In today’s digital age, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the amount of information at your disposal as soon as you open your internet browser or sign into your social media accounts. All you have to do is type a term into Google or scroll through your timeline and you’ll be inundated with content.
In the media world, you can inundated with content. From releases to updates and everything in between, there is no shortage of content. But is that content any good? In a highly competitive market like media, you need to have the best content in order to be seen.
In recent years, the importance of inbound marketing has been widely recognised, leading to a surge in brands focusing on their content. While creating content is an important element of any successful marketing strategy, so too is curating content.
But how does content curation look forIrish businesses? The following article will cover just what content curation is, why it’s important for your SME, and how you can curate great content for your Irish brand.
What is content curation?
Before you become a world class Content Curator (and we know you’ll get there!), it’s important to understand just what content curation is. We think that this definition from Beth Kanter sums it up nicely:
Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme. The work involves sifting, sorting, arranging, and publishing information. A content curator cherry picks the best content that is important and relevant to share with their community.
Successful content curators help us cut through the noise and discover content that matters.
Like a museum curator chooses the finest art to display, a content curator selects content that will engage and delight their audiences. Instead of hanging artworks on the walls, you’ll be sharing your curated masterpieces with your followers.
The process of content curation can be simplified into three basic steps: discover, curate, and share. At the discovery stage, you’ll search online to find the most relevant content for your target audience.
The curation stage is when you read and weed through the content you’ve discovered in stage one to find the gems (we’ll get into this in more detail later on in the article). The sharing stage is exactly what it sounds like: taking the content you’ve so carefully curated and distributing it via your chosen channels.
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Why is curating content important?
There are plenty of reasons why curating content is beneficial for smaller Irish businesses. These include the following:
Curating content is simpler than creating your own:
From coming up with the right topics to writing 500+ words about those topics, content creation can be extremely time consuming. In fact, having a steady stream of blog posts or articles is difficult if you don’t have the resources for a designated content creator (which many small Irish businesses won’t). It can be weeks or even months before you’re able to publish something substantial. Content curation is much simpler and less time consuming, so you’re able to be more consistent with your sharing.
Content curation helps you build relationships with other sites:
Sharing content from sites across the web can help you forge relationships with those sites. This will broaden your network, and these connections may be able to be leveraged for your benefit in the future. When you help others, they’ll want to help you (and friends are especially important for small businesses).
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Content curation helps you grow your brand:
Each time you share content, you’re increasing your exposure. Every piece of curated content is another opportunity for you to be seen, and another reason for people to pay attention to your brand. Content can be shared and reshared. It lives forever and so does the exposure it brings.
Content curation can help you become a thought leader in your industry:
A successful content curation strategy will help your brand distinguish itself as a go-to source for media information. Each piece of content you share will give your audience something of value, and this process will establish your authority within the field.
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Content curation will keep you informed:
If you’re constantly on the lookout for great things to share, you’ll be reading plenty of relevant content. Obviously, the more you know, the better informed you’ll be. Knowledge is power, and content curation forces you to monitor the conversation and stay abreast of current happenings.
How to curate great content
Becoming a great content curator doesn’t just happen overnight—it takes effort. Below are some tips that will help you on your curatorial journey.
Image via Pikwizard.com
1. Share content that adds value:
The foundations of a successful content curation strategy depends on sharing content that your audience will find useful and interesting. For example, if you’re a local Irish restaurant, your followers are likely to be interested in things like recipes, chef interviews, restaurant reviews, and Irish foodie news.
Most people find these types of content useful and interesting:
- Tips and tricks
- Case studies
- Videos
- Statistics and data
- Local news
2. Cite your sources:
It’s important to give credit where credit’s due. Not citing your sources is not only a bad practice (that could end up landing your business in hot water, hello plagiarism how are you). When sharing your curated content, it’s essential that you let your followers know where it came from.
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3. Keep it timely and relevant:
If you want to establish yourself as a master content curator, the content you share must be significant when you’re posting it. Posting old news or inappropriate content is a surefire way to damage your online reputation and lose the trust of your followers.
4. Use tools to help you:
Who says you have to go at it alone? We say take all the help that you can get! There are plenty of tools that will streamline, or even automate, your content curation. Tools like Pocket, Curata and BuzzSumo will help you discover and share the most impactful, noteworthy content.
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5. Ask your audience:
If you’re stumped as to where to start, or simply want some more ideas for content your followers will want to read— just ask! People in the media industry are not shy, no doubt they’ll share their opinion if asked. If there’s one thing we know, it’s that users & peers love to share their opinions. Your followers will only be too happy to let you know what they’d like to see more of.
6. Share regularly:
Consistency is key in both creating and curating content. We recommend sharing content at least once every other day in order to stay on the minds of your followers. If you want to establish your business as a leading source of information, you’ll need to keep content in regular supply.
Image via Design Wizard
Conclusion;
Us Irish love to talk, communication is in our blood. Using content for visual communication is a method that needs to be undertaken by Irish business. Not only does it satisfy the need for a chat but also gives your audience a way of understanding more about your brand. Media can be hectic but using content can put you on the right side of busy!
Feature Image Credit: Image via Pikwizard.com
By Claire Newton
Author Bio; Currently working as a Marketing Executive at Design Wizard, Claire is passionate about creating amazing content and bringing people together. Having recently graduated with her masters degree in Marketing she is keen to impact the digital world. Outside of work you can catch Claire taking photos of her rescue dog Storm and checking out social media.
