There are more than 600 million active blogs across the internet.
Over 2 million blog posts are published every day.
80% of internet users interact with social media sites and blogs.
That’s an avalanche of content being produced daily.
You want to establish yourself in the noise.
Carve out a niche where only the best, most intriguing content in your industry is gathered and shared with your audience.
To do this effectively, you’ll need to understand content aggregation and curation. Below, we outline the basics of both, in addition to sharing six advanced curation techniques to set your content apart.
Aggregation vs. Curation
So, what do we mean when we talk about content aggregation? How does it differ from content curation?
Let’s break it down simply.
Imagine you want to start a used bookstore. You go all over your city collecting donations. You get books from your local library, thrift stores, and people cleaning out their garages.
When you get home, you have a massive pile of books from dozens of genres, in a variety of sizes and conditions, and about innumerable different things.
That’s aggregation.
You have gathered a bunch of something, and you’ve put it all in one place.
For digital content, aggregation means gathering content from all over the web and collecting it centrally.
Google News, for instance, is a news aggregator that collects top news stories for the day and displays them to the user automatically, requiring no search on the user’s part.
But what if you only want to see news about the stock market every morning and not stories about the latest celebrity divorce?
Enter content curation.
If we return to our book analogy, you have successfully aggregated your pile of books. But you only want to sell paperback fiction in your store. Now, you’re faced with the task of curating your inventory.
Curation is the human touch. It requires a human to sift through the collected pile of data and create a hand-picked selection of the best pieces for a particular purpose.
Curation creates context and a customized experience. Aggregation gives you the whole pile without context or thoughtful selection.
Scoop.it is a great example of a content curation tool.
You can discover, curate, and monitor your favorite content sources in seconds, all from a central hub.
Benefits of Content Aggregation
Content aggregation is a useful tool for marketers.
It can help with:
1. Brand trust – content aggregation allows users to access a wide range of information on a specific topic from diverse sources. This provides a comprehensive overview, enabling users to stay informed about the latest developments, trends, and discussions within their areas of interest. This, in turn, makes them return to you again and again for the information they are seeking.
2. Streamlining Socials – streamline your social media management by sharing content from across the web. Maintain an active and diverse social media presence without spending excessive time searching for content manually.
3. Cost-Efficiency – instead of investing in expensive market research, use aggregation tools to track relevant content and stay informed about customer preferences, competitor insights, and industry trends.
4. Time-saving – set up filters and preferences once and allow the tool to continuously search and aggregate relevant content for your marketing channels without constant manual intervention.
Advanced Content Curation and Aggregation Methods and Strategies
Now that we’ve gone over what content aggregation is, as well as some of the benefits, let’s take a deep dive into some advanced curation techniques.
1. Use a Wide Variety of Content
As you begin to use your aggregation methods, you may find that you are consistently gathering the same types of content.
This is understandable, but it’s important to diversify.
You want to incorporate many different types of content to create a comprehensive and engaging learning experience.
If you find that you are consistently only curating blog posts and web pages, consider casting your net wider to include:
- Additional support information
- “Further Reading” lists
- Thought leadership
- Educational videos
- Statistic reports
- How-to guides
- Infographics
- FAQs
2. Include User-Generated Content
User-generated content is a gold mine for marketing. It benefits your brand by building social proof, brand authority, and social engagement while allowing the user to share their voice, showcase their opinions, and publicly ally themselves with others engaging with the same content.
You can source user-generated content in a variety of ways.
- Utilize platforms like SurveyMonkey to capture surveys detailing customer experiences
- Scour your social media comments for relevant thoughts about your product or brand
- Create a hashtag and encourage your users to use it to engage with the brand
- Run a branded campaign of users using and reviewing your product
- Form partnerships with influencers that your target audience follows
- Encourage customer testimonials and reviews
Influencer partnerships, in particular, are becoming more important for brands to form. According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, 41% of all consumers make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation.
3. One-Up the Competition
Outperform your competition by checking the top-performing SERPs in your industry. Then, build a strategy for how to outdo them.
Do your competitors offer 25 examples of commonly searched terms? Offer 50 and a downloadable template.
Expand on their insights, include more research and data, and provide more visuals. Find out what’s working for them and do it better.
