You want content curation resources? We’ve got content curation resources. I can preach until my face turns blue about content curation and content marketing best practices, but none of it really matters unless you’re also doing this one very important thing:
Adding insight and editorializing your curated content.
What is ‘insight?’
At Scoop.it, we created insight to put a spotlight on the curator. On what he or she has to say about the content being shared; on his or her expertise. What we call insight may go by many other names, like point of view, editorialization, or context, but the reasons why it’s so important remain the same.
SEO benefits
Last year, internet marketer Bruce Clay was interested in calculating the validity of claims that content curation was bad for SEO. He conducted an experiment with the objective of learning whether curated content was able to reach the same SEO rankings as original content. His test included taking a piece of content in the number one spot for a specific keyword phrase and replaced it, in each circumstance, with one of three pieces of content (still related to the same keyword phrase):
- A post including curated links with auto-generated summaries
- A post including curated links with 200+ word annotations written by the curator
- A post including an excerpt from the post (with a link) and 200+ word annotations written by the curator
Context
You might have heard the phrase “Content is king.” You might have also heard some of the “queens” that have been named alongside content, one of which is context. Considering the context of the story being told as a part of a content marketing effort is extremely important whether the content is originally written or curated with insight. That said, it is easier to lose sight of the context of content that’s being curated.
Rohit Bhargava, best-selling marketing author and founder of Influential Marketing Group, said it best: “curation adds meaning to isolated beautiful things.” These beautiful things are the pieces of content you’re curating, and the meaning is what’s going to drive your audience to take a desired action.
Calls to Action
Studies have shown that calls-to-action on certain social media sites have the potential of leading to an 80% increase in engagement. Each piece of curated content published to an SMB content hub is another opportunity to engage a target audience. Editorializing curated content takes that opportunity to a new level by allowing marketers to add a custom call to action (CTA) and encourage a desired behavior among readers.
Above, the team at ineomarketing invites readers to visit their website for more information on the topics covered in their curated content hub.
Adding value, SEO or contextual, as well as the ability to encourage behaviors via clear CTAs on content are just a few benefits of adding insight when curating. Whether you’re going for just one or all three, this is your surefire way of meeting those objectives effectively.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...
That’s why I started using ScoopIt in the first place–to be able to add my insight to the news and help people relate more to issues in the news related to my field. I think that is ScoopIt’s strongest asset, and always have. But I am one of the few people who does it. I can also say that when I had a Pro account, the insights were much more visibly effective. Since I downgraded to the free level, I am less motivated to use ScoopIt in general, as it is hard to tell what is my insight and what… Read more »
Hmmm… Not sure I understand @franjurga:disqus: insights have a different color on free topics too. Not a feature of the Pro plan. Example here: http://www.scoop.it/t/criminology-and-economic-theory/p/4038676797/2015/03/07/texas-leads-the-nation-in-prosecuting-children-for-truancy But it seems you’re using the summary field to add your own annotations. This is fine too but the insight will do exactly what you want.
Guillaume
I just tried again, Guillaume, and I do not get the same result you do. By color, do you mean that pale gray box behind the insight? It’s barely visible on my screen. But I am indeed typing in the insight box. I don’t get that quotation mark, either. Perhaps I am being punished for discontinuing my Pro account? This is the result I get, no matter what: http://sco.lt/5mDvzV Am I missing something? I’d love to be a more active ScoopIt user again if it would work for me and represent me in a way that I think looks professional… Read more »
Hi @franjurga:disqus – I checked your account: you’re definitely not punished 🙂 but your insight decoration is turned to off. Not sure why but easy to fix by going to your topic then the Customization menu at the top, then Insight and checking the box next to Show the Insight Decoration. Let me know if it’s not clear.
Who knew there was such a thing? Thank you so much, Guillaume, I will endeavor to activate my Insight Decoration. Hooray! Let’s see if I’m clever enough to do it! I will post again with a link to see if it is right. My guess is that others aren’t aware of this option as well.
Great Post Ally. I Really liked Bruce Clay’s experiment and your summary about it.