Content curation may just be the most misunderstood piece of the social media puzzle.
Not to mention the most underestimated skill set, especially for building products.
It's a special skill to provide content that draws and keeps a crowd. In the old days, some six or seven years ago, we called these people "editors."
The best editors could quickly sort through volumes of junk to present the most interesting and relevant content that would engage their audience and keep them subscribing or tuning in for more. Brands paid for that skill with advertising and sponsorships, because good editors attracted a critical mass of their best prospects.
Now brands can attract their own prospects, but many fall way short, because they continue to think like marketers, not editors. Too many marketers remain focused on what they want to say, vs. what their prospects want to hear. "Curation saves your community time!" noted a participant in last night's #atomicchat on Twitter. Led by @JamesHicks of Hicks New Media, last night's chat provided tips on how content curation can build a better community:
1. Stop, look and listen. What does your target audience discuss? What gets them fired up?
RT @LindsayFultz: @mnashevents If you enlist and empower community, you're never alone:)
@jameshicks: By linking to and collaborating with thought leaders in your industry page views, mentions and leads will come.
2. Smart curating demonstrates your value to customer prospects.
@Versalytics: Curating helps - indicates market awareness, opportunities, short falls.
@jameshicks By providing quality content from other trusted sources you build on your relevancy and build on the sense of community
3. Stimulate different senses with different types of content.
@jameshicks: Think different content types - text, audio and video content - to increase amplification
4. Develop an editorial calendar, but be ready to jump on "breaking" news, if the community is buzzing about something.
@jameshicks My content creation is most successful when I schedule time for it.
@jameshicks: breaking news and also the ability to analyze the news
5. Curating is different from stealing.
@jameshicks: First and foremost always provide proper attribution back to the originating source
6. Curation attracts the right prospects through organic search.
@Shelby_Thev Content marketing and SEO go hand in hand.
7. Expect to invest time in curation.
@Modenus: 'Free for all' is easier and faster but curated is long lived substance.
8. Make the most of your curation investment with tools.
@LindsayFultz: Curation tools to check out that help SEO: @atomic_reach, @listly, @ranker & @markerly.
9. Also make the most of your curation investment by sharing the content on multiple platforms.
@Atomic_Reach: Round up top articles and use curation in newsletters, all social networks, blog posts, etc.
10. Recognize that curation IS marketing. It's just different, requiring a different skill set.
@LindsayFultz: Brand advocates - most trusted WOM and for most part, only cost time (listen, engage, promote, empower)
#AtomicChat occurs on Twitter every Monday at 9 pm ET, led by Atomic Reach, a curation platform that helps brands and bloggers.
.png)
