We’re living in an era where consumers are wising up to brands, and talk is becoming increasingly cheap. In this brave new world built on meaningful social interactions and trust, content curation can become more impactful than generative AI for brands.
The omnipresence of social media has caused customers to expect deeper connections between themselves and brands. Sprout Social data suggests that 64% of consumers want brands to connect with them and that as much as 91% of users believe in social media’s power to connect people.
However, building meaningful connections with consumers can be an extremely time-consuming process with no guarantee that a greater rapport will be leveraged. Data compiled by Marketing Charts suggests that 21% of consumers will never believe in messages conveyed in advertising without corroboration, and this figure rises to 27% for information published on social media.
The number of consumers who will automatically believe in advertising and social media content without questioning it is as low as 8% and 6% respectively.
This widespread consumer mistrust applies to the sprawling influencer landscape, with recent findings suggesting that almost 90% of consumers no longer trust influencers on social media.
We can expect the emergence of generative AI to further raise the question of trust among brands growing their presence on social media. Hootsuite’s Social Media Trends 2024 report found that 62% of consumers claim that they are less likely to engage with and trust content on social media if it was created with generative AI.
This may seem limiting to brands seeking to build a social media presence, but in a landscape punctuated by consumer distrust, content curation stands as a crucial tool to drive effective engagement in a time-saving and cost-saving manner.
Although your brand is likely to have utilized content curation in some form or other in the past, you may not have fully unlocked the potential of the approach throughout social media. With this in mind, let’s take a deeper look into four benefits of content curation that you may not know exist:
- Efficiency in Thought Leadership
One of the most effective ways to utilize content curation is through building thought leadership on relevant topics. As much as 85% of curators use content curation as a means of establishing thought leadership, while just 5% of marketers opt against sharing third-party content as a strategy.
For dynamic and fast-paced industries, news items and innovations can be bewildering for brands and audiences alike. However, it also paves the way for engagement opportunities through valuable thought leadership.
Here, curating and sharing content focusing on new industry trends or sharing insights on a breaking news story can add value to the content your business creates without having to create extensive posts covering the nuances of a newsworthy development.
In the example above, we can see how Wil Reynolds, founder, and CEO of digital marketing agency Seer Interactive, curates content on social platforms like X in a way that helps him to share his insights on a trending topic.
Not only did Reynolds gain more than 6,500 impressions for simply sharing his thoughts on the flaws of web analytics tools, but it also gained reposts from highly respected industry figures like AJ Ghergich, helping to expand its reach but also demonstrate advocacy among other authoritative accounts.
Whether you’re a marketing agency, pet food retailer, or online bookstore, it’s possible to curate content and share your thoughts on trending topics that can drive engagement and demonstrate value for your customer profile.
Here, it’s important to understand your niche and target audience to build a content curation strategy that can improve your thought leadership credentials while keeping your content relevant across social channels.
- Meaningful Social Engagement
Curated content delivers meaningful social engagement in a manner that other marketing strategies fail to keep up with.
By inviting customers to share the multimedia content they’ve captured regarding products, services, or their experience with the business, brands can open up closer lines of engagement and conduct more impactful social listening. Social listening doesn’t have to be solely exclusive for customer relations. Social listening can be used within the company, for example, in HR management, hiring strategies, stakeholder engagement, and other inner parts of business management.
In the example above, we can see how Starbucks uses Instagram to curate content from individuals using its products to promote products without directly becoming an advertisement.
This faction of content curation hinges on using social proof and user-generated content (UGC) to build brand advocacy. Data suggests that as much as 97% of shoppers use reviews to help them decide what to buy, and 67% believe that showing customer reviews makes online shopping better, increasing purchases by 67%.
As we can see from the example above, social proof doesn’t have to involve sharing happy customers using products or proudly displaying a glowing review on TikTok, it can be as simple as engaging directly with relevant viral posts to generate a conversation with users online. As we can see with bookseller Waterstones’ tactic for repurposing UGC, it’s possible to share a post relevant to your niche as a topic for engagement.
There are many ways for your brand to use social proof to your advantage. For instance, you could try running competitions where customers can share images or videos of your products, share memes relevant to your industry, host Q&As, and even use Instagram for your business to tag the products on show as a clickable shopping link.
- Diversified Content Calendars
Crucially, content curation also helps brands diversify their content calendars and offer greater variety in terms of the ways they engage with their audience.
This can help marketers build stronger connections to different audience segments and drive more focused engagement.
Worryingly, The Drum reports that 68% of consumers would unfollow a brand for boring, inauthentic, or repetitive content, making the importance of a well-thought-out and diverse content calendar essential.
With this in mind, content curation can play a significant role in naturally diversifying the type of content you publish throughout your channels.
Artificial intelligence has the power to aid your content curation calendar to ensure a sufficient level of diversified copy and multimedia posting for maximum engagement.
Be sure to incorporate curated content featuring positive reviews, interactions with customers, and multimedia posts of your products created by your customers as a way of diversifying your content.
Just think of your audience as a team of marketing assistants helping to deliver ready-to-use new perspectives and visuals.
- Value in the Age of GenAI
We’re living in the age of generative AI, and while this offers plenty of new solutions for the marketing landscape, it can also pose a fresh set of challenges to brands seeking to drive social media engagement.
Consumer perceptions of generative AI content are complicated. While 78% of consumers acknowledge that GenAI is the future, only 39% are excited about that future. Additionally, 78% of consumers want to see more transparency from brands using generative AI.
When Wizards of The Coast was found to have broken an earlier stance to avoid the incorporation of generative AI content within its promotional materials in January 2024, the company faced a significant backlash throughout social media networks.
Another example can be found in an Instagram post from Nguyen Coffee Supply, which drew several comments from customers voicing their dissatisfaction and even threats to ‘unfollow’ the company due to accusations over the use of generative AI to create the image.
At a time when there’s widespread anxiety over the scale of the artificial intelligence boom and the threats to human jobs that the technology poses, we’re likely to see a sustained rejection of GenAI content among consumers while images and videos remain identifiable as AI.
Curated content stands as the antithesis of GenAI content, and amplifies the reach of UGC when audiences crave wholesome content with a more personable touch.
Over the coming years, we’re likely to see a divergence between businesses using generative AI content and those that refrain from the technology. The utility of GenAI as an effective cost-saving measure will always attract low-budget brands while businesses seeking to build a more value-driven presence throughout its channels will look more to UGC and uphold higher levels of authenticity.
Leveraging Sustainable Content Curation
The relationship you build with your target audience will be emblematic of your company. While the lure of generative AI promises cost-effective content and striking multimedia posts, similar effects through content curation can help to drive thought leadership, engagement, and brand value.
Before crafting your content curation calendar, look to your customer profile and their expectations as a blueprint. This can help to define your level of engagement and use of UGC to build resonance.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to content curation, but with sufficient research, you’ll be capable of knowing what your customers are likely to engage with and the level of communication you offer them.
In adapting your curation strategy to suit their needs, you can unlock significant value at a time when many of your rivals are struggling to win the trust of their audience.
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