What is Curated Content? A Beginners Guide With Best Practices

What is content curation anyway?

Content curation is finding the best content from different sources and putting it all in one place.

Let us give you a real-life example of content curation.

Let’s say you’re interested in learning about cooking. You could visit a cooking blog, follow an Instagram account or YouTube channel. 

But you could also go to a content curation website that collects the best cooking content from all over the web. It saves you a ton of time and lots of HIGHLY relevant content.

Creating viral content is the surefire way to generate more traffic and sales.  But… most businesses struggle to come up with great content ideas and create engaging content for their audience.

If you’re looking for an effective content strategy to build a target audience, content curation is for you.

Enough said. In this free guide, you’ll learn the best ways to create curated content in 2023 and beyond. Let’s jump into the details. 

What is Content Curation?

Content curation is the process of finding the BEST content from other sources and posting on your own channels, including;

• Your website
• Social media networks
• Email newsletters
• Videos, podcasts, etc.

Curating content is your BEST option if you’re looking for an EFFECTIVE way to add value to your target audience and save time in content creation.

Real-Life Examples of Curated Content

Here are some live examples of curated content:

Example #1: Movie recaps

Have you ever seen the video recaps of a movie on YouTube? That’s curated content!

Here’s an example of a curated video post.

Movie recaps are curated because the video content is taken from other sources (movies, books, novels, etc).

Example #2: Social media posts

Here’s an example of a curated Twitter account that tweets ONLY about Naval Ravikant’s wisdom (a famous entrepreneur, chairman and former CEO of AngelList)

Example #3: Case studies

A case study or a blog post that summarizes the key takeaways of a person or topic can also be considered curated content.

We’ve so many net worth posts on our blog featuring celebrities like MrBeast.

Here’s an example of how we explain MrBeast’s specific YouTube tactics to get more views.

A real-life example of a curated website is Product Hunt. It is a website that curates the latest and trending products and services.

As you can see above, you’ll find various products, including mobile apps, websites, hardware projects, etc., on their website. 

5 Tips for Effective Content Curation [Best Practices for 2023]

1. Know the purpose

Before you jump into content curation, you MUST have a clear purpose.

Why do you want to curate others’ content?

Lack of time? Lack of resources? Or don’t have a team to create high-quality content for your website?

Also, identify what EXACTLY do you want to achieve from content curation.

• Is it building an audience? 
• Growing your online exposure? 
• Increasing your website traffic or something else?

Once you clearly know your purpose, you can start working on content curation by identifying content that helps your target audience.

It’s also important to know your audience’s wants and needs. 

Do you want to educate or entertain them with your content? By knowing their needs, you can pick content that helps your target audience. 

2. Make it UNIQUE

Yes, you can save a ton of time by curating others’ content.

But… you should spend some time curating helpful content. 

You need to be selective. You don’t want to curate ordinary and mediocre topics.

Don’t just curate the same type of content over and over again. For example, don’t do only blog posts or checklists.

Mix things up and include various content formats such as;

• Checklists
• Videos
• Infographics
• PDFs

This variety of content will keep your audience MORE engaged.

Your goal is to pick the BEST of the BEST. By focusing on QUALITY (over quantity), you can build a loyal following with content curation.

3. Add HUGE value

What’s the point of curating content if it doesn’t add value to your audience?

Remember one thing: when you’re curating content from different online sources, you’re NOT just sharing links. You should add value to that content.

You can add value in many ways, including;

• Providing a brief and helpful summary of a case study or video
• Adding relevant insights
• Making a complex topic into illustrations or infographics so your audience can easily understand the topic

All the above things will help your audience understand and digest your content easily.  

Make sure to give proper credit to the original sources.

Whether you’re sharing a social media post, video or blog post – it’s essential to tag their social media handles (or link to their websites) while sharing their content.

It not helps you build relationships with those people but is one of the best practices for content curation.

4. Use proper tools

You need to use a content curation tool to find and curate the BEST content on ANY topic.

It helps you quickly find, save and organize ALL the helpful content you find online in one place.

