We've all heard it: now's the time to start using content curation as a part of your content marketing strategy. There seems to be an endless supply of articles, blog posts, and tutorials on curation - we've done the research, read the articles, learned about all of the benefits and best practices. Now, there's only one thing left to do: actually get started.
After taking in as much information as possible on curation best practices, techniques, and tools, it's possible that you find yourself asking, "now what?"
At Scoop.it, we have the answer.
After taking in as much information as possible on curation best practices, techniques, and tools, it's possible that you find yourself asking, "now what?"
At Scoop.it, we have the answer.
Choose A Specific Topic (or Topics) That You Plan to Focus On
One of the most important elements of creating an online collection of curated content is having a focused topic that all of the content relates to. This will help your customers more easily find your content and be able better understand and follow it.
Further, one of the biggest values of curation is that it allows you to give your readers context. Providing the best context for the content that you are curating and sharing all starts with establishing a specific topic that all of your content will fall under.
With Scoop.it Free, you can have up to five different topics for your account. Does your business have various different elements to it? Think about creating an umbrella topic for your industry, then additional topics covering the different sectors that you cover.
When you sign up for Scoop.it, the first thing you will be led to do is create your topic. Make the name specific and unique, like "San Francisco Restaurant News" and make sure to add a brief description that explains why this topic is important to you and your readers. You can also add keywords to your topic so that Scoop.it can search the web for the best content to provide to you. Make sure your keywords are aligned with your topic so that you can discover the best content to publish.
Establish Your Editorial Line
Once you have created your page, it's time to get curating! At first, it may seem overwhelming, but as you experiment, it becomes more natural. Going through the suggested content from Scoop.it will help you to find some great content that has to do with your topic or brand. If it doesn't, you can optimize your keywords or even feed the suggestion engine with RSS feeds of sites from which you often share content.
Scoop.it gives you an option to take this even further. With the Bookmarklet, you can add a Scoop.it button to your toolbar and post content from around the web in one click! This works great for content that you find through other methods than suggestions from Scoop.it Do you use Google Alerts or another system that allows you to find content that mentions your brand or your industry? Once you find content from there, you can use the Scoop.it bookmarklet to post that content directly to your page.
Now that you've begun curating content, you will learn what types of editorial and text help make your page the best it can be, as well as what types of content that you curate. Figuring this out may take some time, but once you have that done, the process will become more and more natural!
Customize the Look and Feel of Your Topic
Once you have figured out your curation strategy, it's time to fully integrate it with the rest of your business. With Scoop,it, your curated pages are not just newspapers that you curate with content in addition to all of the other social media and internet content that you have. Scoop.it Business allows you to make your topic fit in perfectly with your website with HTML header capabilities and customization options.
By customizing the header of your topic to look just like the header of your website, you not only increase brand awareness, but you allow your readers to follow links back to your site. This also works the other way around, by adding a link to your curated Scoop.it page to your home page.
To take this a step further, you can host your Scoop.it it page on a subdomain of the domain of your business's website. Now, your content marketing efforts not only help educate and inform your customers, but they also provide you with more traffic to your site.
Make Scoop.it Your Social Media Hub
Now that you've completely mastered curation as your content marketing strategy, you can use it to run all of your social media efforts! You're always sharing relevant content with your audience, so why not do it through Scoop.it? By connecting your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, LinkedIn, etc) to your Scoop.it account, you can share each piece of your curated content to all of your other social networks in just one click. Want to write something different on Twitter and on Facebook when you share the same content? Don't worry, you can!
So, not only have you now actually begun using content curation as a part of your content marketing strategy, but with the help of Scoop.it, you have fully integrated all of your content marketing efforts with the rest of your business, and have saved yourself tons of valuable time by being able to control all of your social networks in one place!
I know that this process isn't always as easy as it is in writing, but that's what we're here for! Ever have any questions, concerns, or just want to talk about your curation strategy? Visit Scoop.it's knowledge base at http://feedback.scoop.it/ where you can find lots of tips and FAQs or ask me any questions in the comments! (Note: I'm the community manager at Scoop.it)
One of the most important elements of creating an online collection of curated content is having a focused topic that all of the content relates to. This will help your customers more easily find your content and be able better understand and follow it.
Further, one of the biggest values of curation is that it allows you to give your readers context. Providing the best context for the content that you are curating and sharing all starts with establishing a specific topic that all of your content will fall under.
With Scoop.it Free, you can have up to five different topics for your account. Does your business have various different elements to it? Think about creating an umbrella topic for your industry, then additional topics covering the different sectors that you cover.
When you sign up for Scoop.it, the first thing you will be led to do is create your topic. Make the name specific and unique, like "San Francisco Restaurant News" and make sure to add a brief description that explains why this topic is important to you and your readers. You can also add keywords to your topic so that Scoop.it can search the web for the best content to provide to you. Make sure your keywords are aligned with your topic so that you can discover the best content to publish.
Establish Your Editorial Line
Once you have created your page, it's time to get curating! At first, it may seem overwhelming, but as you experiment, it becomes more natural. Going through the suggested content from Scoop.it will help you to find some great content that has to do with your topic or brand. If it doesn't, you can optimize your keywords or even feed the suggestion engine with RSS feeds of sites from which you often share content.
Scoop.it gives you an option to take this even further. With the Bookmarklet, you can add a Scoop.it button to your toolbar and post content from around the web in one click! This works great for content that you find through other methods than suggestions from Scoop.it Do you use Google Alerts or another system that allows you to find content that mentions your brand or your industry? Once you find content from there, you can use the Scoop.it bookmarklet to post that content directly to your page.
Now that you've begun curating content, you will learn what types of editorial and text help make your page the best it can be, as well as what types of content that you curate. Figuring this out may take some time, but once you have that done, the process will become more and more natural!
Customize the Look and Feel of Your Topic
Once you have figured out your curation strategy, it's time to fully integrate it with the rest of your business. With Scoop,it, your curated pages are not just newspapers that you curate with content in addition to all of the other social media and internet content that you have. Scoop.it Business allows you to make your topic fit in perfectly with your website with HTML header capabilities and customization options.
By customizing the header of your topic to look just like the header of your website, you not only increase brand awareness, but you allow your readers to follow links back to your site. This also works the other way around, by adding a link to your curated Scoop.it page to your home page.
To take this a step further, you can host your Scoop.it it page on a subdomain of the domain of your business's website. Now, your content marketing efforts not only help educate and inform your customers, but they also provide you with more traffic to your site.
Make Scoop.it Your Social Media Hub
Now that you've completely mastered curation as your content marketing strategy, you can use it to run all of your social media efforts! You're always sharing relevant content with your audience, so why not do it through Scoop.it? By connecting your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, LinkedIn, etc) to your Scoop.it account, you can share each piece of your curated content to all of your other social networks in just one click. Want to write something different on Twitter and on Facebook when you share the same content? Don't worry, you can!
So, not only have you now actually begun using content curation as a part of your content marketing strategy, but with the help of Scoop.it, you have fully integrated all of your content marketing efforts with the rest of your business, and have saved yourself tons of valuable time by being able to control all of your social networks in one place!
I know that this process isn't always as easy as it is in writing, but that's what we're here for! Ever have any questions, concerns, or just want to talk about your curation strategy? Visit Scoop.it's knowledge base at http://feedback.scoop.it/ where you can find lots of tips and FAQs or ask me any questions in the comments! (Note: I'm the community manager at Scoop.it)
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