Content curation is the act of “picking and choosing content from around the Web, and sharing it with your followers” (MakeUseOf). Content curation can happen in many forms; on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, blogs, infographics, etc. This has recently become a very popular internet marketing strategy, even though we have been sharing content for a long time—we just didn’t have a special name for it!
When it comes to curating a blog, you are still finding content from around the web to share but you are adding your own ideas and/or opinions as to why you are sharing that piece of content in your blog. Also, the content you are sharing should be used as an added benefit to the blog you are writing leading up to it.
So, for example, the blog that I have curated from HubSpot that is about curating is extra information that is adding more to this original blog post for me and for you, the reader. It is helping to further explain the art of curation and is offering more in depth steps as to how you begin curating, whereas in my post I am only offering you the information about curating at a high level.
You as the reader get to see that I have offered this extra piece of content and have told you it’s helpful. So, if you were genuinely interested in continuing on and learning more about content curation you would click on the link to read the entirety of the curated blog.
Content curation is a good tool for businesses to use and implement in their internet marketing strategy not only because it helps offer different opinions and views on topics, but it also helps to create a sense of community. Always make sure you are giving credit where it is due! NEVER just pull content from a site without linking back and mentioning where you got it from. It’s ok to let your readers know that these are not your ideas!
Stealing content is never ok! Also, as a best practice your curated content should never be longer than your own original content for SEO purposes. Google doesn’t like duplicate content—make sure you have at least 300-400 words in front of your curated piece.
This recent blog by HubSpot is awesome because it goes more in depth into how to actually get started with curating and what some of the best tools to help you along the way are.
Posted by, Rebecca Goldring, HubSpot
Blogging for your business is an important part of establishing your company as an industry thought leader, bringing in new site traffic, and converting that traffic into leads and customers.
And while posts about an esteemed latest hire or an exciting product update are important pieces to help your readers keep up with company culture, the most impactful posts will be about your industry as a whole. But for marketers to pull back, assess current industry events, and provide a unique, helpful, practical take, it requires a certain amount of content curation. That curation sometimes turns into content on its own, or it simply helps inform marketers so they can create content that's up to date (cutting edge, even).
With that goal in mind, here are several quick ways to curate content for your industry blog. Use it to inform your content, find good topics, and add examples to the posts you're writing.
There are a number of reader services that curate content for you by pulling in blog posts from all over the web. After a quick morning flip-through, it's easy to understand industry trends with everything all in one place. Some of the two most popular are Feedly and Digg, though there are certainly other options, too. Here's a how-to for adding content to those two platforms:
Trade show blogs are some of the best places to find content, because they give good signals as to what's changing in your industry and what trends you should keep reading more about. Even though trade shows are historically an offline lead generation source, they are becoming increasingly more inbound by providing attendees with industry blog content year round.
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