Creating content is the best way to build a loyal following, and scale your business. But what if creating is too time-intensive? Or you don’t have the budget?
You don’t need to avoid content creation all together. Instead, you can test the waters of content creation through content curation.
Curation – what is it?
Content curation is the process of sorting through relevant information in your industry and sharing it in a meaningful, helpful, and consistent way. Curating content through shared media isn’t the best strategy. But it’s something that can get you started in the meantime.
Why do it?
Curation is often less time than creating content from scratch. And it’s all a part of your virtual handshake. While curation (without creation) isn’t the firmest handshake there is, at least you’re standing up straight and making good eye contact. Customers typically respect and appreciate this.
But curating isn’t about sharing any random meme you find. Mindful editing and collaborative news filtering need to happen before you curate.
How to curate content:
1. Look at what your competitors curate. Visit their social media sites to see what content gets shared, and which magazines or resources provided the information.
2. Have a system in place. Create a Twitter list of others who share relevant information about your industry. Make sure that you remember who found the articles to give proper credit – or to give them a hat tip (h/t on Twitter).
3. Sign up for feedly. It allows you to organize, read, and share the content of your favorite sites. It allows you to group content by subject matter, and it integrates very nicely with your Google Reader. But make sure to sign up before Reader goes away on July 1st.
4. Remember that kitschy is not always cool. Respect your audience.
5. Be meaningful. Add your insight or opinion when sharing the content. A good content curator knows the difference between being helpful and being a nuisance. Don’t share just to share. Make sure there’s context and relevance for your audience. Save the fun, quirky content for the weekend or for your personal social media pages.
6. Curate around a theme. Share video, audio, photos, and articles on different days of the week. Set structure like this if you need it.
7. Make sure people are listening when you tweet. Platforms like Tweriod can help determine the best times to tweet.
8. Have fun with it.
Curating content should be an enjoyable process where you get informed and educated about the happenings in your industry. It’s the path to creation. The content you curate should inspire you to create, or at least make it seem less daunting.
Do you curate content for your business? Please comment below.
This post originally appeared on the Vocus blog.
