How to Use Data for Content Curation

Are you using all available marketing channels to make your brand stand out? Do you want your products to be the next big thing everybody is talking about? Content curation can help you take over social media and boost your site’s traffic. If this sounds interesting, keep reading and find out how you can do it.

1. What Is Content Curation?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, “curation” means “the selection and care of objects to be shown in a museum or to form part of a collection of art, an exhibition, etc”. In this sense, content curation is the act of planning, collecting, organizing, and sharing valuable content on social media or other relevant sites. 

Basically, you find great pieces created by other authors, add your brand and share them with your audience. This way, you can benefit from the quality content and still promote your products and services.

2. What Can Content Curation Do for You?

Sharing other people’s work sounds great, but can it be beneficial to your business? The answer is YES. If done correctly, content curation can significantly benefit you:

• Create a strong bond between your brand and your customers and grow your online community.
• Improve your SEO by making you a reliable source of information that search engines fancy.
• When used in combination with powerful email marketing software it can help you stand out from your competition, increase the reach of your brand and reveal new and untapped markets.
• Create mutually beneficial relationships with prominent content creators and influencers.
• Highlight your products in a non-invasive way, making them more desirable for potential customers.
• Helping you identify the latest trends and create trendy and engaging original content for your website.

Who doesn’t want to achieve all of those things for their business? Content curation can be a valuable tool in your arsenal if implemented correctly. 

3. How to Successfully Curate Content

To successfully use data for content curation is not as hard as you think. Follow these six simple steps and be careful not to skip any as they are all equally important:

1. Decide When to Curate and When to Create Original Content

You need to find the sweet spot that will bring you the most benefits from both. Posts linked to original content can help you get a higher click-to-conversion rate. On the other hand, those linked to external sources (third-party content) usually get more clicks. So you need to work with both to maximize your gains. Optimize your content creation process and produce quality blog posts while curating data from third-party sites.

As a rule of thumb, the ratio of created to curated content should be anywhere between 25/75 to 40/60. Still, the estimate can vary from business to business, so you should experiment to find the correct ratio for your situation. 

2. Gatherer Information about Your Audience and the Trending Topics

You will hit a major roadblock if you post spammy, outdated, or unrelated content. To decide what to publish, you first need to find out what your audience wants and needs. You can do that in two ways:

• Analyze your metrics – Inspecting your social media metrics can give you a good picture of what the public wants to see. Check the viewer’s reactions to images and videos. Compare impressions and clicks and examine the engagement rate different publications have.
• Do in-depth keyword research – It’s essential to analyze how your potential viewers seek information. It will help you reveal their search intent and give you a huge advantage. Research the phrases and specific long-tail keywords they use when looking for data on social media. Using similar words and natural language, write the headlines and strong points of your posts. Try to answer the exact queries your viewers have. The more relevant and engaging your publications are, the broader reach they will get.
• Research your audience’s behavior – Create an audience profile. This way, it will be easy to pick the right content to share. Think about:
  • The platforms your viewers prefer;
  • When are they most active;
  • What is the age range of your audience;
  • Where is your audience located, and what languages does it speak;
  • What particular topics are of interest for this specific demographic (What is the user intent?);

Once you know what is expected of you, it is time to collect relatable data.

3. Find Quality Content to Curate

User-generated content (UGC) is easily found on social media. Scroll through your favorite platforms and look for relatable posts. The hard part comes when collecting quality content like different studies, researchers, and stats. The best way to find those is by using platforms such as Scoop.it. Here, the data is already filtered and categorized, and you can easily navigate through them using different hashtags. 

4. Choose the Right Platforms 

There are a variety of platforms you can use, depending on your business goals and the message you want to rely on to your audience. 

For example, if you are a tourist agency, it will benefit to share travel images or inspiring and aesthetic collages on Instagram or Facebook. HR companies and consulting agencies can have more success posting in-depth research and stats on Linkedin. Don’t put your eggs in one basket and use just one channel. Instead, spread your reach throughout multiple platforms.

5. Prepare Your Posts for Publishing

Copy and pasting won’t get you anywhere. If you want to be successful with your social media campaign, your posts need to be in tune with the platform you are using and the behavior profile of your audience. Carefully select your content, create a catchy headline, add lots of hashtags, and properly present your company. If you want to include branded videos, take your time with the editing software and make sure everything is on point. Your goal is to broaden your reach and increase the traffic to your site. Sharing UGC will keep your audience engaged, and you will get a lot of reshares and likes.

6. Publish and Analyze the Results

Press “Publish” and wait for the results. Analyze the results and mark the weak points in the performance. Keep an eye on the engagement rate, clicks, impressions, and site traffic. Adjust your publishing strategy accordingly. Don’t disappear if you don’t get it the first time. Learn from your mistakes and try again.

4. Content Curation Best Practices

 When it comes to content curation, some important unspoken rules need to be followed:

• Quality before quantity – Choose quality pieces that have a certain value to them. Think about your audience’s needs and try to satisfy them. Your incentive is to be helpful or entertaining, not to publish random things you find on the internet.
• Post frequently – If you can find engaging and helpful materials that can benefit both your audience and business, you can post on social media as much as three-four times per week. With content curation, your goal is to keep your viewers “on-edge”, waiting for the next best thing you share with them.
• Plan your work and use content curation tools – Content curation is a time-consuming process. Create a monthly plan and stick to it. Use tools like Buzzsumo or platforms like Curata, Scoop.it and Feedly to find engaging materials to post. They will help you find great relevant content which you can share with your audience without wasting a lot of time on research.
• Create a captivating headline – It’s all about the first impression, so you must start strong. Your headline must be appealing enough that people want to click on it. Think of Buzzfeed and its wacky, memorable titles.
• Don’t forget the original creators – Always credit the writers of the content you are benefiting from. It is essential to ensure that you use only ethically sourced data. Overlooking this rule can result in multiple complications like copyright strikes and lawsuits. Include a link to the original article, and make sure to copy only a small portion of it, not the entire source material. Choose credible and well-known authors with a good reputation.  

Now that you know what and how to do it, it’s time to start curating. Don’t expect immediate results, as every good thing needs time. But once you gain friction and get the hand on the whole process, you won’t be disappointed.