content curation business plan

The Complete Guide to Content Curation in 2024: Tools, Tips, Ideas

Content curation is more than sharing. It’s about finding the best content your audience wants so that they keep coming back — to you.

Content curation is a valuable strategy for all social media marketers. More than simply re-sharing other people’s content, curation is a way to provide extra value to your followers while highlighting your own industry expertise.

But that’s the key to successful content curation: Value.

See it, like it, share it. It’s that easy, right? Big nope.

Here’s how to curate content that’s relevant to your audience and serves your goals.

Table of Contents

Bonus: Download our free, customizable social media calendar template to easily plan and schedule all your content in advance.

What is curated content?

Curated content is content from other brands or people that you share to your social media accounts.

Examples of curated content are: Sharing a link to a blog post, creating a roundup of quoted advice from industry experts or even simply sharing someone else’s social media post.

That’s a simple definition of curated content but in truth, there’s a lot more to it.

Just like a museum curator’s role is to choose the most important artifacts and artwork to display, your role as a content curator is to select only the best content to share with your audience.

Benefits of content curation

What’s faster: Ideating, writing and designing a brand new social media post, or clicking “share” on something valuable you recently read? ( Like this article, right? )

The road to a winning social media strategy isn’t a fast and easy one, but not everything you put out there has to be an original opus.

Curating content saves you time. And money, since you often don’t need additional team members like designers or writers to help create it. Curated content helps you remain visible on social media every day without the extra content creation expenses.

Build relationships

Networking is key to business success both online and offline.

When you curate content, let the original creator know you’ve shared it. Tag them in your post to catch their attention, or send them an email or message.

Now, how you notify them is important. We’ve all gotten those emails like, “Hey Michelle! I shared your totally amazing article here (x). Wanna shout me back with a link?”

No, random sir, I do not.

Those kinds of messages give off the vibe that you’re only looking for links to boost your SEO and you’re not interested in genuine connection. Pass.

Instead, say you’ve shared their piece in a comment or message, mention what you liked about it and move on. Don’t pitch anything or ask for a return favor.

You never know who you can start a conversation with and where it may lead.

Aw, even James Corden ❤️ Hootsuite 🦉 But, the real question is… how do we get Owly on carpool karaoke? https://t.co/0eRdCYLe2t — Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) February 16, 2022

You don’t need to do this for everything you curate. Only the people or companies you really want to build connections with. It’s an easy way to break the ice.

Diversify your content calendar

Sure, you need to develop your own voice and opinions as a content creator and brand, but no one wants to exist in an echo chamber all the time. The same goes for your audience.

Sharing differing opinions (respectfully) and new ideas from other industry experts adds variety to your platform. It can open the doors to great conversations and forge connections.

You don’t need to share every hot take for the engagement factor. As with all content, share what your audience will find useful. By sharing the best content in your industry, you’re offering your audience the value of multiple perspectives.

Position your brand as a thought leader

While creating original content is vitally important for thought leadership, so is content curation. Curating the best stuff shows that you’re in the know about your industry and its trends.

It’s the “show don’t tell” way of saying, “Hey, we know what we’re talking about and we’re also pretty dang smart.” Without bragging.

Kinda like this amazing curation of all the best social media stats you need to know for 2024.

✨ NEW REPORT LAUNCH ✨ We gathered top-notch consumer data for our #Digital2022 report to help you make the right moves on social, without all the guesswork! Get ahead of the rest and read the report 👉 https://t.co/QhqXapSSYS pic.twitter.com/4heKlCjWgS — Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) January 26, 2022

5 Content curation best practices

While effective content curation doesn’t require the mental effort of nailing a moon landing, you still need a strategy. Here are 5 things to remember every time you share something.

1. Know your audience

Okay, this is true of any marketing strategy, so do I really need to say it?

Yes, because it’s that important.

When curating content, put as much thought into its alignment with your audience as you do when you create from scratch. Before you schedule curated content , ask yourself:

• How does this piece of content help my target customer?
• How is it relevant to the problem(s) they’re having?
• Does this align with my target customers’ perception of my brand?
• Is it worth it? Can I work it? Can I put this link down, flip it and intersperse it into my social content feed? (Don’t listen to 00s music while curating.)

If you can’t answer those first 3 before sharing, try taking a step back and referencing your content strategy. You have documented buyer personas, right? No sweat if not. Grab our free buyer personas template and hop to it.

2. Credit your sources

Always give credit where credit is due. Tag and link to the original creator and never pass off curated content as something you made yourself.

Not only because it’s plain wrong, but plagiarism ain’t a good look for your brand, either.

You can tag creators with an @ on platforms that allow it, such as Twitter or Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZHsFcDJuUW/

3. Add your own thoughts

You don’t have to do this for every single piece you share. But try to add something useful to most of the things you share. It doesn’t have to be long, just a sentence or two introducing the share and why you think your audience will find it helpful.

Or, take a quote from the piece and create an image to go with your share. This helps stop the scroll with an eye-catching visual and, subtly, associates your brand with the expert you’re quoting, in the eyes of your audience.

There are 3 “constituents” in the creator community, says @jamiebyrne : 🎨 Creators 👀 Fans ​​💰 Advertisers All 3 are necessary to make the system work: Marketers fund creation, creators provide reach, fans consume that content. #SocialTrends2022 pic.twitter.com/Pxxt3jENFI — Hootsuite 🦉 (@hootsuite) February 2, 2022

4. Schedule curated content in advance

You’re curating content to save time, right? (Plus all those other juicy benefits.)

Well, scheduling your content — curated and otherwise — is the ultimate time-saver. You don’t need me to tell you it’s convenient. But, scheduling your content also allows you to see where any gaps are and fill them. Including when you may have forgotten to schedule an important campaign post that needs to go out on a certain day. (Definitely 0% speaking from experience.)

And the best thing to fill any upcoming content gaps? Sharing curated content, of course!

A social media management tool like Hootsuite will help you plan and schedule your content in advance, analyze your performance to inform future strategies, and prove the ROI of your social media to The Powers That Be. Oh, and it can even determine the best time to post on each of your channels, based on your unique metrics.

5. Offer the right content mix

Pad out your social calendar by mixing in different types of content — including curated posts.

Don’t worry about it overshadowing your original content. In fact, you should be sharing more posts than you create. A good ratio to aim for is 40% original and 60% curated content .

But, spend the bulk of your time making sure that 40% is high-quality, actionable and fully original. Your original content is what will attract your audience the most while your curated content is what keeps them engaged.

8 content curation tools and software

The top tools content marketers need for curation success.

1. Hootsuite

Not to hoot our own horn, but not only can Hootsuite help you plan, schedule and analyze your curated posts — it can also find the content for you.

Hootsuite Streams allows you to track keywords, topics or specific accounts and see all new content posted. You can leave a comment or share relevant content right from the stream for super-quick content curation. Literally nothing on this planet is easier than that.

Here’s a demo of Streams in action:

2. Google News Alerts

An oldie but a goodie. Type any topic or name into Google Alerts and get an email notification whenever there’s news about it.

