As an ever greater number of businesses and brands turn to content marketing to promote themselves, the difficulty of standing out from the competition has increased exponentially. Outstanding content can help to attract new customers for a plethora of reasons.
Chief among these is the fact that it allows a company to demonstrate authority, which enhances customer trust and ultimately results in conversions. Content marketing needn’t be a zero-sum game. By promoting other brands’ content, one can bolster their own and become a thought leader that people respect.
Content Curation Defined
Even though many people are at least casually familiar with the term content curation, most lack a basic understanding of what it is and how it works. Broadly speaking, a curator selects a coherent array of quality content out of the massive daily flow of information on the Internet to display to their readership.
Much like a museum curator deciding on which artifacts to display in a certain collection, a content curator arranges articles, infographics and more that revolve around a central theme.
Why It Helps Your Own Content
Many are of the opinion that steering traffic towards other sites is a bad idea. After all, search engine algorithms can actually punish sites with too many outgoing links and it’s usually best to keep visitors on your own site if possible.
However, you can leverage the content of others to enhance your own by giving your followers what they’re looking for most. By doing so, you build a reputation for helping out readers no matter what. Hopefully, those that you’ve helped will help you by consuming your content and eventually patronizing your business.
Establishing Niche Authority
The primary goal of curation is to position yourself as a taste maker and thought leader capable of influencing the masses. Social media platforms like Google+, Facebook and Twitter give ordinary folk the ability to dominate conversations by doing nothing more than promoting interesting content.
You can easily do the same and boost your brand’s notoriety on the web. By establishing your web profiles as the go-to spots for the latest news in your industry, you can create a rabid digital following that’s bound to skyrocket sales.
Getting Down to Business
Climbing to the top of the pile in your specific niche using content curation isn’t tough if you’re proactive and publish prolifically. Long story short, find the best content you can in your niche no matter what form it takes and put it in front of your audience.
The easiest way to do this is by using social networks like Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook to broadcast to your following. Social networks allow you to segment your audience based on their interests and more accurately target them. In addition, social media enables you to rack up massive followings in a short period of time (if executed properly).
Turning Theory Into Reality
While content curation can produce impressive returns, crafting a winning strategy is more easily said than done. To get the most from content curation, you’ll have to make it more or less a full-time job.
Those that aren’t willing to devote a substantial portion of their own time to it should hire someone that knows the ins and outs of curation mechanics to oversee their campaigns. If you curate content intelligently, you’ll ensure that your own content and more importantly your brand get the recognition they deserve.
