As a content marketer, not only do you have to write good content and promote it, but you also have to curate content from other channels. Curating content allows you to be consistent with your posting and have constant audience engagement. Good content from trusted sources will also show your audience that you’re knowledgeable about your field. However, as most content marketers know, finding good content can be a tedious and often frustrating task. Here are 6 ways you can find great content without losing your cool:
- Content Curation Tools
Conten curation tools are a content marketers best friend, these tools make content discovery simple and save you tons of time. There are innumerable content discovery and curation tools, that sort through hundreds of online sources to find the best suited content for you. They provide fresh content on a daily basis. Here are 3 such tools:
- DrumUp: DrumUp is the perfect tool for content marketers, it provides relevant content on a daily basis and lets you share it on multiple social media accounts. The web app also lets you schedule posts so you never miss posting deadlines. It also has a Chrome extension and mobile app to aid with content discovery.
- Pocket: Pocket lets you save articles, images and videos while browsing, so you can collect all your information in one place. You can organize saved content into categories. From the dashboard of the web app, you can share content on social media. It also syncs your data across devices, making it easier to access.
- Scoop.it: On Scoop.it you can get suggestions by entering topics. Scoop.it suggests relevant content and you can share content, from that topic to your social media accounts with a click of a button. You can also add your own thoughts before sharing.
- Social Media
The best place to find content for social media is social media itself. There are numerous ways through which you can discover good content by using social media platforms:
- Twitter Lists: Twitter lists allow you organize your twitter stream into lists based on specific topics. You can add whoever you want into your lists and replies and retweets aren’t shown in the lists either. This is great for discovering content straight from the source. You can also observe what it popular among your list members.
- Groups and Communities: Most major social media platforms like Facebook, Google+ , LinkedIn and Reddit have groups or communities that you can join. In these groups, everyone can share advice, ask questions or post content. For content marketers, groups will help you find relevant content while also allowing you to observe the overall sentiment around a certain post/topic. This will help you understand your audience better and make engagement easier.
- Trending Topics: Like Groups, most social media platforms also list out trending topics/stories from areas near you or worldwide, based on your preferences. Content revolving around trending topics help you stay relevant and are a great source for getting new ideas.
- Newsletters and News Aggregators
Newsletters and News Aggregators provide you with great sharing material, pertaining to your industry. They deliver relevant content, gathered from trusted sources, straight to your inbox on a daily basis. News aggregators like SmartBrief also let you view news from different industries in a single place. This is great for both curation and generating original ideas. If you use a news aggregator then you can also share directly from your dashboard without any hassle. Some of these tools also organize the content you receive into categories, so sharing and exploring becomes easier.
- Influencers
Influencers in your community could be a vital tool for content curation. They generally represent the norms in your industry. They are also more experienced and tend to have valuable advice. This will not only help you understand your industry and target audience better, it’s also great for finding and sharing content. Consequently, you become a trusted source of information for your audience. Content marketing also becomes a lot easier as you can mention influencers while sharing their posts, to gain a wider audience.
- Engaging with your Audience
By talking to your audience on a regular basis, you learn what kind of content works best for you/your brand and image. You can gauge the way your audience relates to you and also find out the most popular topic/content amongst them. Talking to your audience, also makes you seem more human to them and they’re more likely to revert back with comments and suggestions. Listen to your audience and curate content to suit their needs.
While curating content, remember to stay relevant and not deviate from your niche too much. Do not post content that you are too sensitive about as your audience may or may not have the same view. As most experienced content marketers know, consistency is key to success. Be consistent and persistent with your posting, and you will get noticed. If you have too much on your hands, you could always hire external content marketing services, to help you out.