You can use Google Alerts to track mentions of your own company name or ( cheekily ) your competitors. Or, keep informed of general news in your industry with terms like “social media marketing.”

3. Talkwalker

Talkwalker takes social listening and dials it up to 11. More than indexing social platforms, Talkwalker gets deep into it with over 150 million sources. Websites, blogs, forum posts, product reviews buried on obscure websites — you name it and Talkwalker will find it.

The best part is they have a Hootsuite app, so you can curate great content easily right inside your Hootsuite dashboard. Discover and share everything from top publishers to unique user-generated content .

4. Curate by UpContent

Another powerful content discovery tool, Curate by UpContent finds the highest-quality material for you to share across all your channels.

This app allows a lot of customization, such as changing calls to action, URLs and the ability to add custom images to keep curated content on-brand.

5. Hootsuite Syndicator

Hey, hey, it’s another Hootsuite service. Syndicator allows you to monitor RSS feeds and share articles right inside Hootsuite. And, you can see what you’ve shared before so you won’t have to worry about duplicate content.

Plus, remember Google Alerts? You can pull those into Syndicator, too.

Check out everything Syndicator can do in under 5 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zv2O58s2SeA

6. ContentGems

ContentGems is a simple, straightforward tool for tracking topics and discovering great new content. Its power lies in that simplicity: Fewer distractions = more focus on the content itself.

The best part is ContentGems is free to use, and you can even use it with a free Hootsuite account. Everyone can benefit from curated content automation, from side hustler entrepreneurs to the Fortune 500.

Like ContentGems, Filter8 is also free to use, including with a free Hootsuite account. It discovers content based on topics you set but a really neat feature is the ability to sort results by popularity. This way you can find top-tier content, or sort by least popular to find hidden gems to make you stand out, too.

By default, Filter8 shares posts you select in a compiled magazine-type format. But you don’t have to use it this way. You can use it to discover new content then copy the URL and schedule that via Hootsuite like all your other pieces.

8. TrendSpottr

Last but very not least, TrendSpottr. There are actually two versions: A free TrendSpottr app and TrendSpottr Pro .

As you may expect, the Pro version offers a few more features, like being able to track in multiple languages for global brands and discover what they call “pre-viral content.” Sometimes I like to think of myself as pre-viral.

A useful feature is the ability to see other recent posts from a brand or influencer right from the main results page. This can dramatically speed up time spent collecting content.

Hootsuite is here to help with all your social media content curation tasks. Find high-quality content, schedule it to auto-publish at the best times and track your success — all from one dashboard.

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As an ex-agency strategist turned freelance WFH fashion icon, Michelle is passionate about putting the sass in SaaS content. She's known for quickly understanding and distilling complicated technical topics into conversational copy that gets results. She has written for Fortune 500 companies and startups, and her clients have earned features in Forbes, Strategy Magazine and Entrepreneur.

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The Definitive Guide to Content Curation in 2023

Content curation is an essential part of any successful digital marketing strategy in 2023. It involves strategically collecting, organizing and sharing content related to a particular topic or industry with the goal of providing value for your audience.

In this guide we will cover everything you need to know about content curation: from creating a strategic plan and finding the right tools , to optimizing your efforts and measuring success. We’ll also provide tips on different types of curated content ideas as well as best practices for promoting it on social media platforms. Get ready to become an expert in content curation!

What is Content Curation?

The term “content curation” refers to the process of selecting, gathering, presenting, and disseminating information found on the World Wide Web. Quality resources, such as “best of” lists or content aimed at improving a specific ability, are the hallmark of curated content.

Benefits of Content Curation

Content curation has many benefits for marketers looking to engage their target audiences more effectively. By providing useful resources on topics they care about in one convenient place you can save time while still delivering quality content consistently over time. Additionally it helps build trust between you and your audience as well as establish yourself as an authority in your field since you’re able to share reliable information from trusted sources quickly and easily .

How quickly can you click “share” on something insightful you’ve read, as compared to coming up with an idea, writing, and designing an entirely new social media post from scratch?

It takes time and effort to develop a successful social media strategy, but not everything you share needs to be ground-breaking.

The time spent creating material is reduced when you curate it. And time and money, as you typically won’t need to hire specialists like designers or writers to make it. By using curated material, you may maintain a daily social media presence without incurring the additional costs associated with creating that content.

You should, as a content provider and brand, find your own unique voice and opinion, but no one wants to live in a constant echo chamber. Your target audience is the same way.

Including the (respectful) viewpoints and ideas of other industry experts on your platform is a great way to keep things interesting. It’s a conversation starter that can lead to some really interesting discussions and new friendships.

For the sake of audience participation, you need not broadcast your every thought. As with any form of content, make sure it’s something your target demographic actually wants to read. When you provide your audience with links to the best articles in your field, you give them access to a wide range of viewpoints.

Types of Content Curation

There are several different types of content curation depending on what type of material you want to focus on, including text-based articles, images, audio files, video clips, infographics and slideshows. Each type requires its own approach when it comes to researching potential sources; so make sure you know which format works best for each situation before getting started.

Content curation is an effective way to create and share content that resonates with your target audience. With a well-thought out strategy, you can make sure your efforts are worthwhile and help drive success for your business. Let’s look at how to create a content curation strategy in the next section.

1. Aggregated Content Curation

 This type of content curation involves collecting, organizing and sharing existing content from various sources in order to provide a comprehensive overview on a particular topic or industry.

2. Generated Content Curation 

This type of content curation involves creating original content based on the collected information from aggregated sources. It requires more effort than simply gathering existing materials but can be extremely valuable for SEO purposes as it is unique and provides fresh perspectives on topics that are already well-covered by other websites.

3. Curated Experiences 

This type of content curation focuses on providing an immersive experience for users by combining different types of media such as images, videos, audio files and text into one cohesive package that tells a story or conveys an idea in an engaging way.

How to Create a Content Curation Strategy

Content curation is an important part of any content marketing strategy. It involves finding, selecting, and sharing relevant content from other sources to engage your audience and increase visibility for your brand. To create a successful content curation strategy, you need to identify your target audience and goals, research and select sources for your content curation efforts, create a schedule for those efforts, and measure the success of your strategy.

Identifying Your Audience and Goals

 Before creating a content curation plan it’s essential to understand who you are trying to reach with this type of content. Consider the demographics of your target audience such as age range or location in order to determine what kind of topics they may be interested in reading about. Additionally consider what types of posts will best help you achieve specific business objectives such as increasing website traffic or generating leads. Once these elements have been identified it will be easier to craft an effective plan that meets both the needs of readers as well as business goals.

Researching for Your Content Curation:

 After identifying who you want to reach with curated content it’s time to find reliable sources that can provide quality material on those topics. Look into industry publications or blogs that cover similar topics so that you can share their work with readers while also providing them valuable information from trusted experts in the field. Additionally, consider leveraging social media platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn where users post interesting articles related to certain topics which could serve as great source material for curated posts on those same subjects.

