Extra content material entrepreneurs ought to act like museum curators.
Museum curators choose an exhibit theme, fastidiously choose the artifacts, and set up them right into a story that guests will need to devour.
By adopting an identical technique, you — and, in the end, your viewers — will reap the rewards.
You’ll create extra high quality content material with out having to create new content material.
You’ll inform distinctive tales formed by others’ content material.
You’ll place your model as a thought chief with out having to write down draft after draft earlier than the author-executive indicators off.
You’ll turn out to be a trusted and useful useful resource by digesting content material from a number of sources.
Curation can take your content material advertising and marketing additional with out an extra funding of sources.
What’s a content material curator vs. a content material aggregator?
Being a profitable curator requires first understanding the distinction between a curator and an aggregator.
Consider it like this.
When individuals reshare or repost others’ content material on social media with out commenting, they’re aggregators. Their viewers assumes the “reposter” is within the content material, however they don’t know what’s significantly attention-grabbing or useful about it.
On this LinkedIn submit, I used to be an aggregator, sharing a post from Christina Nicholson on the worth of public relations. I didn’t assist my viewers perceive the subject despite the fact that they couldn’t discern it from the opening line, “I’m handing over hundreds of {dollars} to her … and she or he has no thought the place I got here from.”
When individuals touch upon or write an introduction to the shared or reposted content material, they act as curators. They let their viewers know why they discovered the content material worthwhile or the way it may relate to them.
On this instance, Nigel Brown curates an article about RFID (radio-frequency identification) in retail written by Tony D’Onofrio for Loss Prevention Media. Nigel summarizes the highlights and hyperlinks to the unique article.
So be a curator, not an aggregator, and your viewers (and model) will thanks (or at the very least recognize your content material.)
Right here’s methods to be a content material curator.
Choose a subject
Although curating means that you can develop extra content material with fewer sources, that doesn’t imply you possibly can scrimp on high quality.
First, determine a theme or matter about which you possibly can curate content material and that your viewers will discover worthwhile. It could possibly be a synthesis of business information. It could possibly be takeaways from scholarly content material. It could possibly be a compilation of takeaways out of your model’s content material. It could possibly be a deep dive into a subject for which you don’t have subject material consultants on workers.
While you determine on the theme, fill within the blanks on this sentence:
We’ll curate content material about _________________ to assist our viewers _______________.
Choose the tactic
Now that you’ve your theme and normal profit, you’re prepared to choose the tactic. You may create one thing new or choose an current automobile that would profit from curated content material. It may be a podcast, e-newsletter, weblog, video sequence, or social media submit. You can additionally mix a number of codecs.
Will you curate a weblog article? PageTraffic Buzz does this. It publishes an article entitled the Top 10 Digital Marketing Articles of the Week.
On this version, Navneet Kaushal highlights the important thing takeaways from 10 articles, together with this one, A Comparability of the ten Finest Electronic mail Advertising and marketing Instruments. The creator provides credit score and hyperlinks to the unique supply whereas summarizing what readers can count on — the options, pricing, and efficiency of every software.
Will you give your tackle a single in-depth article or podcast episode? Nigel Brown did with the LinkedIn submit talked about earlier on this article.
Will you curate content material your model or a sister model already printed?
Advertising and marketing Brew’s e-newsletter contains content material from elsewhere within the Morning Brew media world. On this Could 13 e-newsletter, it gave its spin on an article about Taylor Swift’s impression on a $60 clothes merchandise initially printed by Retail Brew.
Will you create a e-newsletter with a roundup of attention-grabbing or information content material?
The Day by day Skimm curates leisure, information, and extra in its e-newsletter. On this edition, it curates a quote from Ryan Reynolds about Taylor Swift naming his kids. Then, it digests the information matter of the day (Michael Cohen’s testimony within the Trump trial). Within the first two paragraphs, it connects to content material from AP Information, Axios, Politico, and CNBC.
You additionally might curate extra long-form content material, corresponding to an e-book combining content material out of your model and third events on the identical matter. The probabilities are huge.
