How to Use Data in Content Curation

Are you making the most of all marketing channels available to help your brand stand out? Are you looking for your products to become the next big thing? You can use content curation to take control of social media and increase traffic to your website. This sounds intriguing? Keep reading to find out how you could do it.

1. What is Content Curation?

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “curation” as “the selection and maintenance of objects that are to be displayed in a museum, or part of an art collection, exhibition, or other venue.” Content curation, in this sense, is the act or planning, gathering, organizing, and sharing relevant content on social media.

You find great pieces by other authors and add your brand to them. Then, share them with your followers. You can take advantage of the high-quality content while still promoting your products and services.

2. What can content curation do for you?

It sounds great to share other people’s work, but is it beneficial for your business? Yes. Content curation, if done properly, can greatly benefit you.

• You can build a strong relationship between your brand, your customers, and increase your online community.
• You can improve your SEO by being a trustworthy source of information search engines love.
• It can be combined with powerful email marketing software to help you stand out among your competitors, increase your reach and uncover new markets.
• Establish mutually beneficial relationships and collaborations with influential content creators.
• Your products will be more attractive to potential customers if you highlight them in a non-invasive manner.
• We help you to identify the latest trends, and create engaging and original content for your site.

Who wouldn’t want all these things for their business. If done correctly, content curation can be a powerful tool in your arsenal.

3. How to Curate Content Successfully

It is easy to use data for content curation. These six steps are easy to follow.

1. Deciding When to Curate and When To Create Original Content

Find the sweet spot between both to reap the greatest benefits. You can get more clicks if you link to original content. However, posts linked to third-party content (or external sources) often get more clicks. To maximize your results, you should work with both. Optimize your content creation and create quality blog posts while aggregating data from third parties.

The ratio between created and curated content should range from 25/75 to 40%. The ratio of created to curated content can vary from one business to another, so it is important to experiment with the right ratio for you.

2. Collect information about your audience and the most popular topics

If you publish unrelated, spammy or outdated content, it will be a big problem. Before you can decide what content to publish, it is important to understand your audience’s needs and wants. There are two options for doing this:

• Examine your metrics An easy way to get a better idea of the public’s expectations is to examine your social media metrics. Examine the reactions of viewers to videos and images. Compare clicks and impressions to see the engagement rates of different publications.
• Conduct detailed keyword research. It is essential to understand how potential viewers search for information. This will reveal the search intent of your potential viewers and give you an advantage. Look up the keywords and phrases they use to search for data via social media. Write the headlines and strongest points of your posts using similar words and natural languages. Answer the questions your viewers are asking. Your publications will have a wider reach if they are more relevant and engaging.
• 
  Research your audience’s behavior
  
  – Create an audience profile. It will make it easy to choose the best content to share. Consider:
  • Your viewers’ preferred platforms
  • They are most active when they are
  • What is your audience’s age range?
  • What languages and where is your audience located?
  • What are the most important topics for this particular demographic? (What is the intent of the user?) );

Once you have a clear understanding of what you should do, it’s time to start collecting data.

3. Find quality content to curate

Social media is a great place to find user-generated content (UGC). Look through your favourite platforms to find relevant posts. Finding quality content such as research, stats, and studies is the hard part. Scoop.it is a great platform to help you find them. You can navigate the data using different hashtags, as it has been pre-filtered and categorized.

4. Select the right platform

There are many platforms that you can choose from, depending on what your business goals are and what message you want to relay to your target audience.

If you’re a tourist agency, for example, you can share images of travel or inspirational and artistic collages on Instagram. Posting detailed research and statistics on Linkedin can help HR agencies and consulting firms have greater success. You shouldn’t limit your options and only use one channel. Spread your reach across multiple platforms instead.

5. Preparing Your Posts for Publication

You won’t get anywhere if you copy and paste. Your posts must be compatible with the platform and audience you are targeting if you want to succeed with your social media campaigns. Select your content carefully, include lots of hashtags and create a catchy headline. You can include branded videos if you take your time editing the software. You want to increase your audience and traffic to your website. You will receive a lot more reshares and likes if you share UGC.

6. Publish the results and analyze them

Wait for the results by pressing “Publish”. Examine the results and identify any weak spots. Pay attention to the clicks, impressions and engagement rates. Your publishing strategy should be adjusted accordingly. If you don’t succeed the first time, don’t give up. Learn from your mistakes, and make another attempt.

4. Best practices in content curation

There are some unspoken rules that must be observed when it comes to content curation.

• Quality over quantity – Select quality pieces with a high value. Consider your audience’s needs, and then try to meet them. It is important to entertain and be useful, not just to post random stuff you find online.
• Share frequently – You can post to social media up to three-four times per week if you find useful and engaging materials that will benefit your audience and your business. Your goal with content curation is to keep your audience “on the edge”, eagerly awaiting the next great thing.
• Use content curation tools to plan your work. Content curation can be time-consuming. Stick to your monthly plan. Buzzsumo and platforms such as Scoop.it, Curata and Feedly can help you find interesting material to share. These tools will allow you to find relevant content that you can share with your audience, without spending too much time researching.
• Make a compelling headline – It is all about the first impression. You must make your headline appealing enough to get people to click on it. Consider Buzzfeed with its bizarre, memorable headlines.
• Remember the original creators. Always credit the authors of the content that you are utilizing. It is important to only use ethically sourced data. This rule is important because it can lead to lawsuits and copyright strikes. You should include a link back to the original article. Make sure you only copy a portion of the source material. You should choose credible, well-respected authors with a strong reputation.

Now that you have a good idea of what to do, it is time to begin curating. Expect slow results. Every good thing takes time. You won’t be disappointed once you create friction and have the upper hand in the entire process.

Scoop.it Blog published the article How to Use Data to Curate Content.