Need to keep up with an active social media publishing schedule but short on time? Enter content curation.

Our clients often ask us about content curation as a social media strategy. In this post, we are going to explore everything you need to know about this strategy by tackling the 6 most common questions we get on the topic.

Let’s dive into the topic of content curation for social media by exploring the tactics and benefits so that you can implement content curation in your social media marketing strategy.

What Exactly is Content Curation for Social Media?

All social media content is either created or curated. Created is the content you publish on social that you write or design. Curated is content that you did not create but is still relevant to your audience. It involves finding, organizing and sharing content that you know will add value.

Curated content can be anything from an educational blog post to an intriguing infographic to an engaging video. The bottom line is that it adds value to the lives of your followers.

Why is Content Curation so Important?

Content curation solves a few pain points. It’s an effective way to keep putting out relevant social media posts without having to write them all from scratch. It helps brands keep up with an audience and social algorithms. 

It’s no secret that being active on social is part of how brands position themselves as thought leaders. Curating the best content and positioning yourself as an informational source is a sure way to become a thought leader in your industry. 

Another attractive piece of curating content is that by sharing someone else’s content, you can actually get your brand on their radar. Whether it’s a brand you want to appeal to or an influencer tagging the content creator on social is a great conversation starter.

What Are the Key Pillars of a Content Curation Strategy?

Here at Rossman Media, we are immersed in the social media marketing strategies of our clients. We implement content curation and from our experience, have developed pillars to this form of social media publishing. 

• Do the research needed to get to know your audience and buyer personas so that you know you’re sharing content that actually appeals to your audience
• Don’t simply share content–link to it and offer 1-2 sentences about why it’s valuable
• Link to and tag your content source
• Curate a variety of types of content
• Take time to actually read the content you are curating

How Do I Find Content to Curate?

This is arguably the most important question to ask about content curation. There are a few places to look to make content curation simple yet effective.

• Google alerts
• Following like minded brands on social
• Subscribing to email newsletters
• Following relevant hashtags
• Twitter lists
• By following influencers

You’ll find that eventually content curation becomes easy because these content sources will give you a lot of content to save and add to your editorial calendar. 

What is the Rule of Thumb When it Comes to Posting Curated Content? 

In order to have a variety of curated content and still post unique content, a good rule of thumb is to do 60% of your posts as curated content. You’ll find that this gives you more time to focus on creating rich and unique content.

Lastly, What Are the Next Steps for My Social Strategy?

Content curation for social media is pretty straight forward, right?

The key takeaway to always shape your content curation strategy is that the content you curate should add value to your audience.

Curated content helps social media marketers keep their social channels active by lessening the need to constantly be creating new content.

Keep in mind that content curation doesn’t replace content creation–creation is still extremely important. Rather, it will give you more time to create quality content to share.

If you want to get started with content curation today, find the right sources of inspiration and start adding valuable content to share on your editorial calendar.

Do you have any tips for content curation on social media? We’d love to read all about it in the comments below!