Creating a Schedule For Your Content Curation Efforts: 

Now that you know what kind of material should be shared it’s important to establish how often new posts should go out so there is consistent engagement from followers without overwhelming them with too much information at once. Depending on the size of your team this could mean scheduling one post per day or even just once per week but whatever frequency is chosen make sure there is enough time between each post so readers don’t feel bombarded by too many updates all at once while still staying engaged over time .

Always Credit the Source

When sharing content from other sources, especially on social media, it is imperative to properly attribute the work to its original author(s) by linking back to their profile or profile page. You should never attempt to pass off curated content as original work created by your team. On social media sites like Instagram and Twitter, use the @ symbol to tag the writer or company.

Subscribe to Newsletter

Do you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of beginning your search for suitable content? The first step on your trip should be to sign up for relevant email newsletters. On their websites or within the content itself, many brands have subscription forms for their material delivered in the form of newsletters.

Tracking Performance

Finally, tracking metrics associated with each piece published allows marketers to see if their efforts are actually paying off in terms of tangible results like increased website visits or more leads generated through forms filled out after clicking links included within blog posts. Tools like Google Analytics offer insights into user behavior including page views, bounce rate, average session duration, etc., which can help marketers adjust their approach accordingly based on performance data.

Having a clear content curation strategy is essential for successful marketing, and the right tools can help you automate the process. Now let’s explore some of the available tools to help streamline your content curation efforts.

Tools for Automating Content Curation

Automating the process can save time and energy, allowing marketers to focus on other aspects of their campaigns. Here are some tools that can help automate content curation:

a. Social Media Management Platforms

Social media management platforms such as Hootsuite and Buffer allow users to schedule posts in advance, track analytics, monitor conversations, and more. These platforms also offer features like RSS feeds for easy content discovery and integration with third-party apps for further automation capabilities.

b. RSS Feed Aggregators and Readers

 RSS feed aggregators such as Feedly make it easy to find relevant content from multiple sources in one place by subscribing to specific topics or keywords you’re interested in tracking. Once subscribed, these services will deliver new articles directly into your reader so you don’t have to search for them manually every day.

AI Newsletters

AI-powered curated newsletters use algorithms to identify the most relevant stories based on user preferences or interests and then deliver them straight into a subscriber’s inbox daily or weekly, depending on how often they want updates sent out. Services like Nuzzel provide personalized newsfeeds that update automatically without requiring manual effort from the user, making it easier than ever before to stay up-to-date with industry trends while saving time at the same time.

Automating content curation can help marketers save time and effort, allowing them to focus on optimizing their efforts for maximum impact. Next up, we’ll look at some tips for optimizing your content curation efforts.

Tips for Optimizing Your Content Curation Efforts

Visuals and images.

Visuals are an important part of content curation. They can help to engage your audience and make your content more memorable. Leverage visuals such as images, GIFs, infographics, and videos in order to draw attention to your curated content. This will help you stand out from the crowd and increase engagement with your audience.

Hashtags are another great way to optimize your content curation efforts. Hashtags allow you to categorize topics related to your curated content so that it is easier for people to find it on social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram. Use relevant hashtags when sharing curated content in order to increase visibility and reach a wider audience.

Finally, focus on quality over quantity when curating content for your website or blog. Quality is more important than quantity; if you provide valuable information that resonates with readers they will be more likely to return in the future. Take the time necessary to research topics thoroughly before creating any kind of curated post or article – this will ensure that you are providing only high-quality information that is useful for readers instead of just “filler” material meant solely for SEO purposes.

Keyword Research and Placement Strategies 

Keywords are the foundation of any successful SEO strategy. Content writers must research relevant keywords to target in their content, as well as where to place them within the article. When researching keywords, consider what words your target audience is likely searching for when looking for information related to your topic. 

Additionally, use keyword tools such as Google’s Keyword Planner or Moz’s Keyword Explorer to help you identify popular search terms related to your topic. Once you have identified a few relevant keywords, strategically place them throughout your content including titles, headings, subheadings and body copy.

By following these tips for optimizing your content curation efforts, you can create high-quality and engaging content that will help increase visibility and reach. Now let’s explore some ideas for different types of curated content to further improve your marketing strategy.

Ideas for Different Types of Curated Content

Lists and roundups .

Lists and roundups are a great way to curate content for your audience. They provide an easy-to-digest format that allows readers to quickly scan the list for relevant information. Examples of lists include “Top 10 Tips for Content Marketing” or “5 Ways to Improve Your SEO Strategy”. You can also create roundups, which are collections of related content from different sources on one topic. For example, you could compile blog posts from various industry experts on the same subject into one roundup post.

Infographics 

Infographics are visual representations of data that make complex topics easier to understand in a short amount of time. They can be used as part of your content curation strategy by highlighting key points or statistics about a particular topic in an eye-catching way that will draw readers in and keep them engaged with your content.

 Videos are becoming increasingly popular as a form of content curation due to their ability to capture attention and convey information quickly and effectively through visuals, audio, text, animation, etc.. Video curation is especially useful when it comes to breaking down complicated concepts into more digestible pieces so viewers can easily understand them without having to read long blocks of text or research extensively themselves.

Podcasts have become a popular form of curated content due to their ability to provide valuable insights into current trends within specific industries while giving listeners access to expert opinions on various topics without having to search multiple websites for relevant information themselves. Podcasts also allow users the convenience of listening while multitasking instead of having to sit down and read through lengthy articles or watch videos all the way through before moving onto something else.

Content curation is a great way to add value and diversity to your content marketing strategy. By following the best practices outlined in this article, you can ensure that your social media platforms are effectively sharing curated content for maximum reach and engagement.

Best Practices for Sharing Curated Content on Social Media Platforms

Sharing curated content on social media platforms is a great way to engage with your audience and increase visibility for your brand. To ensure that you’re getting the most out of this strategy, it’s important to follow best practices when sharing content.

Know the Guidelines of Each Platform

 Every social media platform has its own set of guidelines and rules regarding what type of content can be shared, how often it should be posted, etc. It’s important to familiarize yourself with these guidelines in order to make sure that you don’t violate any rules or get flagged by the platform for inappropriate content.

Compelling Headline

Let’s pretend that 100 people read your blog. Eighty percent will scan your headline, but only twenty percent will read on.Your headlines, in other words, have a lot of work to do.

An effective headline will pull the reader in with precise information and provide enough material to pique their interest without giving away the entire narrative.

An examination of one hundred million Twitter and Facebook headlines reveals the length of an eye-catching headline. The optimal headline length was determined to be around 65 characters (around 11 words).

Craft Compelling Captions 

The caption accompanying a post is just as important as the image or video itself. Make sure that you craft captions which accurately describe the post while also being engaging enough to draw viewers in and encourage them to click through or take some kind of action (e.g., like/share).

If you are curating someone else’s work, it is important to always give credit where credit is due. Tagging the original authors in posts helps build relationships between brands and increases trust among followers who may not have been aware of them before seeing their work featured on another account’s page.

