In Content Curation: What Is It and Is It For You? we learned about content curation as it relates to our WordPress blogs and learned why we might want to consider incorporating content curation into our overall content marketing strategy. As promised, I’m back with some content curation tips for you to make getting started a little easier.
Keep It Simple
The first thing to remember is content curation does not have to be a complex activity. It’s just a simple matter of sharing great content on a particular topic along with your own contextual view, opinion and/or perspective on that same topic. You and your input are the value add here.
You may not realize it, but you’ve probably “curated” content many times. The last time you “shared” an image you saw in your Facebook news feed, added a description to it before you clicked share…you curated content.
You’ve probably even written blog posts where you quoted someone else and gave a link to their post so your readers could go read the whole post, if they wanted to. You “curated” their content…in the simplest form.
Title – Intro – Curated Content – Conclusion
The simplest format is to take a piece of content – be it another post by someone else, an image or a video – introduce it (tell why you’re sharing it), then share it (with attribution and a link to the original piece), then share your thoughts/conclusions about it. Write an awesome, attention grabbing post title and publish!
Just as it’s sometimes easier to edit a document than write one from scratch, it is sometimes easier to share a piece of content your audience will find relevant, adding your own context and point of view in the process, than it is to create unique content from scratch.
Expand and Build
Once you get the hang of it, you can use content curation to create all kinds of interesting posts and articles for your readers. You can share multiple pieces of content along with your thoughts and views on each (or all as a whole.) You can choose an issue and present curated content supporting one point of view, then switch up and play Devil’s Advocate and present curated content supporting an opposing view.
You can curate content around a topic (parenting tips,) a time frame (the best posts you’ve read this week,) or an issue facing your readers (how to market their business online.) The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!
Whichever direction you choose to go, just remember – keep it simple and build as you go!
