Are you struggling to keep up with creating fresh content for your B2B business’s social media channels? As a business owner, maintaining an online presence for your company is vital but it’s incredibly time-consuming.
That’s where social media content curation comes in. But what is content curation?
- How can it benefit your B2B business?
- How can it save you time?
- And how can it enhance your social media marketing strategy?
In this article, we’ll explore what it is, how to curate content, best practices, benefits, and more about content curation to boost your business’s presence and connect with your audience effectively.
What Is Content Curation?
Content curation is the process of deciding what content to post on your social media channels and from which sources.
It involves searching, finding, collecting information, organising, and presenting the content to your audience.
Instead of spending hours creating unique content for each social network post, you can build your reputation as a thought-leader by sharing valuable content created by other people, such as blogs, infographics, and news articles.
When you curate content, explore trusted sources that write about topics that are relevant to your clients.
As a B2B business owner, you are responsible for finding and sharing the best content with your audience.
Avoid sharing content from unreliable sources that do not fit your target audience’s needs.
Here’s an example of a curated social media post that shares relevant industry news:
By sharing third-party content, you can keep your audience informed and up-to-date.
Why Businesses Need to do Content Curation
Publishing curated content is essential for achieving B2B business objectives. To succeed, you need a strategy to guide you from conception to publication.
A content curation strategy should answer the following questions:
- Who is your target audience? It helps you select content.
- What type of content will they find helpful or interesting? Choose content that provides value.
- Where will you find this content? Source high-quality content from reliable places.
- How often will you share it? Design a consistent sharing schedule.
The Benefits of Content Curation on Social Media
Content curation is an essential element of a content marketing approach for B2B companies that struggle to produce frequent posts on their own.
There are several important reasons why content curation is valuable, and businesses can gain numerous benefits from curating content on social media. Let’s explore some of these benefits:
Delivers a Better Experience to Clients
Social media is about attracting followers and converting them into loyal clients.
Content curation saves you and your users time by offering unique content from one centralised source.
Instead of users searching the web or seeking relevant answers, you can help them by providing the content directly.
This not only saves time but also improves your B2B brand value, as more clients will trust you as their primary source of information about subjects related to your industry.
Engaging With Your Audience
Your followers expect frequent updates from your brand, and without content, it can be challenging to maintain engagement. If you’re not publishing a high volume of fresh content consistently, sharing curated content can help you engage with your target audience by offering relevant and informative content that may interest them.
Saves Time
Although it takes some time to find the right content to approve, publish, and share carefully curated content, it ultimately reduces the time needed to create original content for your social media platforms.
Typical content creation involves designers and writers putting together unique content, while content curation can be accomplished with just a few clicks.
Even if you add personal comments or modify the image or the layout of curated content, it still takes less time than creating a completely original article.
Maintains Relevance
Your clients are always searching for relevant information, and sharing carefully curated content can help you establish yourself as a thought leader within your field.
Even if you didn’t write the content yourself, you can include a short blurb on the post to provide your thoughts without writing an entire article.
Boosts Your Social Media Presence
Who doesn’t want a better social media presence in today’s digital world? If you’re not already using content curation to improve your social media presence, now is the time to start.
By consistently sharing relevant and valuable content with your followers, you can position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. People will start to see you as a trusted source of information, boosting your online presence.
Increases Followers and Engagement
One benefit of content curation is that it can help you increase your followers and engagement on social media.
When you share high-quality content that is relevant and useful to your target audience, people will start to see you as a trusted source of information. They’ll be more likely to follow you and engage with your content.
Also, for those who use LinkedIn as a social network and are involved in industries traditionally considered boring, like insurance, accounting, or similar business-to-business (B2B) companies, businesses have found that using content curation can be a great way to break through the clutter and engage their target audience.
Drives Traffic to Your Website
Content curation can also be used to drive traffic back to your website.
Whenever you share content from another website, include a link to your website in the post. This will allow people to find your website and learn more about your business.
Helps You Establish Yourself as an Expert in Your Industry
One of the top benefits you’ll find when you learn how to create curated content is that this helps you establish yourself or your business as an expert in your industry.
When you share high-quality content regularly, people will start seeing you as an industry authority. Being an authority in your sector brings with it its own set of benefits, including:
- More speaking engagements
- More media coverage
- More clients
- More sales and revenue
Gives You a Break From Creating Original Content
Let’s face it: it’s tiring to create original content constantly. Content curation can be a lifesaver if you’re struggling to keep up with the demand for new content.
Content curation allows you to take a break from creating original content while providing value to your audience. It’s the perfect supplement to your content and keeps your followers engaged.
Allows You to Add Your Call to Action
Creating a perfect call to action is one of the most important aspects of content marketing.
When you curate content, you can add your call to action at the end of each post. This allows you to promote your products or services and encourages people to take action.
Just ensure you do this the right way and provide value simultaneously. No one will take action when it’s clear that the poster is just promoting their work without benefiting the reader.
Helps You Keep Up With the Latest Industry News
When trying to run a business, getting caught up in the day-to-day and losing track of what’s happening in your industry is easy. Content curation can help you stay on top of the latest industry news so you can always be in the know.
By sharing relevant articles and blog posts, you can keep up with the latest developments in your industry. This will help you make better business decisions and avoid being blindsided by any changes that happen.
