So you have your great-looking, perfectly functioning up-to-date website working its magic on your clients. You’ve already got Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram set up and you update them on a daily basis. You interact with your followers, keep tabs on your competitors and build relationships with others in your field. This all takes up hours of your time, as well as the need to constantly keep your website and blog updated, current and relevant. High-quality, original content is essential to keep your business at the top. This takes time to create.
Interesting information to keep your readers (and future customers!) engaged and interacting with you requires an in-depth knowledge of your industry and a devotion to the creative process. But what if you can’t afford an in-house employee or team that are dedicated solely to the creation of high-quality content? Many businesses make the mistake of putting content creation on the low end of their task list. You might find yourself giving the task to one of your workers and it just never gets done – something ‘more important’ or ‘urgent’ always appears. Big mistake!
How do you maintain your relationship with potential clients and existing customers online? Through your social media accounts and blog posts. If these are updated with poorly written or just plain terrible pieces of writing, your business is going to be shown in a less-than-favorable light. Your brand is created through your interactions with your clients – so make them the best they can be. If you can’t find the time or resources to create insightful, interesting, and helpful posts – try content curation.
So What is Content Curation?
Basically, content curation is filtering and publishing information for your followers to see. Don’t just like and share random stuff you find on Facebook, add your own insightful synopsis on anything you share. Put your own spin on things, show your expertise and also explain the relevance of the information to your field. Scrolling through news feed after news feed can take up more of your valuable time – but there are an amazing array of content curation tools available to help you cut down on work hours and keep your profiles full. Here’s a selection of some of our favorites:
AllTop
A great news site that categorizes the top news and trending blog posts worldwide by topic. Find the category most related to your business and it will provide you with an endless supply of the most popular content for you to share with your audience.
Buffer
Buffer is one of the most popular content curation/social media update scheduling platforms around. Buffer is a great choice if you already have your content written, you just need something to help speed up the publishing and marketing processes.
Feedly
Your Feedly account will store all of your go-to blogs, news outlets, and content sources in one place. Log in and the latest updates will show up in your feed. It’s a great way to cut down hours trawling through the web for inspiration.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite is pretty much a combination of AllTop and Buffer. It’s got a great reporting tool for telling you what’s working and what’s missing the mark. You can browse the latest trending stories worldwide, in addition to scheduling your social media updates in advance.
Curated content is a great way of supplementing your original content! It keeps your company in the news feeds of your followers and helps you maintain your public image.
Interested in kick-starting your content strategy with content curation? Get in touch on 051-393524 or email us at info@irelandwebsitedesign.com and one of our digital strategists can discuss your company’s needs.