As soon as you already know what the content material will appear to be, you possibly can higher perceive how a lot or little must be curated. For instance, a weekly curated weblog article of 1,500 phrases may require a number of sources and extra time to create than a four-minute podcast phase (about 600 phrases) discussing a single curated supply.
Additionally, determine how ceaselessly the curated tactic will probably be distributed and set expectations on the timeliness of the integrated items. In case you write an business e-newsletter or do a sizzling matter phase in your podcast, you’ll must curate extra well timed items than for those who curate an in-depth e-book in regards to the matter.
Now, you possibly can create a content material curation calendar and listing the full variety of curated gadgets wanted and the way ceaselessly you’ll want it. It’s OK to make use of a spread for the amount, however don’t sway from the frequency.
Seek for content material
Now that you already know the subject, you’re able to arrange the curation course of.
Ranging from scratch every time or hoping you’ll encounter some content material to curate isn’t a technique and can lead you to finish the technique shortly as a result of it’s too time-consuming. You must set up a system that may simply scale. Begin by documenting every little thing on a spreadsheet or different monitoring system
Use search engine marketing technique
Pull the key phrases out of your search engine marketing technique. Given it’s seemingly a prolonged listing, you’ll want to check and refine it. Choose 5 to 10 phrases which are extra prone to constantly ship good content material for curation. In the event that they don’t show fruitful, swap them out for different key phrases.
You need the curated content material to really feel contemporary. Relying in your matter, that could possibly be content material from the final week, month, or 12 months. It hardly ever means content material from two, 5, or 10 years in the past. In Google searches, after you seek for your key phrases, click on the “information” tab on the prime of the search outcomes web page. It’s going to show newer newsier gadgets.
TIP: Arrange a Google Alert in your main focused phrases.
You can also observe an identical search course of on YouTube to uncover related movies.
Make bookmarks your buddy
While you discover web sites or different content material sources that would present a gentle stream of articles worthy of curation, bookmark them and add them to your tracker. Generally, they could have related content material that isn’t rating effectively but. In case you don’t go on to their URL, you’ll by no means discover that content material.
Don’t neglect to make use of the search options on these go-to domains to find content material that is probably not exhibiting up on their entrance web page anymore.
Join and observe
Subscribe to newsletters, podcasts, and movies that cowl your matters. They’ll provide a plethora of sources that you possibly can use or put you on a brand new path for additional analysis.
TIP: Arrange a separate e mail deal with for the subscriptions to keep away from an overflowing inbox.
I like newsletters as a result of I can shortly learn the content material and lower and paste it into my notes. However audio can work, too. In these instances, I take advantage of a free software, like YouTubeTranscript, to get textual content so I can do it extra simply.
Enterprise into social media, too. These platforms might be useful in a few methods – discovering individuals and hashtags related to your matters. Observe these go-to sources who share hyperlinks and breaking information in your matter. Monitor essentially the most related hashtags to see what content material surfaces.
Use a software
Generative AI may give you an help, too. Enter prompts that use your key matters or questions right into a software like Gemini or one other that gives real-time data. Ask for the unique sources and confirm these sources embody the content material.
Though I haven’t used paid instruments shortly, many can be found to expedite the curation course of:
- Curata permits for creation, curation, group, annotation, and sharing content material.
- Feedly makes use of RSS feeds to trace designated matters and tendencies.
- Scoop.it lets companies create hubs to create, curate, share and use content material elsewhere.
- TagBoard works for hashtag curation on social media.
- Huzzaz operates as a video curation platform.
1 extra thought
In case you curate content material on extra mental or researched matters, use instruments like Google Scholar to search out educational articles.
Give credit score (it’s due)
As you go about curating content material, make certain to trace the sources. Giving the unique sources correct credit score is a should if you wish to keep away from plagiarism (and even the notion of plagiarism.) In your content material, observe the unique supply by title in your content material and hyperlink to the curated article, podcast, or video every time attainable.
Inform a curated story
Third-party content material can show a worthwhile useful resource to broaden your content material technique and ship extra in your viewers with fewer sources. However the content material solely serves because the constructing blocks. You, like a museum curator, nonetheless should work out methods to design it cohesively to craft a narrative that your model needs to inform and your viewers needs to devour.
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