Blending a mix of new content with the filtering and management of other useful information streams is a productive and manageable solution for providing prospective customers a steady stream of high quality and relevant content.
There are several good services that facilitate curation tasks and software can help, but on it’s own, software isn’t the answer.
Pure creation is demanding. Pure automation doesn’t engage. Curating content can provide the best of both. Here are several best practices to help you with curation sources, types of content and where to publish.
1. Sources of News to Curate
- Industry specific newsletters sent to you via email
- Links to content and media shared on Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Reddit and other social sharing websites
- Google Alerts, Google News or Google+ Search
- Curation tools: Flipboard, Scoop.it, Storify.com
- Real-time search engines: Topsy, socialmention.com
- Niche topic blogs
- News aggregators: Alltop, popurls, Techmeme
- Bookmark and or subscribe to updates from industry news, magazine and blog websites
- Press Release Distribution Services like PRWeb, PRNewswire or Marketwired
- Review competitor websites and monitor for mentions of their brand terms in though Google Alerts and social media monitoring tools like Trackur to see what kind of curation tactics they’re using
- Suggested content from social media platforms like Buffer and HootSuite
2. Types of Content to Curate
- Useful resources relevant to your target audience: blogs, news, training, tips, networking and industry events.
- Content created by influential people of importance to the target audience
- Statistics, research and reports
- Compelling or provocative industry news
- Videos: YouTube, Vimeo, Viddler
- Slideshare presentations or search Google.com for .ppt file types
- Whitepapers, eBooks and case studies
- Infographics and other data visualizations
- Tips, How To’s and best practices
- Create short lists of tips according to keyword themes
- Compile large collections of resources according to topical theme
- Aggregate the best comments from other blogs or your own blog
- Run surveys, polls & contests that result in content
3. Where to Publish Curated Content
- Company blog posts
- As eBooks
- Email Newsletter
- Social Media Channels
- Contributed Articles or Blog Posts to Industry Sites
- Niche Microsite Dedicated to a Specific News Category
- Content Hosting Platforms Like SlideShare
These are just a few suggestions and the best ideas for content creation and curation will come from a specific analysis of your own customer groups and industry. The key is to do the homework of understanding what motivates your customers and to assemble a compelling mix of curated and original content to inspire them to engage and buy.
Be thoughtful about the usefulness of the content you assemble, create and promote. Empathize with your customers’ interests and goals so you can properly optimize content for both search engines and social media sharing.
Excerpt with permission from Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing, published by Wiley.
Photo: Shutterstock