By following the best practices for sharing curated content on social media platforms, you can increase engagement and drive traffic to your website. Now let’s look at how to measure the success of your content curation efforts.

How to Measure the Success of Your Content Curation Efforts

Measuring the success of your content curation efforts is essential to understanding how effective your strategy is. There are several metrics you can track to get a better idea of how well your content curation is performing.

Track Engagement Metrics 

Tracking engagement metrics such as likes, shares, and comments on social media platforms will give you an indication of how much people are interacting with your curated content. This will help you understand what types of content resonate most with your audience and which topics they find interesting or engaging. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to measure website traffic from sources such as organic search, referrals, and social media posts that link back to your site.

Monitor Traffic Sources 

Monitoring where visitors come from when they view or interact with your curated content can help you identify which channels are driving the most traffic and conversions for you. For example, if most of the visits to a particular page on your website came from a Twitter post featuring one of your curated articles, then it’s likely that Twitter was responsible for those visits and conversions. Knowing this information allows you to focus more resources on optimizing campaigns in those channels that have proven successful in driving results for you.

Analyzing conversion rates

The percentage of visitors who take action after viewing or interacting with a piece of content is another way to measure the success of a content curation campaign. By tracking clicks or views into leads or sales generated by each piece of curated material, marketers can gain valuable insights into which pieces were successful at converting readers into customers and prospects into leads, so they know what type of material works best for their target audience.

FAQs in Relation to Content Curation

It involves finding quality content related to a specific topic or theme, assessing its relevance and value, and then presenting it in an organized manner that adds context and insight for readers. Content curation can help marketers create more engaging content experiences for their audiences while also helping to improve SEO rankings by providing fresh, relevant information on a regular basis.

Content curation is the process of finding, organizing and sharing relevant content to an audience. It involves collecting information from various sources, such as blogs, websites, social media channels and news outlets. Content curation helps marketers create a valuable resource for their target audience by providing them with timely and relevant content that is tailored to their interests. By doing so, marketers can build trust with their customers while also driving traffic to their website or blog through organic search engine optimization (SEO).

A content curator is responsible for finding, organizing, and sharing relevant digital content to an audience. They research topics related to their target market and create a library of resources that can be used by marketers. Content curators also optimize the content they share for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes, ensuring it reaches the right people in order to drive engagement and conversions. Additionally, they analyze data from various sources such as analytics tools or surveys in order to gain insights into what type of content resonates with their target audience.

In conclusion, content curation is an essential part of any successful digital marketing strategy. By understanding the basics of content curation and utilizing tools to automate the process, marketers can save time while still creating valuable content for their audiences. Additionally, optimizing your efforts with tips such as using relevant hashtags and measuring success are important components of a successful content curation strategy. With these strategies in mind, marketers can use content curation to effectively engage their target audience and drive meaningful results.

Are you looking for ways to improve your content marketing and SEO efforts? With curationsoft , we offer a simple solution that will help you quickly find the best content on the web to promote your business online. Our powerful tools enable efficient and effective content curation so that you can maximize visibility of relevant topics, drive organic traffic to your website, and ultimately increase conversions. Try out our platform today – it’s free!

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The Definitive Guide to Content Curation

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This hands-on guide  shows you how curation fills that gap, answering the following questions:

• WHY content curation is a good idea, including a look at the new Buyer 2.0.
• WHAT content curation is, and how it fits in the context of the overall content marketing mix.
• HOW you can put content curation to work for your brand, including a detailed, step-by-step look at what, when, where, and how to curate effectively.
• WHY you’re curating content in the first place—a full-circle look at performance, measurement, and optimization.

This guide also includes insight from over 30 content marketing experts, who each answer the question: What’s the single biggest benefit curation brings to content marketing?

For an even more in-depth analysis, download the full eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Content Curation .

Why Content Curation? 

The path to purchase used to be a straightforward line from point A (buyer need) to point B (conversion). It was easy for marketers to guide and even control a prospect’s journey along this narrowly defined series of steps.

Today’s buyer is hyper-connected in real time via multiple devices and channels to an inexhaustible avalanche of information. This buyer isn’t waiting for you to tell them what to do next. In fact, according to Sirius Decisions, 70% of the buyer journey is now completed without any sales involvement.

So, how are buyers making their purchase decisions, and—more importantly—how can you influence those decisions?

Enter content marketing.

Businesses are adopting  content marketing  to respond to this consumer environment. It’s a process for developing, executing, and delivering the content and related assets needed to create, nurture, and grow a company’s customer base.

However, as more businesses jump onto the content marketing bandwagon, it becomes more difficult for marketers to maintain the frequency and quality of content required to compete.

• Improves  Search Engine Optimization : Curated content becomes additional indexable pages that provide more doorways into your site via search engines.
• Establishes Credibility as a Thought Leader: Curated content from high quality third party sources helps you develop go-to web resources that improve your credibility and trustworthiness as an impartial authority on your topic.
• Supports Lead Generation: Curated content drives incremental site visits that increases the potential for landing quality leads.
• Streamlines Lead Nurturing : Curated content is easily repurposed via newsletters, emails, and other channels to make lead nurturing simple and consistent.
• Complements Social Media & Blogging:  Curated content supplements your social media publishing schedule and helps facilitate social media conversations—not only with prospects and customers, but also with peers.

Quick Refresher: What is Curation?

Curata’s definition of content curation is as follows:

Content curation is when an individual (or team) consistently finds, organizes, annotates, and shares relevant and high quality digital content on a specific topic for their target market.”

• A person, not simply a computer algorithm.
• Being discerning, discriminative, and selective.
• Adding value: perspective, insight, and guidance.
• Not a one-time event or activity.
• A laser focus on your audience.

Key Points to Remember About Content Curation

• You can curate content from a wide variety of online sources, including trade publications, social media profiles, blogs, scientific journals, news outlets, and more.
• You can and should organize curated content using rich and tailored taxonomy,  grouping and categorizing related content.
• You can share content with your audience via many different channels including websites, social media feeds, blogs, mobile apps, widgets, and email newsletters.
• Content curation is not aggregation , which lacks the human touch.
• Content curation is a fundamentally human process . At the center of it all is the curator—you—hand-selecting which content to share, determining which organizational method will increase accessibility and usability, and adding context and insight to aid your audience in gaining a deeper understanding of the content.
• Content curation is not content farming : a.k.a. the unethical pirating of third-party content and publishing of high-quantity, low quality content.

How Does Content Curation Fit into the Content Marketing Mix?

According to Curata data, best-in-class marketers  create 65% of their own content and syndicate 10%. For the remainder they use content curation, as illustrated below.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Content Curation

There are five primary activities required for developing and maintaining an efficient, effective and ethical curation practice:

• Define your objectives
• Find your sources
• Curate by organizing and editorializing
• Share via a variety of channels and mediums
• Analyze and optimize your content curation performance

1. DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVES

Content curation can be used externally for marketing purposes, or internally for knowledge management and competitive intelligence. This guide is focused on the marketing side, but the majority of best practices covered are relevant for any use case, so let’s examine a few other possibilities:

Marketing Share content to inform, educate, and influence your prospects and customers, simultaneously strengthening your brand’s position as a go-to resource and industry thought leader.