Helps You Build Connections With Other Experts in Your Field
Finally, the last benefit we want to mention is that content curation can help you build connections with other experts in your area.
Things will start to happen when you share content from other thought leaders in your industry. And, if you add your insightful commentary to the mix, there’s an even higher chance of forming the right relationships.
Building relationships with other experts in your field is a great way to expand your network and access new opportunities. It can also lead to joint ventures, partnerships, and other collaborative business projects that benefit both parties.
6 Best Practices for Curating Content on Social Media
The principal objective of content curation is to attract viewers, but the resulting advantages can bring a wide range of benefits to your B2B company. It will allow you to grow your business and position yourself as an expert.
Furthermore, content curation is more efficient than conventional content marketing, which requires creating new content entirely from scratch.
Its advantages make content curation a crucial tool for every B2B business owner.
Here are best practices for curating content and growing your small business.
Resources to Help You Curate Content
The big question is, where to find content worthy of sharing? Use these questions to guide you:
- What are my clients’ issues?
- What do they need to know more about?
Also be sure to subscribe to, follow, and view content relevant to your field. Find out who the top experts in your field are following on social media, and follow any that are relevant to your business.
You can make content from:
- Niche Blog Posts
- Hashtags on Social Media
- Facebook Groups
- Slack Communities
- X (Twitter) Communities
- Experts on Linkedin
- Quora Threads
- Industry Newsletters
- Podcasts
- User-Generated Content (e.g. reviews and testimonials)
Determine How Often to Use Curated Content
The most common rule in content curation is to focus on the quality of your content over its quantity. The ideal way to do this is to use outside content for 20-30% of the total amount you share on social media or online. You still need to provide original posts to enhance your business’s reputation.
Customise Content
When you have a URL or a post you want to share on your social media accounts, it is essential to personalise it. Summarising the post’s content before sharing it with your audience allows you to include your ideas and opinions.
It will demonstrate to your audience that you have taken enough time to study and comment on the post, give them an extra perspective, and ultimately position you as a thought leader.
Give Credit Where Credit is Due
By definition, curated content refers to content created by other people. When using their content, ensure that your sources are acknowledged and identified.
While you don’t want to be perceived as promoting another brand instead of your own, you must be careful not to be suspected of plagiarism or theft.
When you acknowledge your sources using tags or @, you can shield yourself from those accusations.
Schedule Your Content
You’re curating content to streamline your workflow right?
Indeed, scheduling your content, whether curated or original, is the most efficient way to save time.
This is crucial when you have important campaign messages that need to be released on specific dates.
A tool for managing social media like HeyOcra.com can help you organise and plan your content. It offers many features, and clients can generate reports with a few clicks.
Post Relevant Content
The best-curated content ideas are those that are relevant to your audience. So, before you share a piece of content, ask yourself if it’s something that your followers will find interesting.
If not, it’s probably not worth sharing.
Ask yourself these five questions to see if the content you want to share applies to your audience:
- Does this content help my audience with a specific need they have?
- Does this content entertain my audience or make them think?
- Does this content educate my audience on a topic they’re interested in?
- Does this content inspire my audience or help them see things in a new light?
- Does this content give my audience a behind-the-scenes look at my industry or business?
If the answer to these questions is “no,” then the content you’re considering sharing is probably irrelevant to your audience, and you should look for something else.
Steps to Getting Started With Curated Content
Now that you know what curated content is, the best practices for curating content and how it can benefit your business, and, let’s learn the practical steps to start curating content.
Here are four steps you can take to start creating legal curated content:
| Step | Action Plan |
| Find influencers in your industry | Before you can start curating content, you need to find influencers in your industry who are already creating high-quality content. You can search for relevant keywords on social media, Google, and other platforms. Once you’ve found a few influencers whose content is relevant to your audience, add them to an X (Twitter) list or RSS feed so you can easily keep up with their latest content. |
| Create a process for curating content. | To ensure that you’re consistently sharing high-quality content with your audience, it’s important to create a process for curating content. Start by setting aside some time each day or week to curate content. Then, create a system for finding and sharing pieces of content. For example, you might want to set up Google Alerts for relevant keywords. |
| Share your curated content | Once you’ve found a piece of content that you want to share, it’s time to post it on your blog or social media channels. When sharing the piece, be sure to include a link back to the original source and add your commentary or spin. This will help you create genuinely effective curated content that your audience will appreciate. |
| Monitor your results | Finally, once you’ve started sharing curated content, it’s important to monitor your results to see what’s working and what isn’t. Pay attention to metrics like the engagement levels on your social media posts, the number of clicks on your links, and any other metrics relevant to your business. This will help you fine-tune your content curation strategy over time and ensure you’re always providing value to your audience. |
Using Curated Content in Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Content curation is a powerful tool every small business owner should use. With this technique, you can quickly break through the noise and connect with your audience by curating content from other businesses and influencers in your industry.
Check out our social media engagement checklist, a free downloadable checklist you can follow step-by-step to increase engagement and get more likes, comments, and followers on social media.
Most people avoid using other people’s content in their social media marketing strategy. Still, if used correctly, curated content can be outsourced, effective, and even help you build relationships with other thought leaders in your industry.
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