Content Curation Do’s and Dont’s!

Laura Ginn

If you are in business to business marketing then you should by now understand the importance of content for your business. Sharing content can be great for business, and it’s also true that it doesn’t always have to be your own content. If you can find information on the net that is relevant, interesting and fresh, then there’s every chance that sharing this content within your social media loop will benefit you. This is called curation, and it’s very important in content marketing right now. Let’s face it; the internet is awash with content, so rehashing something old is probably a fairly futile process. Besides, if someone has created great content already, why not share it with people who care? Unfortunately, there’s good curation and bad curation, and making mistakes will hurt your business. Here are a few things to avoid when curating for your audience.

Failing to Research Chosen Content

If you are going to share someone else’s content with your readership, don’t you think it’s important to read it and understand it first? You have to be a filter for your followers, so make sure the content you share is worthy. Finding a good and relevant title or headline is not the same as finding a good article, and often, a good headline will be followed by a poor, or less than relevant article. Ensure good content gets through by reading and evaluating everything.

Don’t Just Go After Popular Stories

It’s so easy to mine Google News, or Twitter to find content that is clearly trending. Yes, you are going to be posting important articles that people obviously want to read, but there’s a negative to this process too. If the article or content is popular, how do you know whether or not your readership has already come across it? Unless you are totally up to date and it’s incredibly fresh, you could end up looking foolish or behind the times. Instead, work hard to find interesting articles that are semi popular, but haven’t really been discovered by the masses – yet.

Curating the Same Content on Each Social Site

There’s nothing wrong with having a strong link between social media sites, but curating a single piece of content simultaneously on Facebook and Twitter is not going to help you. Yes, it’s quick and easy to do, but if you are knocking out exactly the same content on each site, then what’s the value of following you on both. Mix things up, post certain content you think will appeal more to your Twitter followers or vice versa – this way you give yourself a chance to grow these sites, rather than to diminish them. You should personalise for your individual audiences on each site.

Target Your Social Audience

When you find posts, you have to consider the impact. What is this article going to achieve? Will it engage? Will it provide a call to action? Will it be appropriate for my followers? You always have to have your audience in mind, and you also have to consider the impact the article will have. Of course, if all of your buyers are different, then it is a difficult job, but this all starts with a great understanding of your followers.

Spending Too Much Time on Curation

For most companies, the idea behind curation is to save time. Writing a fresh piece of content is time consuming and can be expensive, while sharing someone else’s work should not be. However, if you put the right amount of time into researching posts, considering their merits, finding different articles for different social media accounts and assessing their value for each individual account you have, you might find that you are spending as much time during the curation process as you are during the creative process for writing content. Get the balance right, and if it’s a real push, engage a professional company to help you.

Here at Ink Elves, we specialise in content creation, and we’re always ready to discuss your curation needs for your individual business. Get in touch today to find out how we can help.