What Is Curated Content? A Guide to Boosting Your Strategy

Imagine you’re a museum curator, meticulously handpicking the finest art for an exhibit. Now apply that to digital marketing and you’ve got curated content.

It’s about sifting through mountains of information to share relevant gems with your audience. This approach can save time and keep your social media posts fresh without always creating original content from scratch.

Let’s define what is curated content and how curating quality content positions you as a thought leader, sparks conversations, and enriches your brand’s voice. With the right mix, curated pieces complement your original blog posts beautifully — forming a well-rounded content calendar.

So get ready to learn not just why but also how this strategy weaves magic into your marketing efforts.

What is Curated Content?

Think of curated content as the art gallery of digital marketing.

A museum curator handpicks pieces that resonate with the theme and audience, much like a digital marketer selects third-party content to share.

This process adds value for your followers, giving them insights or entertainment they might not have found on their own.

Content curation isn’t just about reposting someone else’s work. It involves selecting information from good sources across social media and other platforms to create something fresh and relevant for your target audience.

You essentially become a thought leader by filtering through vast amounts of online data and presenting only what truly matters.

3-step content curation process from the Content Marketing Institute

What Are The Benefits of Content Curation?

Why should you curate content?

Content curation is not just a time-saver for you and your team. It also comes with several other benefits that can significantly enhance your brand’s online presence.

Increased Productivity

The first advantage is efficiency. While creating original content demands substantial time from writers or designers, curated content only requires a few clicks to discover, approve, and post.

Even if you decide to add personal comments or modify the image/formatting of curated posts, this process still consumes less time than crafting an entirely new piece from scratch. This increased productivity allows digital marketers like yourself more opportunities to expand your brand’s reputation and reach on social media platforms.

The ultimate goal here is for your profiles to become so reputable that users prefer coming directly to you for information instead of seeking out other sources. By sharing relevant educational content, regardless if it’s yours or someone else’s work, audiences will recognize that you’re dedicated to helping them find resources aligning with their interests.

Better Engagement

Your target audience craves great content, but not all of it needs to be original from you. That’s where curation comes into play. By choosing content that resonates with them, you share valuable insights without reinventing the wheel each time. This blend keeps your social media post feed fresh and varied—vital since up to 60% can come from such sources.

To engage effectively means knowing what makes their hearts beat faster; news updates on industry trends or thought-provoking articles work wonders here. Just remember—a good rule is curate as much as you create.

Improved Linking Structure

In addition to enhancing audience engagement levels through high-quality shares, curated content also contributes towards building a better linking structure within your posts. As followers get accustomed to seeing links in what you share – whether they lead back to original articles or external references – they’ll be encouraged to click these more often when interacting with both types of posts: yours as well as those shared by others.

This behavior sets up a good example for other brands who might start sharing your pieces on their pages after noticing these links.

Building Thought Leadership

You’ve found an interesting piece on the latest market trends but before you share it, stop.

Ask how this fits into your audience’s world.

To make curated content work harder for you, add commentary or insights connecting the dots between industry news updates and what this means for your followers. This not only keeps them engaged but positions you as someone who provides valuable perspective.

This approach turns every social media post into more than just information. It becomes insight tailored specifically to your buyer personas.

That level of customization? It shows you’re not just sharing great content — you’re shaping conversations in your field.

Benefits of content curation

How to Select Quality Blog Posts for Content Curation

Content curation isn’t just hitting share on every interesting piece you come across. It involves evaluating each potential post against stringent criteria to ensure it adds real value. You want pieces that not only engage but also inform your target audience and bolster their trust in your expertise.

To make sure a curated blog post stands out, always consider its source. Reputable sources matter because they reflect on your credibility as a thought leader.

And remember, curating doesn’t mean taking a break from creating original content; it complements it by providing fresh perspectives and saving time when needed.

Ensuring Quality in Curated Posts

A good rule of thumb when choosing which external pieces to highlight is to look at how well they perform through the lens of search engines. Their SEO strength can be indicative of quality.

But don’t stop there. Take the extra step to add context where necessary so that each shared post feels tailored rather than random — a move sure to keep your audience engaged over time.

An added benefit? Sharing relevant news updates or blog posts from others lets you ride along current trends without spending all day researching. You save time while staying on point with hot topics in your industry.

Tools designed specifically for curation let you sift through mountains of data efficiently, ensuring nothing less than great content finds its way onto your platform.

Leveraging Tools to Streamline Curation

As much as curated content saves effort compared to created content, sifting through vast amounts of information still demands significant resources. This is where technology comes into play.

