Maybe you’ve tried curating content on your own using Google Alerts or an RSS feed, but the amount of time it takes to find the necessary volume of fresh and relevant content and then get that content distribution ready isn't worth it.
So now you’re ready to use content curation software to help supply your team with quality third-party articles…but are you actually ready?
While content curation is simple in theory, the best curation strategies require dedicating time to initial planning and consistent monitoring to identify areas for improvement.
Once your curation efforts are off and running, the time needed is minimal (we’re talking MAYBE 20 minutes per week), but that can only be realized if you put in the work up front.
We have helped hundreds of customers across 20+ industries and a wide variety of team sizes build a successful curation strategy that easily melds into their current marketing, social selling, or employee advocacy efforts.
If you’re ready to use UpContent to help you with your content curation efforts, there are five key traits that should give you confidence that you’re ready to embark on a content curation journey.
#1: Understand What A Content Curation Strategy Is
Content curation is a component for your overall content strategy, not a replacement.
It’s a catalyst for team engagement, allowing them to consistently share the content that resonates most with them - including the insights and thought leadership your organization creates.
Content curation is the strategic discovery, selection, and sharing of external content to bring additional value to your audience and to provide them with a perspective of who you are.
If you’re just trying to fill the void with noise so your calendar doesn’t look empty, then content curation will never be successful at your company.
Once you and your team understand why you’re going to be using curated content, then you can start building a successful strategy.
#2: Have An Established Feedback Loop between Marketing, Sales, and HR
Now that your team understands what content curation is, you need to start identifying the subject matter experts in your company who will help define the topic areas you want to share curated content around.
These people are not just in marketing but in sales, HR, development, and other areas in your company, and they should be contributing because if you have just one person curating content, you run the risk of bias (even if unintentionally).
Even if you have a whole marketing team curating content for your company, that content will only reflect what marketing thinks the entire company should be sharing, and that’s not sharing the complete picture and is likely alienating those on the team who know that subject matter best.
Companies that have someone or a team dedicated to making content curation work for their company see much higher success rates.
One of our customers, CGU, shared that they have a team dedicated to keeping their employees on board with content curation, with regular communication through emails, meetings, and webinars, and have seen a 71% employee participation rate (over 30 basis points higher than the average for similar programs).
#3: You Need To Be Comfortable With Letting Go
This is probably the greatest struggle we see new UpContent customers wrestle with when they first implement curated content in their content marketing efforts.
Typically, companies will try to evaluate curated content using the rubric they evaluate their original content.
“Well, I would have written this this way or said it like this. They mention our competitor in this article…GASP!”
Just because an article doesn’t 100% match your brand voice doesn’t mean that it’s not useful for the team to be shared. In fact, it may be just those qualities that help to interrupt the same drumbeat that your audience is used to receiving and “spice up their life” with new perspectives that stimulate them to learn more about your unique insights.
When evaluating curated articles, you should be looking at them as a conversation starter that you want your team to have at their fingertips.
Some questions you can ask when evaluating which curated content to share are:
- Does it build credibility for the person who’s sharing it?
- Does it show what is happening in the space?
- Does it provide a stimulant to share a perspective as a hot take on top of the article?
- Has it been published within the last 90 days? (or less in some cases)
When using curated content, you’re not putting this content on your own site or presenting it as your own or original thought. See this as an opportunity to experiment with new ways of approaching topic areas prior to investing the time and resources in creating similar content yourself. Curated content can be your “canary in the coal mine” for your next original content campaign.
Curated content isn’t a replacement for original content but a service for your team.
Trusting your employees to represent their brand well when given the right tools and materials is vital to implementing curated content.
Your company is made up of your employees, and letting them share their thoughts and opinions in their own voice will help your team feel heard while also investing in their thought leadership.
We know. In order for this strategy to be viable, there must be safeguards in place.
We work with hundreds of firms regulated by internal and external compliance requirements.
These constraints often propel curated content programs to even greater success. The value of offering a relevant and up-to-date library of content that has already passed internal and external standards is even more viable.
And yes, there are ways to ensure these constraints are met without having to make curation a manual effort.
#4: You Know This Won’t Be An Overnight Fix
Content curation isn’t something you can just turn on and hope it works. It takes time and intention to set up your company for success.
It’s going to take a hot minute.
First, you have to define what topics you are interested in curating content on and what filters you want to ensure are applied, connect your curated results to your distribution platforms for social media, email, web, and other channels, and teach your team how to use it.
Then once you know the mechanics, that’s when you can start sharing.
The first data point you’ll need to track is how consistently your team is sharing the content.
Once it becomes a habit and they see their engagement and audience grow, then you can focus on “harvesting” this stimulated audience by measuring the conversions and new business that come from using curated content.
Are you seeing more engagement, new followers, subscribers, etc.? This shows you if people are interested in the content you’re sharing.
Then once you start seeing movement, then you can start tracking what types of content are performing better than others.
Then you can start using the curated content to optimize for even more conversion traffic.
#5: You’re Ready To Commit To At Least Six Months With UpContent
Many of our customers start seeing a return on their investment into UpContent around the 6-month mark, but that requires commitment to working through the onboarding process and evangelizing and supporting their team in building those sharing habits.
We don’t say this as a deterrent, but to set the expectation that you can’t truly determine if curated content was worth it before at least six months. Otherwise, it’s not worth starting.
Just like with any other good content strategy out there, you have to accept the fact that results do not happen overnight.
Just like it takes time to nurture your prospects, it takes time to build trust and credibility to the point where those prospects within your audience are ready to raise their hand and begin that nurturing process - this is where a curation strategy thrives.
Here at UpContent, we have been ranked #1 in Customer Support, Best Usability, and Best Relationship multiple quarters in a row because we want to help you through the onboarding and implementation process to see the results you’re looking for.
Our Content Curation Experts will invest the time in you upfront to ensure that you’re set up for success and have the resources you need each step of the way.
The Next Steps To Using UpContent
Once implemented, your curation strategy will be one of the most time-efficient efforts in your arsenal. However, it does require some time, especially in the initial startup, to ensure success.
You only need about 20 minutes a week once your curation flow is set up and working.
The efforts to get the program up and running and configured in a way that’s useful to your company, your team, and your audience takes time, so you have to be ready to not only invest the time in making that happen but also invest the time and experiencing the results.
If you’re ready to start curating content with UpContent, start your free trial today, and one of the Content Curation Experts will be in contact within 24 hours to have your first onboarding call!
If you’d like to learn more about how you can get started, check out these resources in our Learn Center.
