How to Curate Content for Your Business Blog
Content marketing is only going to get more impactful, so if you’re not on the bandwagon already, now’s the time to jump on. If you’ve been hesitating because this type of online marketing requires so much content creation, get ready for good news:
You don’t have to create all that content yourself.
Most of the content you publish should be your own, but you can also curate content for your business blog. Content curation saves you time and helps you build relationships with other businesses and blogs.
By gathering the very best content planted on the web about a certain topic and giving it a new life, you offer your customers both high quality and added value, making them trust you and come back to you for more.
Are you ready to start curating content? Follow these steps to make this powerful content marketing strategy work for you.
1. Follow People and Businesses Who Create Great Content
There are tons of potential brands to follow, such as:
- thought leaders
- celebrities
- big brands
- industry experts
- related news organizations
- anyone you look up to professionally
Make sure these sources are appropriate for your brand and audience. Focus on following anyone who could help your customers who also produces and shares high-quality content.
Most of these people and brands will operate a blog and several social media accounts; become a follower, friend, or connection via social media and subscribe to the blog so you can see all the great content they create and curate.
2. Create Great Content Yourself
You can curate your own content, and your content can be curated by others. Devote the necessary time and resources to creating content that matches or exceeds the same high standard as the sources you follow.
Curating your own content might sound strange, but it’s actually a helpful and effective way to share older but still valuable content with newer customers and readers. Many business blogs utilize Start Here pages and regular round-up posts to share the best content on their blog.
3. Standardize Criteria for Choosing the Best Content to Curate
Some criteria to consider for your curation strategy include:
- content includes visuals (or is a visual)
- amount of reaction to the content, including comments and social shares
- length and depth of the content
- type of offer included, such as ebook or video training
Use market research about your target audience and what’s working for your competitors to help you define the kind of content your customers want you to curate. Also consider what kinds of content you want to be associated with.
Once you’ve decided what criteria to use to help you select the very best content, write it down. Make sure everyone curating content for your blog knows what the standards are.
You can also use these criteria to make sure your sources are a good fit for your audience and brand.
4. Determine How Often You’ll Curate Content
Let’s say you publish several blog posts per week. With that much creation, you could afford to write curated posts once every week or two. If you blog less often, you’ll generally curate less often as well.
Again, use your knowledge of your target audience and your competitors to create the ideal curation calendar.
5. Add Useful Commentary
The power of curating content is in creating a unique point of view that your audience connects with. Here are some ways to do that:
- retell the story
- offer expert analysis
- explain why you included each piece of content
- share related experiences and opinions
- extrapolate lessons and other takeaways
Do you curate content for your business?
Please share your tips and suggestions in the comments!
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