Knowledge Management Educate an internal audience—such as a team of researchers, on a particular topic.

Publishing Build an online destination that can be monetized via advertisements or sponsorships.

Competitive Intelligence Inform internal stakeholders about relevant news. For example, you might use curation to keep your sales team up-to-date on your competitors and industry.

Before you start curating content, ensure that you have a clear goal in mind.

Picking Your Topic

Of course a topic can evolve over time, but you can ensure you’re starting on the right foot if you engage in proper due diligence.

The Three Elements of a Perfect Topic

There are three factors to consider when finding the perfect curation topic :

Ideally, you’re looking for a topic that:

• Has relatively low competition, meaning it isn’t already widely covered. • Is of specific interest to your audience. • Has generated sufficient content in the market for you to curate.

This topic should fall in the middle of the venn diagram. Below, I walk through three tests that help you choose the perfect topic.

Test 1: Survey the Competitor Landscape:

• Can I curate better than they can? Can you make your curation site more attractive to readers by offering greater depth of coverage, relevancy and/or consistency?
• Is there a better perspective or opposing point of view? Can you curate the same content from a different angle, highlighting a unique take on the topic?
•  Can I broaden or narrow my topic? Can you use increased specificity or, conversely, greater scope of topic to increase your content’s “discoverability”?

Test 2: Survey the Content Landscape

In order to create a successful curation program, you must have enough content to curate. Here are a few quick and easy ways to assess the availability of content:

• Plug your desired topic into Google News and sort your results by date to see how many articles are being created per day or week.
• Do the same exercise in Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
• Review blogs that cover your topic, either consistently or intermittently.

Test 3: Determine Your Audience Interest

Even after your topic passes the competitor and content landscape tests, the most important hurdle still remains. You have to ensure the topic is interesting to your business’s target audience. If not, your curated content will fail to capture or hold your audience’s attention. To gauge audience interest, use the following methods:

• Use the  Google Keyword Planner to measure the general level of online interest in a given topic.
• Use either interviews or a simple survey to get a sample of your customers’ opinions about your topic—how important it is, whether they feel they have information on it already, what specific questions they already have.

The perfect topic will pass all three tests: competitor, content, and audience. However, curators often need to work with a topic that is not quite perfect and only passes two of the three tests.

An example of a great topic can be found on IBM’s  Smarter Planet . IBM uses the site to educate professionals about smarter systems. They first surveyed their competitors and the current technology landscape before deciding that their audience (mainly IT professionals) would be interested in news about smart systems.

Discovering Content Sources

Once you’ve selected a topic, you need to find content sources to curate from. There are two broad types of sources to find articles from:

• Trade publications
• Twitter lists
• Specific Twitter users
• Industry blogs
• LinkedIn Pulse
• Scientific journals
• Feed readers
• Email newsletters
• Public relations teams

After you have selected a topic and gathered your sources, it is time to start curating. The first responsibility of a curator is to decide which of your sourced articles is worthy of your audience’s attention. Here are a few high-level criteria for making an initial assessment of an article’s value:

Relevant.  Is this content relevant to my audience? Though it may be related to my topic, does it offer any additional insights to my audience that they may not already know?

Credible . Is this content from a publication I trust, such as a reputable site or blog? Or is it from a low-quality site with no credible authority in my subject area?

Diverse. Does this content offer an alternative viewpoint? It doesn’t necessarily have to be one you or your organization agree with, just one that makes the discussion more interesting.

Validating . Does this content offer additional insight that validates my point of view?

Unique . Is this fresh content that provides my audience with new information or insight they haven’t found elsewhere? If this content is available elsewhere, is my site doing a better job of highlighting and contextualizing it?

How Often Should I Curate Content?

While the answer varies depending on your audience size and the cadence of your other communications, the Curata Content Marketing Tactics Planner  shows 48% of marketers are curating at least once a week.

All the work done so far—identifying, finding, and organizing your content—has been behind-the-scenes preparation for sharing your curated collection with your target audience. This is the moment of truth. As a content curator, you need to decide which sharing channels are best suited to your audience. However, if you are new to curating I suggest exploring your outreach options. In the following sections, I detail the pros and cons of these five sharing vehicles:

• A dedicated site
• A newsletter
• Social media posts
• An on-site news widget

A Dedicated Site

A dedicated site is sometimes called a microsite , and is populated primarily with curated content.

If you choose to create curated posts on a dedicated site, follow these structural and formatting best practices:

New Title- Don’t be afraid to edit a title so it’s more relevant to your audience. And consider adding an image if there isn’t one, or replacing the image with something more likely to catch your audience’s attention. Use design tools such as Canva or photo libraries like Shutterstock or Death To The Stock Photo .

Summary/Added Commentary- Whether you’re agreeing or disagreeing with the original content’s author, you should include:

• A brief summary of the article, including some context around why you curated it.
• A relevant quote from the original article. This is optional, but adds credibility.
• Additional insight, opinion, and/or context.

Link Back – Always include proper attribution.

A Question – Questions help contextualize the content and increase reader engagement.

Call-to-Action – Give your readers the option to learn more about the article’s topic and/or your company.

Email Newsletters

Introduction  – Let your audience know what you’re delivering.

Recent, original pieces   – This can include blog posts, infographics, webinars, or any other content your audience will find useful and/or interesting.

Relevant, timely, third-party sources  –  You may include articles you’ve curated via your blog and social media profiles.

Call-to-action  – Invite your readers to click through to learn more, download an eBook, request a demo, etc.

Contact information and share buttons   – Make it easy for readers to reach you and share your content.

Social Media Channels

Social media promotion  includes status updates with links to curated content, shared via platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Since it can be difficult to squeeze an entire message into 140 characters, we recommend starting a conversation with your readers by asking a question or voicing a strong opinion.

Facebook & LinkedIn

-New Title –   Edit the title so it’s as relevant as possible to your audience.

-Summary/Added Commentary – Include additional insight, opinion, and/or context.

-Ask a Question – Encourage readers to get involved in the conversation.

-Link Back – Always include proper attribution.

Feeds are real-time, standardized, automatic content syndication.

Embedded Widget

An embedded widget is a small pane integrated via code on your existing web properties that displays content delivered via a feed.

IBM has an “Around the Web” widget on the IBM Big Data Hub microsite , as seen below.

You can also embed a Twitter widget on your site to syndicate content exclusively from your Twitter Account.

Let’s take a look at metrics to pay attention to for content curation initiatives specifically, and just as importantly, misleading metrics to ignore.

