Content
Curation - 9 Top Tools To
Boost Your Online Influence, Authority And Visibility
The easiest way to
create content? Curate it. And in the process, build your online influence,
authority, and visibility.
Content curation
is becoming an increasingly essential component of effective content marketing.
The truth is, it's nigh on impossible to create all the content yourself that
you need in order to sustain and build your online visibility. Curating content
offers a useful, and actually highly beneficial, alternative.
With
increasing amounts of content available, people need a trusted resource who's
willing to cut through the noise and clutter, and gather the most important
pieces of information in one place.
By
performing that role within your niche, you attract increasing numbers of
followers, and enjoy increased influence, authority and visibility as a result.
So What Is
'Content Curation'?
In brief,
content curation involves sourcing quality content from around the web, and
then sharing the results through your own channels, such as social media and
your own website.
In fact,
most success stories on social media involve a component of curated content.
Those who insist on trying to use social media as a direct selling platform
(rather than an influence-building platform), and only share their own content
rarely make much headway.
The benefits
come from 'giving' as much value as possible to those on the social media
platforms, rather than the 'grabbing' mentality of trying to make a quick buck.
The profits
come from the influence you build, and is far more powerful long-term.
So How Can
You Get Started Curating Content?
It's
actually easier than you think. Here's a list of nine of the top resources and
tools you can use to get started with content curation quickly - and most are
completely free.
1. HASO
(Help a Socialist Out) [search for 'HASO guy kawasaki]
From Guy
Kawasaki, once you subscribe you receive a daily email with potential content
you can pick from and share.
Each email
is based on their own content curation activities, and they actually use the
stories they find in their own social media activities.
You should
find at least one or two content items a day in the list they provide that
you'll then be able to share.
2. ContentGems.com
ContentGems
has over 200,000 sources such as blogs, news sources, and social media
accounts.
By entering
your own interests - or what you want to find content about, using keywords -
you'll get numerous recently-published content items in the results that you'll
be able to sift through and use. They also show you the number of times a
particular piece of content has been tweeted, so you get a feel for its
popularity level, and how well it might resonate with your own audience.
3. Scoop.it
Similar to
ContentGems.com, you enter keywords relating to your niche and can then see the
latest content on your topic.
You can also
use the platform to share the content you find directly to Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn (additional channels are available for paid accounts).
4.
TrendSpottr
TrendSpottr
puts you 'ahead of the trend', enabling you to see content that has reached a
certain level of sharing frequency but not yet achieved a general level of
awareness.
One
advantage is that you'll be able to share content that your followers have not
yet come across from another source. And when they do, they'll credit you with
telling them first, immediately boosting their sense of your authority on the
topic.
Secondly,
you'll be sharing content that you know is highly sharable. That means when
your followers share it with their own followers, you'll gain increased
visibility as a result.
5. Google+
Explore
You can find
posts related to your niche by searching based on hashtags. You can see which
of them appear to be resonating more than others (you can see which have had
the most +1's and shares) then find the most appealing posts to share with your
own social channels.
6. Evernote
Evernote
software is effectively a digital notebook that takes advantage of all the
internet has to offer. It means you can save all sorts of information, and
access it through your computer, smartphone or tablet.
In terms of
content curation, if you're browsing something on your smartphone that would be
suitable to share at some later point, you can save it to a suitable folder in
Evernote, and then access it when you are ready.
It's also
useful of course for making notes when ideas and inspiration strikes you for
creating your own content.
7. Feedly
Feedly.com
is an aggregator service that takes advantage of RSS feeds to compile content
from sources you enter.
It comes in
very useful for example when you have a number of blogs you want to keep up
with regularly. You add all the blogs in, and can then see all the content in
one place without needing to visit each one or remember where they are.
When you're
looking for new content to share, you can pick out the latest blog post that
your followers will appreciate hearing about, and share it accordingly.
8. Google
Alerts
By creating
Google Alerts based on keywords relating to your niche, you can immediately
find out what's new and share accordingly with your niche. You can get alerts
by email, or create an RSS feed based on your alert that you can then consult
when you are ready (for example, plug into Feedly above).
9. Hootsuite
In curating
content, you need an easy way to disseminate the content to the social networks
you're involved with. That's where Hootsuite comes in. You can view your social
media activity all in one place, as well as schedule posts and tweets in
advance.
Conclusion
With content
curation an increasingly essential component of content marketing, it's
important to use the right content curation tools to make that job as easy as
possible as well as assist you in finding the most authoritative sources of
content to share. By curating content on a regular basis, you'll enjoy your own
online influence, authority and visibility increasing as a result.
As well as
content curation, content distribution is another important component of
effective content marketing. Steve Shaw is the founder of SubmitYourArticle.com which enables businesses to
syndicate their content to top article directories and other publishers
worldwide, increase their online visibility, and attract new customers and
prospects.
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