What is Content Curation?
Content Curation is the practice of using other people’s content on your website or allowing other people to use your content on their website.
Content Curation Website Scoop.it
Why would you do this?
- Building Links
- Brand or Personal Exposure
- Being a resource for your clients or audience
- Save time while blogging
All of these reasons are equally important to me.
Link Building
If you have not heard Google is discounting all the incoming links it feels were garnered via an SEO company or paid for in any way. They want people naturally linking to your content. This changes the old ways of getting incoming links – if you have not stopped these practices yet you need to right away. It is no longer helping your website.
How will you get incoming links? The simplified answer is to create content people want to link to. That can be harder to do than say! If you are creating awesome, useful content how do people know to link to it? Using Curation websites is one great and simple way. These websites allow you to add your content so others that are using them will see it, and it also allows you to easily find other people’s content to link to yourself.
One that I use is Scoop.it. I like this one because it also has a social aspect that allows other people to ReScoop your articles onto their boards as well. It also allows you to create Topic Boards for your expertise that can be shared. I currently have 2 – Small Business Development Advice and Social Media for Small Business Owners. Both boards have my own articles as well as other people’s articles that I think contain useful information for my audience. This is a natural way to build incoming links to my website.
Brand or Personal Exposure
I have connected to people on Scoop.it that did not know my content before. They have shared my articles with their audience giving me exposure to a new audience. This is an easy way to gain new Fans of you or your brand. As long as your boards are focused on topics related to your business and what you promote this will work. If you create more personal boards (hobbies, family, etc) then the people you attract will not be buyers in the future. I choose to keep my boards business-focused.
Becoming a Resource
Becoming a resource for my clients has not only built my client base but goes a long way with retention as well. People know that I know other people here locally. How can you become a resource Online? By providing a place where people can get the information they need. It does not all have to be YOUR information. Use information from other reputable people in your industry. Start linking and networking with others in your industry and they will also return the favor. Not only are you getting great content for your audience but you are also growing your audience.
Save Time Blogging
One of the complaints I get about blogging is the amount of time required to create the blog posts. If you do not have the time to always put up your original content why not use someone else great content? I am NOT suggesting you infringe on any copyrights or steal content. Give credit – provide links. Do a quick summary in your words and provide a link to the original content. Use a tool like Scoop.it to quickly find great content to link to. Oh…by the way…I have spent 15 min creating this post!