Site/Blog Metrics

Metrics to Watch

Page Views and Visitor Growth . Similar to other content marketing campaigns, you can simply track traffic growth month over month in Google Analytics for page views and visitors.   As your site grows in terms of authority within your target audience by reputation, and in terms of search engine optimization (SEO), you should hopefully see a steady and healthy growth in traffic numbers.

Frequency & Recency .   If you provide valuable content, your visitors will keep coming back to you as a trusted resource for a topic.   If not, your visitors will click off to a third-party, and will likely never return again.   Either way, the metrics will reveal this.

Visitor Counts   measures how many times your visitors are coming back to your site. If the content you are curating is useful, your site will be good at retaining repeat visitors.  

Days Since Last Visit measures how often your repeat visitors are coming back to your site.   If you are curating valuable content, this metric should reflect the frequency of your curation and publishing habits.

Metrics to Ignore

Total Site Visits. The most successful   curators focus on a specific topic for a select audience.   If you are doing a good job curating, you are likely doing this too.   As a result, you should set your expectations appropriately when it comes to the total addressable site visitors.  For  a highly specific topic in a particular industry niche, even if you only have a few hundred visitors a day you may be doing a great job.

Comments. While comments on your curated content should not be ignored entirely, it should be taken with a grain of salt.   It’s natural for your readers to comment directly on the original article where the content was written. If your comment count is low, that may in fact be alright.

Engagement, Bounce Rate & Visit Time.   These metrics tend to be high on sites with large amounts of original content, where users can spend a lot of time onsite in a single uninterrupted session. However, with curated sites the content consumption dynamics are very different.   Visitors often leave the curated site to view interesting third-party content, and return again to read more content. As a curator, you should not be overly concerned about engagement, bounce rate, or time on site numbers.

Email Newsletter Metrics

Subscriber Growth.  If you have a sign-up form for your newsletter on your site, list growth is one of the most important metrics to watch.   A steady growth in subscribers demonstrates people visiting your site find your curated content valuable enough that they want the content pushed to them via email.

Opt-outs & Unsubscribes. On the flip side, keep an eye on opt-out and unsubscribe rates.   If you find many of your subscribers are leaving there are a couple of things you can do. Email them less often—perhaps change from a daily to weekly list; segment your list by topic so the content is more relevant to them; pay more attention to the content you are curating—perhaps you are being too self-promotional; or be more consistent—you may be curating sporadically which makes you less trusted.

Click Through Rate. Monitoring your click through rate is important to see how valuable your content is in isolation.   If your audience is clicking through on your curated content, it’s relevant, timely, and valuable.  The converse is not necessarily true however:  a low click-through rate can be deceiving.   Many readers get value by skimming headlines, even without clicking through.

Open Rate. While curated newsletters typically enjoy the highest open-rates, more than lead nurturing or promotional emails, open rates are often misleading.   Open rates for any email newsletter can only be computed for readers who click through on links or don’t disable images in newsletters.   So if you see a 25% open rate, the actual open rate is likely much higher

Social Media Metrics

Followership/Fan Growth. If you share your content over social channels such as Twitter or Facebook, a good metric to track is your followership or fan page growth.   While a larger number of people may be viewing your content as they browse Twitter, the ones who value your content and want to continuously receive it will follow you (or may simply be hoping for a follow back).

Retweets.   Another social media metrics to track is retweets.   While this is a metric for any content marketer, curators can employ a little trick to better track the spread of their curation efforts. When you share a third party article on Twitter, retitle its headline.   This allows you to share your perspective, make it more appealing—and also more cleanly track retweets.

Feed Metrics

Views, Click-throughs, Subscriptions. To measure the success of a feed requires seeing if it’s being viewed and if people are subscribing to it. To track the consumption (views, click-throughs)   and retention (subscriptions) of your feed, use   feed analytic tools such as FeedBurner and FeedBlitz.

While many of the metrics above don’t markedly differ from typical content marketing metrics, curation does significantly change things by providing a different content consumption experience.  N ew curators are often thrown off by strange and disturbing looking metrics such as bounce rates—which they should be ignoring.   Hopefully this provides a quick overview of the best metrics for curation.

What’s Next?

The most effective marketing is no longer just about your product or even your customer’s needs. Today’s most evolved marketers understand their strategy needs to include a larger ecosystem that considers their entire market and industry. We hope, having read this guide, that you now have a better understanding of exactly how content curation helps you do just that.

For more content curation resources and a bonus 12-step content curation checklist, download Curata’s full eBook on the topic, The Ultimate Guide to Content Curation.

Pawan Deshpande

Pawan Deshpande is the founder and CEO of Curata, a Boston-based company offering content marketing software used by thousands of marketers around the world. He spearheaded the first-ever panel at SxSW on Content Marketing in 2011, and was a 2014 Finalist for MarketingProfs B2B Marketer of the Year. Pawan was an engineer at Microsoft and Google where he was awarded patents in social networking and machine learning. He previously attended MIT where his graduate thesis won top departmental and international awards.

Pawan is also a blogger for The Huffington Post, the Content Marketing Institute, CMO.com, Forbes, Marketing Profs, and other technology and marketing publications.

Curata Content Analytics

Data sourced from Curata CMP, our content marketing platform. Find out how to use Curata’s powerful analytics and calendar functionality to upgrade your marketing  here .

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How to Build a Remarkably Effective Content Curation Strategy

Curating content is one of the best and most proven paths to online success. It’s the secret sauce to getting noticed online. Or just finding great content and sharing it with your audience.

But where do you start with creating a world-class content curation strategy that significantly increases your audience reach?

There are so many interesting top content curation sources out there. Find them and dig for the best content. You can also subscribe to newsletters or browse communities where people share memorable stories to find quality content.

Once you find the best stuff, take time to sift through it and organize the best posts according to topics. And then, of course, share with your legion of fawning fans.

This post will show you how to curate your way to an excellent blog.

What is content curation?

Content curation is a well-thought-out process where you take content ( explainer videos , audio, articles, even images) from different sources and organize it in one central place.

Curated content can tip the scales in your favor if you're a content marketer. So, collect the best pieces of content from your niche and present them to your readers (include some additional context on why you picked the content).

Examples of curated content

Sharing a blog post link with your audience Creating a roundup of top advice from industry experts Sharing other people's social media posts to serve your goals

While this is a simple definition of content curation, there's much more to it. One thing for sure is that curating top content comes with boatloads of benefits.

Benefits of being good at content curation

Curated content often aligns with your content strategy . It bridges the gap between your best in-house created content with additional commentary and analysis from across the web.

Benefits of good content curation

Building authority. You’ll build authority in your industry or niche if you do this consistently. Finding the best content, sharing it with your audience, and commenting on articles from across your industry bumps your authority.

And soon, people will start looking up to you for great content and what’s worth talking about in the online world. Reach this level, you can speak and share on a specific topic.

Gaining massive influence. Once people see you can curate quality content, they expect you to share more. That’s because they feel you have the power to influence others to click, read, share, and even do more. 

Getting in a solid groove with content curation will gain you massive influence across all social platforms—a dream for most content marketers.

