Creating meaningful content consistently can be challenging for most marketers. However, in today's competitive digital marketing space, it is a necessity.
Content is the king and everyone is looking to maintain a stream of engaging and authentic content to keep their audiences glued to their brand. It also means that people are focusing on creating new and more content.
Along with new content, a major challenge most marketers face is to stand out and maximize your connection with elements that are trying to grab your audience's attention.
To achieve this, you must make sure to include content curation as a part of your content marketing strategy. Content curation will help you showcase your expertise, build your brand relevance and reduce your efforts.
Here, we have shared a few tips to improve your content curation efforts.
1. Share the Right Content
The first question that probably comes to your mind is what content you should pick so that you can share.
Before you figure that, you need to find out if the content you want to share is useful to you in the first place. You need to understand why people follow you.
The answer is simple. People follow you because of what you do and what your brand has to offer them. If the information you provide them or the things you say adds value to their lives they will follow you. So, if you do not find the content useful, there are chances your audience will not like it either.
Simply put, you will have to read the articles and watch the videos before you share it with your followers.
How to find the right type of content to share?
Google search: If you have any topic in mind, you can do a quick Google search and obtain results within a few seconds. You can then quickly start reading some of the content. Also, you can find out about quality content and outreach.
Take advantage of your existing resource: If you have been constantly creating quality content right from the start then it is high time you leverage it and use it to your advantage.
Twitter: Hashtags are trending and all you need to do is to check if there are any relevant hashtags. You may also search for trending news headlines and check your existing Twitter feed.
Follow big News names: Major news outlets know what exactly works with the audience and you should try and use the current headlines to stay ahead of the competition.
Leverage BuzzSumo: You can run a quick search on BuzzSumo to discover trending content based on certain keywords. It also helps you assess if you are sharing the correct type of content.
Try to share only the best content. Avoid any controversial topic that can easily hurt your brand and image. Recently, Levi’s Jeans launched an ad campaign that did not well with most people. It created an uproar on social media and received backlash. So, if you had to share such content, you would have faced similar backlash as well.
2. Include your own Opinion
Not just sharing content with your audience is important but adding some of your opinion matters too.
What you can do?
Summarise: You can summarise a long article which will not only help people understand it better but also establish you as an expert. You can even highlight a few key takeaway sentences if you don’t have the time to summarise.
Ask a question: Asking a question is a great way to drive engagement. For instance, you can use attention-grabbing headlines and an eye-catchy question that can attract much more engagement than just a regular tweet.
Share a compelling quote from the content: You can share a compelling quote or sentence alongside the content you want to share. It is a great way to drive engagement.
3. Leverage Social Media
Be social. Social media marketing is all over the internet and so are your audience. You will have to tap social media in the right way if you want to be ahead of your competitors.
While sharing content on social media make sure to tag the original creator in your post. That way they will be aware that you are sharing their content. You may also send a personalized note letting them know that you are sharing their content.
Although there is no need to get permission to share someone else's content, reaching out to the original creator is a great way to get noticed. It can open doors for different opportunities such as co-branded content and editorial collaborations. This will also help you tap new audiences.
If you are willing to go the extra mile, results will pay off in the long run.
4. Publish your Content
After curating content, the next important step is to publish the content at times such that it will be noticed by people. Have a look at some of the platforms you can publish your content.
Instagram: This is the most popular platform used by people aged between 18 and 30. It is a highly visual app and runs much later than other social media with peak times after 9 p.m. If you choose to publish on Instagram, make sure to do so after 9 p.m
Twitter: Twitter is mostly used by educated and professional people as a source of news. Workdays see the highest level of engagement on Twitter. The best time to post for your business is between 12 p.m to 1 p.m. You may schedule the posts just before lunch. Avoid posting on weekends.
Facebook: For maximum impact on Facebook, post when users are most likely to check especially during downtime at work. Schedule your posts between 1 p.m and 4 p.m. However, make sure to use attractive visual media and keep things catchy. Weekends see the highest level of engagement on Facebook.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional social network site used by entrepreneurs, salespeople, recruiters, etc., and often used during work hours. For the highest visibility and engagement, post during the weekdays instead of after work hours and weekends.
Summing up
You can foster goodwill with your contemporaries by sharing their content on social media. It will not just help boost engagement with your followers but also increase your followers and widen the audience base.
The true key, however, lies in what you share, how you share and at what time you share. Once you have understood this, you can expect a boost in your brand awareness and engagement. It may also enable people to share your content more frequently and more importantly- stay ahead of your competition.