4. Finding and Crediting Relevant Sources
Your credibility as a curator will depend on a) the quality of the content you curate, b) creating the context that makes the content relevant, and c) properly crediting the sources of your content.
For quality, list industry-leading blogs, publications, and influential thought leaders known for their expertise and credibility in your niche.
When sharing compilations from multiple sources, provide a small preview and link to the full piece, crediting all sources.
Always, always, always credit the original creators of curated content by tagging and linking to them.
Never try to pass off curated content as your own. Your audience will discover the lie, and you’ll instantly lose any credibility or brand authority you have worked so hard to build.
5. Audience Engagement
Audience engagement is the difference between passive consumption and active participation.
Encouraging interaction — through comments, polls, or discussions — invites the audience to contribute their perspectives, creating a dynamic and engaging community around your curated content.
On the flip side, engaging with your audience is also a catalyst for building trust, increasing participation, and expanding the reach of curated content.
When you respond to comments, acknowledge contributions, and actively participate in discussions, it humanizes your brand and establishes a genuine connection with your audience.
This engagement demonstrates a commitment to listening, understanding, and valuing your audience’s input, which fosters trust. As trust builds, so does audience participation. Users become more likely to share their insights and experiences within their networks.
The ripple effect of this engagement will amplify the reach of your curated content organically, as it is shared by a network of trusted individuals.
6. Implement Automation: Content Curation Tools
Content curation tools use automation to simplify the curation and aggregation process. They use algorithms, filters, and scheduling features to help you discover, filter, organize, and present curated content seamlessly. This saves you a bunch of time while ensuring an efficient and effective curation workflow.
Content Aggregators
There are many nifty content curation tools on the market. Here are some of the best.
SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a social media management tool that makes it easy to post, publish, schedule, and track your performance across social media channels.
You can actively engage with your audience and manage comments, responses, and audience connections.
It’s easy to create and store a content library for hashtag campaigns and evergreen content.
Scoop.it
Scoop.it is a powerful content engine that uses automation to curate third-party content on a global scale.
Solidify your brand authority, establish thought leadership, build a readership of loyal followers, generate custom newsletters, and more with this all-in-one platform for advanced curation techniques.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is your go-to platform for identifying trends and monitoring your brand.
You can research and reach out to journalists, analyze your competitors, develop PR campaigns, track trending content, and monitor your news mentions, all from one simple, easy-to-navigate interface.
Social Media Aggregators
Social media aggregators are tools that allow you to set specific search criteria (hashtags, keywords, user accounts) to automatically pull in content that aligns with your focus.
This helps you maintain a consistent content flow by automating the scheduling and sharing of curated posts across multiple social media channels.
Hootsuite and Buffer are two examples of excellent social media curators.
Hootsuite’s social media management platform is very comprehensive. It includes an aggregator feature that allows users to check multiple social media accounts, curate content, and schedule posts from a single dashboard. It also provides analytics tools to track the performance of your curated content.
Buffer allows users to schedule posts across Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest. It offers content suggestions based on the user’s interests and industry, helping to discover relevant and trending topics.
Buffer also provides analytics tools to measure the performance of posts, track engagement, and gain insights into audience behavior.
Both platforms enhance content curation efforts by providing tools for content discovery, scheduling, and performance tracking.
News Aggregators
Choosing the right news aggregator will help you efficiently curate and stay informed about the latest developments in your industry.
Here are some of the best:
Feedly
With Feedly, you can organize feeds into categories, making it easy to follow and stay updated on industry-specific news.
Flipboard is a personalized news aggregator app that collects content based on user preferences. You can create custom magazines by selecting and curating articles, blog posts, and multimedia content relevant to you and your industry.
Google News
Google News uses algorithms to curate personalized news feeds based on user interests and browsing behavior. It aggregates news from a variety of sources, allowing users to follow specific topics and industries.
Wrap Up
Effective content curation is an art. It involves carefully selecting and sharing valuable information with purpose and intent.
A well-curated collection of information saves time, fosters engagement, and builds your brand into a trustworthy, dependable powerhouse.
Ready to see what a powerful, streamlined content curation tool can do for your content strategy?
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