Content curation involves sifting, sorting, arranging, presenting and distributing content.
Like a Museum Curator, Sort Of
Like museum curators, content curators are looking for materials their viewership (in the case of a business, a customer base) will find interesting or useful. They are both looking for masterpieces: content that rises above the rest and really stands out. But unlike a museum curator, content curators are interested in using the content to meet the goals of a content marketing campaign. They are looking for content that will enhance their brand identities, that will position them as thought leaders and experts in the field, and that will inspire positive sentiment among their potential customer base.
Content Curation is a Valuable Skill
Good content curators are an essential information resource. Unlike automated curation services like Google News, human curators are responsible for the content in most successful content marketing campaigns. This means thoughtful, logical, whimsical human beings are really thinking about what content customers might find valuable. In a sea of data, having a reliable, trusted human filter is a valuable thing indeed. A content marketing campaign run by a talented content curator is likely to find devoted followers: people who recognize the quality of the content, and who regularly check back for more. These people might even become curator evangelists, promoting the curator (and by extension, the brand) on social media, blogs or other online properties.
Content Curation Strategy
In a content marketing campaign that features curated content, strategy is extremely important. It is only possible to collect effective, valuable content if you understand your customer base (who they are, what they read, and where they read it). In this way, you can approach content with a very specific type of material in mind. This will allow you to quickly disregard a large percentage of what you find, narrowing your focus and speeding up the search.
Making Sense of the Content
Effective content curation doesn’t stop once you find the materials. Throwing a bunch of disparate pieces of content at an audience is likely to overwhelm them and it’s unlikely to serve your business goals. Clear contextualization is just as important as quality content. Once the content is collected, annotate and organize so viewers can make sense of your overarching goals while they digest individual, bite-sized content pieces. For example, write a blog post with links to content relevant to your topic; publish the content on your business website, framed by your topic headings; incorporate the content into a presentation; or share the content on a curated channel on a social media or content curation platform.
Content Curation Platforms
Curation tools allow users to set filter parameters around content, reducing mountains of data into short digestible lists. When used in tandem with a clear search strategy, they can make curation significantly easier.
If you need a little more clarity or direction with your content curation or social media campaign, contact us. Our creative team is here to help.
Infographic: Content Curation Simplified
