Content curation is the act of finding and sharing excellent, relevant content to your online followers.

With content curation, companies deliver a wide variety of content to their customers, keeping them engaged with well-organized and meaningful material.

In today’s fast-paced and competitive marketplace, content curation is growing increasingly popular as a way of keeping up with growing demands for information and entertainment from customers.

Content curation vs. content creation

Content curation is often a component of a content marketing strategy, but the two concepts aren’t the same. Content creation involves designing and promoting your material from scratch. The pieces you produce may be videos, blogs, podcasts or something else entirely.

Content curation entails searching for relevant content from other sources and brands rather than developing your own original content.

As social media algorithms continue to reward brands that generate the most engagement, content curation provides a faster way to offer followers the constant value they need to feel engaged.

Benefits of content curation

Content curation is primarily a way to support your marketing team.

Coming up with original content to share on social media every day requires endless inspiration and time. If you’re active on multiple social platforms, the pressure to provide regular content may mean that the quality of your posts starts to suffer. Content curation maintains consistency for your brand. Other benefits include:

  • Efficient and cost-effective brand building. Curating content costs less than creating it.
  • Thought leadership potential: The right content demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of your industry, increasing your credibility as a leader.
  • Maintain conversations with your audience: The more content you share, the easier it is to keep your customers engaged.
  • Unlock networking opportunities: Sharing other people’s content helps you to build relationships with those people. Curation is a great way to connect with influencers and future partners.
  • Show your selflessness: Curation demonstrates to your audience that you’re not just interested in talking about yourself.

Best practices for content curation

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all set of rules for what kind of content you should curate, or how often you should share other people’s material. However, Curata conducted some research into the top content marketers today and found that they generally product 65% original content, 25% curated content and 10% syndicated content.

To find the right balance for your business, use a tool like Sprout Social to determine how often people engage with your curated and original material. Other ways to enhance your content curation strategy include:

  • Using a variety of content types: Share blogs, infographics, eBooks, articles, images and videos.
  • Explore numerous sources and platforms: Don’t just share from one website, explore countless sources to find the right information.
  • Add your voice: Talk about what you share and give your opinion to help your personality shine through.
  • Use the right tools: Solutions like Sprout Social help you organize your curated content, so it’s easier for team members to share the correct posts online.
  • Track your performance: Make sure you’re sharing the right information by tracking the engagement levels of each post.
  • Empower your employees: Remember to give your staff members a voice with curated content by sending material to an advocacy tool like Bambu.