.
Use the same sources of information over and over again. You should always research and consult various sites or publications.
Consult low quality sources. You should make sure to consult sources that have a high quality of content, and a good reputation in the subject area you are researching.
Do not include references. Every time you include fragments of textual information, you must accompany them with the respective reference.

What are the tools you can use to do content curation?

In the market you can find various tools designed to help you with the process of curating content. We present you some of these:

Pocket

This tool allows you to store all the urls that are attractive or interesting to you. It also gives you the function of classifying web addresses into various categories such as tags, videos, read later, among others.

Feedly

With these tools you can track blogs that are of value to you. It is a very easy to use platform. Also, it allows you to organize blogs into categories.

On the other hand, Feedly gives you the option of creating work teams, notifications and identifying inactive or no longer existing websites.

Content Gems

Content Gems sends you an email with a notification, so that you are aware of the new publications made in niches or categories that you have indicated.

Buffer

When publishing your content, you can use Buffer. With this software you can link your social network accounts and plan your publications.

The tool offers you a free version, which allows you to program a maximum of ten publications for each social network account.

Content aggregators

They are websites specially dedicated to quality publications. Content authors upload their creations with the aim of being distributed. Each publication can be evaluated by other users, who rate the quality of the topic by votes. Taking into account the number of votes that the publications have, you will be able to know which have been the most interesting, and you will be able to use them as a source of information.

Some of the most popular aggregators are: