Content curation is a fairly new concept among marketers and social media specialists. It means finding interesting content within your area of interest, finding a good context within your marketing strategy to share it to your audience, and then sharing it ethically on your website, blog, or social media channels.
Practically, you are sharing content created by others which you have read, liked and which you believe would be of interest for your followers. It is practiced at an ever-larger scale, especially when it comes to sharing content written by thought leaders and industry influencers. This is the type of content which offers true value, authority and pertinent opinions, and by sharing it your business will be perceived as professional and up to date with the latest news in your industry.
Let us focus now on the social media. These are the reasons why we recommend you to include content curation in your social media strategy:
1. You Establish Yourself as an Expert
Sharing valuable content written by experts and the latest news in your industry proves that you are constantly aware of what is going on in your area of interest. This is what builds trust among people – the feeling that they are doing business with professionals who know their industry, know the latest developments and are willing to educate their customers.
Curated content is the best way to prove that you really care about your customers, and that you continue to learn and apply the best practices in your industry.
2. It Is an Act of Goodwill
People are very busy. They do not have the time to search through the whole World Wide Web for interesting and useful information. By sharing curated content on your social media pages, you help your busy followers have the information they need at their fingertips without having to spend a lot of time looking for it.
This is core meaning of the principle “sharing is caring” and it will be reciprocated: your followers will share your content, will invite their friends to follow your social media accounts and, thus, you will gain a wider reach.
3. Curated Content Drives Engagement
As a corollary to the idea above, curated content has the potential to go viral, to be liked, shared and commented on by a lot of people, and to drive a huge engagement. A simple retweet with a popular hashtag on Twitter can bring you hundreds of new followers and increase the traffic funnel to your website.
The key is to remember to reciprocate every act of goodwill from your followers, such as a mention, a share and a retweet of your curated content.
4. It Helps You Fill in the Gaps
There are those days with a hectic schedule when you really do not have the time, or are not in the right mind frame to write engaging posts for the social media or articles for your blog. These are the days when curated content helps you keep up with your usual posting schedule with a minimum amount of time spent searching for it (this is why you should use social media automation tools – they can pick the best curated content for you, ready to share).
As a final thought, remember that any kind of shared content helps you with your link-building efforts and boosts your rank in Google. Thus, if none of the reasons above are good for you, remember this one: curated content helps your SEO strategy in a great measure.