Content is like an engine. Not just any engine, I mean the jet propelling, rocket-fuelled type. Not only does content drive prospective customers to your website, it’s also an opportunity to establish your voice as a knowledgeable professional in your industry. But, as more and more content is produced (there are 42.6 million new WordPress blogs published every month*) curation is quickly becoming as significant as creation.
We’re all on a mission to find and produce high-quality content to share with our followers. A mix of content creation and curation is a winning combination for all marketing teams. But before we delve into why, let’s look at the difference between the two:
Creation
Creating new content should provide your followers with a fresh insight. Your ideas may be new to the industry or you may be building on a current trend, nut it’s all produced by your business.
While you can assure that what you produce is quality, it is very difficult to create content that breathes originality. The biggest challenge is making content stand out from the noise. Brand personality is key and it should definitely shine through your content! Finding the right voice, tone and energy is essential if you want to be memorable (and most importantly, likable!).
There’s a lot of expectation that comes with content creation. Everyone wants to know that their work is valuable to their online community. No-one wants their content to disappear into the online abyss! But, while creating your own content comes with a unique set of challenges, it is also a way to establish authority within your online community. By sharing your expertise and showing a genuine interest in resolving key issues, you begin to solidify the brand image.
But this eagerness to create content, can often lead to businesses flooding the internet with more in order to be seen. Here’s where curation comes in…
Curation
Curation is the sorting through and presenting content that you’ve found. The process can be a long one and often includes a lot of sifting, reading, arranging and using tools to publish the content in a format that’s easy for followers to digest.
Curation is the act of discovery. You’re searching for those hidden gems on the internet and presenting the ‘best of’ to your audience. Why is this valuable? Because, you’re doing the hard work for them. You search. They’re presented with amazing content that’s relevant and actionable. Curation isn’t necessarily easier than creation. Even though you already have something to work with, 800 words of dribble is no better than a blank page! You still have to be mindful and choose quality, well-researched content.
Curation can also be valuable to your business as it can be used to:
- Update wold blogs with new material that, you yourself have found valuable.
- Get inspiration for a new blog topic/title.
- Give credit to other content creators and build a relationship with them
Now that we’ve established the difference between the two, here’s what you can gain from marrying creation and curation.
4 Reasons To Combine Curation & Creation
- More time = more quality
Curation is your chance to supply your followers with a stream of content whilst you’re still in the process of producing your own. There’s less pressure to constantly create your own content to fill a void. You eliminate the risk of hitting the publish button too soon and praying that people will find it valuable. More time just means more quality content.
- Offer More Variety
From blogs to videos, podcasts and even event announcements, when there’s variety you can constantly feed your followers with different forms of knowledge so that it doesn’t become boring or repetitive.
- Build Relationships with The Right People
By sharing other people’s content, you’re also building genuine and lasting relationships with them. This also allows you to expand your professional network by connecting with other professionals and industry leaders. This may even open the doors to numerous collaborations.
- Strengthen Your Brands Authority
Creating your own content can be the beginning of your journey as a thought leader. Authority, rankings and traffic are all relative to the level of trust you’ve built with your audience. And, being considered as reliable is also crucial if you want to keep your current followers and gain new ones.
Tool Time
As I mentioned before, curation requires just as much effort as creation. So, here are a few tools to help you along the way:
Scoop.it – collects content that is relevant to key terms and phrases. You can then select pieces to publish (or scoop) across your social media channels.
Paper.li – turning socially generated content into well presented, and easy to navigate, newsletters. This takes away the task of manually searching for content and is delivered to you daily or weekly.
Conversational forms – create interactive forms on your site to turn your traffic into leads
Listly – create lists of content and share the link to your collection. Lists can also be embedded onto websites.
What benefits have you seen from combining content curation and creation? Have any other suggestions? Leave a comment!
*Statistics from: The Internet in Real-Time