Cultivating relationships. Becoming an influencer means spreading goodwill or honoring others with content shares or mentions.

It’s akin to high-fiving or offering a tip. And a great way to forge deep connections with other influencers in your space.

Aside from these pointers, having a solid content curation strategy lets you share content with your audience in distinct voices and points of view. 

It’s about keeping your audience coming back to you. So, make sure to find the best content for your audience. Before you go hunting for quality content, there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

Following content curation best practices

Curating content for your blog requires intricate planning. If you want to do it right, avoid taking shortcuts that can negatively impact your SEO (search engine optimization). 

Things to consider before publishing content

1. know your target audience.

How often do you think about your audience when creating content? Strive to know your audience before scheduling curated content. It’s essential. If you want to know your audience more profoundly, ask yourself these questions:

How will this piece of content help my audience achieve their goals? How’s the content relevant to their problems? Does the content align with my audience's perception of my blog? Are the pieces of content worth it? Can they work?

If you can't answer the first three questions before sharing your content, review your content curation strategy and ensure it fits your audience’s needs.

2. Cite your sources

Always cite your sources before sharing curated content on your blog, social media platform, or website. It's the most appropriate way of sharing curated content.

How to credit your sources? Link the content back to the original creator. Or, better yet, tag the creator using appropriate citations and nuances.

Passing off curated content as originally yours is plain wrong. It’s a gray area that borders on plagiarism. And worse of all, it can negatively impact your brand.

Social media platforms such as Instagram or Twitter allow users to tag original content creators using an “at the rate” sign (or @). Citing your sources may also mean keeping your content to the correct length . Or using relevant hashtags and multimedia content.

3. Offer the right blend of content

As you pad your social media calendar with various content, find some room for curated content. And then schedule all your content ahead of time.

But what if the curated posts cast a gloom over my original content? Find a balance.

Some people share more curated content than posts they create (maybe you're one of them). A good rule of thumb is to share about 60% of curated and 40% of original content. This 60/40 ratio should resonate well with your audience.

Curate your way to a better blog

Content curation is a never-ending activity. 

Many people want to get noticed, become influencers , and even have daily fun online. However, they want to avoid putting the legwork in to achieve these goals.

If you want to get more followers and establish authority, find great content and share it with your audience because that's what a real content marketer does.

And if you want to develop a world-class content curation strategy, know where to look for great content, how to find the best content, and the time to organize the best posts in one central place before sharing it with your audience. There’s no shortcut to success.

Velislava Georgieva is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Inbound Blogging , specializing in Content Marketing and Outreach Strategies. Besides her passion for digital marketing, she likes yoga, fitness, and hiking. You can connect with her on LinkedIn .

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The Ultimate Guide To Content Curation: Tips & Tools

The Ultimate Guide To Content Curation: Tips & Tools

Content curation is a process where a content creator sifts through large volumes of information and selects what they consider valuable. It is often used in social media, blogs, and online communities to find quality information and present it succinctly to the user.

Do you ever get so overwhelmed by all the content that you just want to give up? You're not alone. Everyone feels like they're swimming in a sea of information, and it's challenging to figure out what matters to you. 

The good news is that you don't have to spend months reading all that content. Instead, you can learn about it, choose only what matters to you, and quickly curate the best stuff from across the web to build your knowledge and inform your decisions. This is the ultimate guide to content curation: What you need to know, how to get started, and why you should.

Everyone and their brother has a blog these days. But how do you know if your content is worth curating?

If you want to find out whether or not your content is good enough to attract attention, we've put together a step-by-step guide to help you decide if your content is ready for the big time.

Table of Contents

What is Curated Content?

A company or team creates a curated post to showcase its product or service to a target audience. These posts are usually geared towards increasing awareness and engagement or driving sales.

Companies spend millions of dollars to create, manage, and distribute content in various ways. This content could include the following:

• Email messages
• Social media posts
• Website copy
• And much more!

How Is Content Curated?

A good example of curated content is an email that you receive from a friend with a link to her new jewellery store. Your friend may have chosen a product that's popular in your social circles and is promoting it to your friends.

The content is curated for you by your friend, but it still benefits the company that made it.

Why Is Content Curation Important?

There are many reasons why content curation is vital to your business:

Brand awareness

Curating content helps you build a profile for your business in a specific industry. You can do this through social media, blogs, websites, or email marketing campaigns.

This is especially helpful for local businesses since it allows you to reach your customers in a way that's tailored to their interests and geography.

Local content benefits companies in an urban or suburban area since your audience will likely know the types of businesses you offer.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Curating content helps your business rank higher in search engines, which means more traffic and potential customers.

You can start by creating a content strategy that's targeted to your industry or niche. Next, you can use your social media accounts to share your curated content and promote these posts via email and on your site.

Content curation is a simple way to attract new customers to your business. If you want more business, check out our guide to content curation for your business.

Promotion and Marketing

Curated content can also help boost your business through social media marketing .

You can create content that targets your ideal customer or market. For example, a hair salon could write a blog post about achieving the perfect blowout, or a restaurant could write a recipe for a popular dish in their neighbourhood.

You can engage with your followers and potentially increase brand awareness by curating relevant content for your target audience.

Curation also allows you to share curated content on your social media accounts, which is another excellent way to get noticed by your customers.

Content curation is a great way to improve social media marketing and boost brand recognition.

Your curated content will help you sell more products and services.

If you're selling a product or service, your customers search for it online. You can increase sales by curating content relevant to your audience's needs and interests.

Once you have a strong base of followers on your social media accounts, you can use your curated content to promote your services.

How Can You Promote Content Curated for Your Business?

Social media is a great place to share your curated content, but you can also use other methods to promote your content. Here are some of our favourite content promotion tips:

Create a blog

Blog posts are a great way to create highly engaging, helpful, and unique content.

Start by defining your target audience. What kind of blogs would be interesting to them?

Next, choose a topic or niche that's related to your business . You can write a series of blogs to help your audience find the information they need.

Blogging also helps you build authority in your industry, which makes it an excellent way to start your content marketing.

Create email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is a great way to promote your curated content. This method lets you send a personalised message to your followers and encourages them to return to your site and subscribe.

Use a tool like Hubspot to design your email marketing campaign. You can also use a tool like  MailChimp  to manage your emails.

When it comes to email marketing, the more personalised the message, the better it performs.

Create a newsletter

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to communicate with your audience, so why not use it to promote your curated content?

Many businesses use newsletters to educate their readers on topics that interest them. They can share their best articles with their subscribers, giving them an exclusive deal on an item or a discount on their products.

Create an infographic

Infographics are a great way to educate your audience on a topic. They're visually friendly and easy to share on social media.

The key is choosing a topic your audience cares about and ensuring it's relevant to your business.

Content Curation vs Content Creation

Content curation and content creation involve gathering and arranging information into a meaningful format, but they are different. Content curation involves finding existing content relevant to the topic or interest, while content creation involves creating original content.