By employing advanced tools designed for content curation strategies like RSS feeds, digital marketers can drastically cut down on hours spent hunting down appropriate materials worth sharing.

Content Curation Best Practices

Content curation is an essential part of any effective content marketing strategy. But how do you curate content in a way that aligns with your audience and boosts your brand?

Here are five best practices to keep in mind.

1. Align With Your Audience

Selecting stellar curated posts hinges upon understanding who’s receiving them: your buyers.

Buyer personas should be top-of-mind since ultimately these efforts aim at keeping them informed — and even entertained.

So before hitting that Share button, ask yourself if this specific topic enriches your buyer’s knowledge.

Does it answer burning questions? Do they gain anything practical from reading further? Will it solve their problem or provide valuable insight?

If the answer isn’t clear, refer back to your documented buyer personas.

2. Give Credit Where It’s Due

Credit the original creator whenever you share curated content. Not only does this respect their intellectual property rights, but also prevents potential harm to your brand image from plagiarism accusations.

If you’re sharing a compilation from various sources, provide a small preview and then link over to the full article or video, ensuring all sources are credited appropriately in the full piece.

Tagging creators on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram can be done using ‘@’ before their handle.

3. Add Value When You Can

You don’t need elaborate annotations for every shared post but adding some context helps engage readers better.

A brief introduction about why you think it will be useful for them can make a difference between scrolling past and clicking through.

4. Schedule Curated Content in Advance

Content curation is all about maximizing your efficiency, and the secret weapon to elevate your time-management game even further is scheduling.

Line up your posts in advance so you can highlight and remedy any looming content voids.

Ever found yourself with an “uh-oh” moment where a pivotal campaign post slipped through the cracks, meant for release on a specific date?

Trust me when I say you’re not alone—I’ve definitely never been in that boat myself.

Tools like Hootsuite aren’t just handy; they’re transformative. They empower you to meticulously plan out and schedule both original and curated pieces well ahead of time.

But their utility doesn’t end there — they also provide valuable insights by analyzing past performance data which helps refine future strategies while proving social media ROI to decision-makers upstairs.

And if that wasn’t enough, these tools are so smart they can suggest optimal posting times across different channels based on your engagement metrics.

Now that’s smart planning!

5. Publish The Right Mix of Curated and Created Content

Spruce up your social media schedule by scheduling a variety of content types into your calendar.

Don’t worry about curated content outshining your creations. Quite the opposite — your strategy should lean towards sharing more than you produce. Strive for a balance where 40% is original work and 60% is thoughtfully curated material.

Make sure that 40% shines with quality, practicality, and unparalleled originality. Your homegrown content acts as a magnet to draw in your audience while curated pieces are what will keep them lingering longer.

If you stick to these best practices, then you’re on your way to mastering the art of content curation.

Content curation tips from LeadFuze

Best Content Curation Tools and Software

In the vast digital world, finding high-quality content to share with your audience can be a challenging task. Luckily, there are several tools designed to help you curate engaging and relevant content efficiently.

Here are four of them:

1. Hootsuite Streams

Hootsuite Streams not only assists in planning, scheduling, and analyzing your curated posts but also helps find the right content for you. You can track keywords or specific topics/accounts and directly comment or share from the stream itself.

2. Google Alerts

An old favorite among marketers is Google Alerts. Just type any topic into Google Alerts, and it will send email notifications whenever there’s news about it — whether that’s mentions of your company or industry-related updates.

3. Talkwalker

If you’re looking for a tool that takes social listening up a notch, Talkwalker is worth considering. It indexes more than 150 million sources including websites, blogs, and forums — providing an extensive source base for curation.

The best part? Talkwalker has a Hootsuite app which makes curation even easier!

4. UpContent

UpContent is a powerful content discovery tool. It finds the highest-quality material for you to share across all your social media channels and offers a high degree of customization, allowing you to keep curated content on-brand.

These tools can significantly streamline your content curation process, helping you provide valuable information to your audience while saving time and effort.

Become a Better Social Media Marketer

Finding quality and relevant content to share with your followers can be overwhelming. As a social media marketer, you can make your job easier by curating content.

This practice not only saves you time in creating fresh material but also positions you as an authority in your field – someone who knows where to find valuable resources and how to distill complex topics into digestible pieces.

To master the art of content curation and become an effective social marketer, consider enrolling in our comprehensive course at Content Hacker. Here we provide detailed insights into long-form content marketing strategies that will help grow and scale your business sustainably.

Content Hacker aims to provide you with savvy strategies and well-executed curation tactics so you can effectively connect with your audience who’s hungry for fresh, relevant content.