If you’re wondering, here are some powerful content curation tools you can use.

• Curata
• Flipboard
• Pocket
• Scoop.it
• Feedly

You can also use curation websites like AllTop.com to easily find top articles published in MANY sites across various industries.

As you can see, you can discover articles from many industries including technology, news, sports, lifestyle, and much more.

With content curation, you’ll mostly share content on social media sites. 

So.. you need a specific set of tools to help you effectively curate content. Here are a few of them.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free and powerful tool from Google that can help you find new content on the web.

All you need to do is enter the keywords you want to track. Select the types of content that you want to receive alerts for. Click “Create Alert,” and you’re done.

As you can see, you can also choose the frequency to choose how often you want to receive alerts.

Once you create an alert, Google will automatically send you an email whenever it finds new content that matches your criteria. You can then review the content and decide whether or not to curate it.

The key here is to set up multiple alerts for different topics. Why? That’s what will help you stay up-to-date on a variety of topics.

Buffer

Buffer app is a social media scheduling app, which helps you schedule your posts in advance. 

It also helps you analyze your content performance and see how your curated content performs across social networks.

Buffer recently introduced a powerful AI assistant that can generate new ideas, repurpose your existing posts, and rewrite copy in any style you want.

That being said, Buffer is a freemium tool, which means that you can use it for free with some limitations. The paid plans offer more features, such as more content scheduling, advanced analytics, and more.

Canva

What’s the BEST way to share your curated content on social networks?

If you said images and graphics – you’re absolutely right.

Canva is a powerful graphic design tool that helps you create ANY image, even if you don’t have any technical skills.

It offers an easy-to-use interface that lets you drag and drop images, fonts, and other elements to create stunning images. Using Canva, you can create anything, including;

• Social media posts
• Videos
• Infographics
• Presentations and much more

5. Be specific

One of the most common mistakes people make while curating content is they share off-topic content.

Don’t share off-topic content that is totally irrelevant to your target audience.

What’s the point of sharing fitness tips with someone interested in learning about cryptocurrency?

You need to be specific while curating content. 

Don’t just share everything you find online. Make sure to spend some time evaluating the QUALITY of the posts you want to curate. Make sure it is highly relevant to your audience.

Also, use a variety of sources. Don’t just rely on one source for content. 

Look for content from various sources, including blogs, YouTube channels, and social media. 

Why? That’s how you’ll be able to find a wider range of content and avoid sharing the same thing over and over again.

The Benefits of Curated Content

So why curate content from other sources? There are a TON of benefits, including;

• Saves you a lot of time in content creation as you don’t have to spend time creating all of your own content
• Helps you build a rapport with other bloggers in your industry
• Increases your overall website traffic and visibility for specific topics
• Above all, it helps you engage your audience with informative and highly relevant content

How much content should you curate?

Most people create curated content to use on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

The short answer: at least 30% of your social media posts.

You can increase or reduce that percentage depending on your users’ engagement in terms of likes, shares, and comments. 

Let’s say, you’re sharing ten posts on your social networks, you can try curating three posts and the rest as original content.

If you’re running a blog or an email list, you can curate content in a weekly blog post or newsletter.

There are a few reasons why this is a good ratio.

• First, it allows you to share a ton of different content with your audience.
• Second, it can help you save time and resources (especially with content curation). We all know that creating original content can be time-consuming, so curated content is an excellent choice for those who’re busy.

The key here is to try experimenting with different types of content and different ways of curating it. The best way to find what works for you is to try different things.

HootSuite recommends that you aim at posting 40% original and 60% curated content. This means that for every 10 posts you make, 4-6 of them should be curated content from other sources.

In a nutshell, the exact percentage of curated content will ENTIRELY depend on your content marketing goals and audience.

FAQs on curated content definition

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Final thoughts on curating content

Content curation is a powerful way to improve your content marketing strategy and provide MORE value to your audience. 

The key is to find BEST of the BEST content on a specific topic and add your own insights to whatever you’re sharing.

So what are your thoughts on curated content? Have any questions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.