In an earlier post, I talked about
why businesses must consider content curation
as a viable component of their inbound marketing strategy. Once you’re onboard with using content curation, the next step for you will be to determine how to actually do it, and not just that, but also do it the right way.
There is a lot of content available out there that talks about Content Curation tips and tricks and How-Tos for content curation . But before you even get there, you need to prepare yourselves for building a successful content curation strategy.
Step 1. Find the Purpose
Content curation is about sharing content with a purpose.
If you’re in-charge of marketing at a B2B technology company, your purpose may be to share knowledge about the technology solution your company has to offer.
Or if your Go-To Market strategy is through channel marketing, may be you just want to offer valuable content to help your channel partners learn more about the industry you serve, where it’s headed and how your solutions fit in.
Or if you are trying to establish yourselves as an expert in your field of work, you may want to do that by sharing content that you feel is important for your target audience.
Find your purpose, and stick to it.
Step 2. Find the Time
Let’s face it, we are all very busy. More often than not, there will be days when you’ll be pressed for time. But instead of waiting for those days to come, be pro-active and prepare yourselves for those days. Maybe setup a regular time to look at your content sources to look for valuable content to share and build it into your daily work schedule.
Another issue many of us face is with finding time multiple times a day to share content. If you don’t do that, you risk sharing a lot of stories in one shot, and not being at the top of the mind of your target audience for the rest of the day, especially when sharing on social media channels. Good news is, you don’t need to do this multiple times a day, or even on a daily basis. To pace yourselves when sharing, use scheduling tools to help with sharing content and spreading it out.
Step 3. Find the passion
Like any other debate you’ve had in your life, there will be times when you’ll be taking the heat from others who don’t necessarily agree with you. Your passion for what you’re doing will get you through it and keep you going.
There will be times when you will feel that people probably don’t care about what you have to say. If you are sharing what your target audience is interested in, they are listening to you. Don’t lose hope, you just need to do a better job at finding the right angle to spark a conversation.
If you’re sharing content in a very niche markets, you may find yourselves running out of good content to share. Your passion to serve the purpose will get you to keep this going. Maybe its just spending more time to find more quality content. Or, may be it’ll get you to start writing your own unique and original content.
Passion is a key ingredient.
Step 4. Find the Angle
As a curator of the content, you must have a voice.
Going back to our examples, if you are responsible for marketing your company’s technology solution, you will want to associate your brand with the content. You’ll need to find the kind of content you’re comfortable drawing in around your brand and then contextualize it to your purpose by adding your voice, your unique angle to it.
Agree with the content you’re sharing. Disagree with it. Provide additional insight. Add opinion. Spark a debate. Have an angle when sharing the content.
Step 5. Find the Respect for Others Work
It probably goes without saying, don’t plagiarize content in the name of curation . No matter how tempting it gets forgetful you are. It’s just plain wrong and should not be done.
There are a lot of articles available online to help you understand How to properly Curate Content . Make sure you do it right.
Step 6. Find the Right Tools
There are a variety of tools out there that will help you curate content. Scoop.it, Paper.li, etc. just to name a few. Take some time to review all the tools, experiment with them and find the one that works best for your needs. You can look at recommendations, obviously, but choose the one that you are comfortable with. After all, if you need to eventually pay for the tool (when your needs grow), you want to use a tool that works for you.
I hope these steps help you be awesome at content curation and fulfill the purpose you’ve set out to achieve. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
