How to generate a large amount of high-quality content if unique resources do not always have enough resources? Use ready-made. Do you think I suggest plagiarism or copy-paste? There is no need for this, because there is an absolutely legal method – curation of content. Do you want to properly manage ready-made publications to increase your expertise? Then let’s get together what curation is and what role it plays in content marketing.

What is content curation?


Quotes, subject collections, article digests – if you have ever published something like this on your blog or social networks, feel free to call yourself overlord curator of content. Wikipedia gives this concept the following definition: Content curation is the collection, systematization, and republishing of information that is relevant to a particular topic or field.

In other words, to oversee is to find relevant content and share it with the audience. Hootsuite in its blog develops the idea that curation does not require the creation of unique materials. But I think this approach is fundamentally wrong. I will explain why.

You can’t just host someone’s content. Copying information without indicating the source infringes copyrights, lowers the site’s result in search results and undermines your confidence.

And if you publish third-party material with a link to the source? Yes, you will share an interesting publication with users, but they are unlikely to become more loyal specifically to you. Because they will not see the unique “I” of the company.

For curated content to work, add an author’s interpretation. Such an “arrangement” requires effort, albeit not the same as creating material from scratch. That’s why I think curation is impossible without my own content.

Imagine that you have found an article on the Internet that will be interesting to readers of your blog. If you place it without indicating the source, you simply steal it. If you duplicate and indicate the source, act according to the law, but lose it in the eyes of the reader, because they have not brought anything new to the publication. How to proceed?

The best option is to adapt the material. For example, the article How to choose the day and time of sending letters to increase openness was written on the basis of a publication from the English-language blog Kajabi. But I did not just publish the finished material – I translated it, adapted it to our realities and supplemented it with examples that were clear to readers. This is the curation of content

5 stages of content curation


Stage 1. Decide what you need.
Like any other, curated content should meet the needs of the audience and harmoniously fit into the content marketing strategy. Choose the subject and format depending on the goals and objectives. Study the audience to be as useful as possible.

For example, we know that readers of Genius Marketing are interested in practical materials about online business. This is the basis of our content policy, including curation – we quote the advice of well-known entrepreneurs, make selection of tools and analyze services for promotion.

Step 2. Find the right materials.
According to Buffer SMM-service, 95% of curation is a search and selection of content. And only the remaining 5% is publication and analysis. If you position yourself as an expert, it’s not enough to share passing articles on the topic. Your task is to offer the best to the audience. Keep 3 tips on how to do this.

1) Supervise the curators

Do not reinvent the wheel. To get started, refer to sources that themselves share useful materials on your topic. Read blogs, browse news sites, subscribe to the newsletter of useful digests or set up an RSS feed.

Another source of content may be Telegram. Today, almost every niche has an authoritative channel where the author oversees interesting materials from the Internet. For example, the Telegram channel “About Business” is a selection of the latest news, interviews and articles about entrepreneurship.

Telegram channel about business: a selection of news

2) Use the services

You can also use special tools that help supervise materials on your subject. Learn about updates of interesting resources with Feedly, save useful links in Pocket, select the most popular content in BuzzSumo.

I often use BuzzSumo to understand what is interesting to the audience right now. This English-language tool searches for the most popular materials by keywords and analyzes where they are most often shared. For example, this is what top sales funnel posts look like for “sales funnel”:

3) Follow people

First of all, you will find interesting and relevant materials from opinion leaders. It is also worth watching for competitors and people who simply work in your field.

Even customers can become a source of content if they leave a review about you (preferably a good one), which you then publish on your site. To do this, follow the company’s references on the network and monitor the use of branded hashtags.

For example, during the Online Business Lab, participants generated a bunch of content every day: photos, impressions, interesting stories. It only remained to track publications on the hashtag # LOB2017.

Using trial and error (better without errors, of course) make a list of 25 sources and regularly monitor them. But before adding any publication to the content plan, ask yourself 3 questions:

Is this source reliable? Even if you really want to share the news first with subscribers, you should not publish unverified data – this can undermine your confidence.
Will this be helpful to readers? Curated content is an expression of the best on the topic, so post only what is of interest and value to the audience and solves its problems.
Is this material quality? For example, if you want to supervise an article, check: is it written clearly, is there text formatting, examples, high-quality pictures and videos.
Remember that the curator is responsible for all publications. When you share useless, untested and in addition poorly made material, you lose the loyalty of readers. Therefore, you need to search and select materials with the same attention and responsibility with which you would create content from scratch.

Stage 3. Pack the content


As I already said, the peculiarity of curated content is to add additional value to an already published publication – an author’s comment, annotation, conclusion, etc.

For example, if you make a selection of services – explain why you should choose each of them, and not just throw links to the reader. If you share a client’s story, tell us in detail how you managed to solve his problem. Make sure that you are not just sharing content, but also promoting your business.

Read more about curation methods in the next block.

Stage 4. Share content with the audience


Use all available channels for publishing curated content:

  • a blog
  • social network;
  • email newsletter.
  • Share materials on all fronts at once or analyze which channel will be more effective for each format. For example, send digests by email, review useful tools on your blog, and share movie selections, quotes, etc. on social media.

Stick to 2 rules:

Post curated content regularly. Then readers will get used to what you should look for comprehensive information on the topic.
Follow the design. Take care to read your content conveniently: use illustrations and clear formatting.


Step 5. Analyze publications


Curation is a unique part of content marketing strategy; third party publications that work for your promotion. But this is good in theory, but in practice you need to confirm the benefits of curated content for your business.

To do this, use all available analytics tools and check how your audience reacts to other people’s materials. So you determine which publications are popular, and you can adjust your content plan. For example, to prepare more materials on the topic or more often use the format that readers liked.