7 Content Curation Tips to Follow

Content-Curation-101Content curation is hot right now. It allows you to put content from many different sources in front of your target market in an easy to digest format. It’s not difficult to do and below you will find seven tips to help you in your content curation journey.

But first, if you aren’t exactly sure what content curation is, take a minute to read Content Curation Is All The Rage Right Now But What Is It? where I explain it in more depth. Now, let’s take a look at those seven tips.

7 Content Curation Guidelines to Follow

1. Tune into Your Market

When it comes to being a successful content curator you have to tune into your market and deliver content that they will find interesting and useful. You can’t do this if you don’t know who your market is or what problem(s) they’re looking for answers to. Once you have a good understanding of the type of information they’re looking for you can begin to deliver that info to them.

2. Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

One of the quickest ways to learn something new is to look at those that are ahead of you and doing what you want to do successfully. Check out what other content curators are up to. Get a feel for the type of information they’re sharing (but again, remember you have to share info that will appeal to your target market) and how they’re sharing it. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. Instead, learn from others and follow them.

3. Choose the Right Tool

When it comes to delivering your content to your readers, there are lots of tools out there – too many actually. Don’t bounce around from tool to tool, instead pick one that provides what you need it to, and stick to that one. Of course, you’ll have to initially spend some time researching this area so that you can find the ‘perfect’ tool for you.

4. Add Value

Take the time (and it doesn’t have to be a lot of time – just enough to get your point across) to add some extra value to the content you’re sharing with your readers. Give your opinion about it, maybe even causing some controversy by contradicting it.

5. Don’t Just Link to Articles

If you found an article(s) that you think has some helpful information in it that would pertain to your audience, don’t just share the link to it. Not only will this send your readers away from your site, it’s more work for them. Instead, share with your reader the gist of the article – quote from it or share a snippet from the article. Once you have provided them with this, they can then make the decision whether they want to go read the full article or not.

6. Put Your Smart Phone to Use

Being a content curator does take time – you have to research and find quality content to share with your audience. But that doesn’t mean you have to be tied to your computer for hours on end. Put your smart phone to use – when you’re out and about and find yourself with a little free time, get on the web and start looking for that content. There are apps you can use that will help you save and keep track of the content you find.

7. Keep Things Interesting

Keep things interesting. Meaning, don’t just share the same ole type of content over and over (blog posts and articles for example). Instead, find videos on YouTube (or any of the other video sharing platforms out there) or fun Infographics on Pinterest. You can also share podcasts too.  The point here is to keep things interesting so the content doesn’t get boring. And also keep in mind, everyone likes to consume content in different ways. So curating content in different ways – written text, videos, audio, etc – can help appease those different learning styles.

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes and take a look at your site. What you’re providing, does it offer value? Does it make more sense to read your article or go to the source instead? Putting yourself in your reader’s shoes should help you decide what you need to do in order to provide value.

Tishia

PS. Pick up your copy now of Kelly McCausey’s Smart Curation Skills course and take your content marketing in a fun new direction!