Content curation means collecting links to the most helpful and relevant websites for a particular audience. The main difference between curating and creating content is that curation allows you to choose what you want to include, while creation requires that you cover every aspect of the topic or interest.

How to Curate Content

As an editor, content curation is your job. Your role is to find and organise relevant content for your audience. You should consider the following steps when curating content:

Find the right websites

Make sure to collect links to quality sources of information, including reputable blogs, business news sites, and social media feeds . Also, look for other sources that offer information on a specific subject, such as videos and podcasts .

Create a plan

Curate content with a plan. This step ensures that the collected information is consistent with the theme of your post and the type of post you're making. For example, you may create a list of 10 things you've learned about a particular topic. This process helps ensure that you don't leave out any vital information.

Use filters

Use filters to help limit the amount of information you're exposed to daily. Decide what information you're willing to receive and what you're willing to share. For example, you may decide only to visit blogs with a domain that includes your company name to avoid finding irrelevant content.

Create a schedule

You should set aside time to curate content every day. Some of that time could be spent during your lunch break, while others could be scheduled during the workweek or weekend. The frequency of your curation is up to you.

Are You Creating or Caring?

While it's common for content curation and creation to be confused, the difference is clear. The difference between curation and creation is in the depth of your content. If you are an excellent curator, you know the value of available content to your audience, while creation is about generating content from scratch.

When you curate, your goal is to find relevant links and resources for the audience. When you create, your goal is to add value and tell a unique story to your audience.

The difference is that curation is about gathering information that is already available and arranging it in a way that's valuable to your readers. Creation is about finding a unique angle on an issue or a topic that is not commonly covered.

Benefits of Content Curation

There are many reasons to use content curation, and if you're a business owner or small business owner, here are a few top ones to consider.

The Content Is Categorised.

Whether you want to create a blog for your interest or a business blog for your business, you'll need categories to organise your content. You can organise your blog posts by theme, topic, location, industry, and other options. You can then use these topics to search for related content. If you want to share content, you'll know that you're getting a curated collection of articles that are relevant to your interests.

The Content Is Chosen.

You don't have to choose random content submitted to your blog. Instead, you can look at content from your competitors, industry experts, and news sources. This allows you to stay on top of what's trending in your industry, and you can always check with a content curator to see if any new content is relevant to you.

The Content Is Updated.

For your content to apply to your readers, it needs to be updated regularly. You'll want to ensure that you update your content once a week or even every other day. Your readers won't have to go through multiple blogs to get the latest information on the industry.

The Content is Personalised.

Another benefit of using a content curator is that you can customise your blog to be unique to your company, product, and brand. This means that your content will be more meaningful to your audience, and they will trust it more.

The Content is Organised.

When you use content curation, you can also organise your content into categories, which helps your readers find content that is relevant to them. This will make it easier for them to navigate your site and find the content they're interested in.

The Content Is Shared.

One of the best ways to promote your content is to share it. When you're looking for inspiration and ideas, there's no better place to go than to read what your competitors and industry experts say.

Content curation is the way to get your brand noticed by your audience and ensure that your blog is always relevant to your audience's interests. You'll gain new followers, receive quality traffic, and have the opportunity to make your blog more successful.

Content Curation Best Practices

With the rise of digital media , the curation practice has become one of the most effective ways to create valuable, engaging content on any topic.

While content curation was once the realm of editors working at magazines or newspapers, the practice rapidly expanded across the internet.

When done well, content curation can provide you with a steady stream of great content from other sources and increase your authority within the industry you're targeting. It's also an easy way to build relationships with influencers who might share similar interests and are more willing to connect with you than they would a stranger.

Content curation can also be a great way to build traffic to your website. By reaching out to experts and experts-in-training, you can tap into an existing audience, helping to turn them into followers. This can be guest posts, sponsored content, or paid content.

However, it's essential to understand that there's no one-size-fits-all content curation strategy and many different ways to approach it. For this reason, it's crucial to adapt to the needs of your niche.

The following steps should help you determine how to curate the right content for your target market and website.

Decide Who Should Do the Curation

Do you have a niche topic that you want to cover, or are you looking for topics that someone else already covers? In either case, it's critical to choose your audience.

For example, suppose you run a fashion blog. In that case, it's probably not wise to offer content on power tools because so many blogs already provide quality subject coverage.

Instead, curate content on the topics most relevant to your chosen audience, such as trends or fashion accessories. If you're trying to build a reputation in the wine industry, you will do better to curate content on wine trends than you would on a topic like beer or spirits.

Once you've identified your audience, you'll need to determine whether or not the people in your niche are better suited to curate content themselves.

For example, if you're building a fitness blog, people in your target audience are likely more familiar with the exercise routine than you are. However, if you're a fitness professional, you could offer content on fitness topics your audience doesn't know much about.

Similarly, you might decide that it makes sense to use a freelancer to curate content for your site, particularly if you're looking to build relationships with other experts.

In this scenario, you might ask a freelancer to reach out to an influencer, not in your niche and see if they'd be willing to contribute a guest post. If so, you can use this as a way to build a relationship with the expert, and that relationship could eventually lead to a collaboration of some sort.

Decide What Kind of Content to Curate

There are many types of content curation, ranging from expert interviews to product reviews to event announcements. To determine what type of content is best for you, it's helpful to consider what you want to get out of the process.

If you're looking to build a portfolio of great content, it may make sense to curate a variety of topics to build your authority in your niche. On the other hand, if you're looking to build relationships with influencers and other experts, you may be interested in curated content that aligns with a specific theme, such as travel or parenting.

You can also focus on topics you're particularly interested in. For example, if you're a business owner, you might curate content on business growth or marketing topics.

Finally, choosing topics you know will be helpful for your audience is crucial. This can be especially important if you're trying to build a business. For example, if you sell fitness products, it's unlikely that a wine review will help your customers.

Ultimately, content curation aims to create something valuable for your audience. To do so, it's critical to consider what kind of content best serves your niche's needs and interests.

Content Curation Tools and Software

Content curation tools are apps, plugins, and browser extensions that automate collecting information from the web and organising and presenting it in a user-friendly format.

Many different content curation tools are available, and many are free. Some of the best ones for WordPress include:

• Google Alerts  – Google alerts are one of the simplest and easiest ways to get notified when a topic you are interested in comes up online. It allows you to create alerts on specific topics.
• Buzzsumo  – Buzzsumo is a tool that helps you understand a topic's importance. It allows you to create keywords that you will use to search for specific topics. Then, you can analyse the results to understand what people are saying about it and how well they rank for it.
• Quora  – Quora is another tool that allows you to create keywords and then track the trends and popularity of those keywords. It is also a great place to share your knowledge and expertise.
• Pocket  – Pocket is a tool that allows you to save articles, videos, and other types of content that you find helpful and relevant. You can read, watch, or listen to these items.
• Feedly  – Feedly is a tool that lets you find interesting news, blogs, and web pages. You can bookmark pages for later reference or save articles, videos, or whatever else you find on the web. You can also filter what you see based on your interests.

Using these tools can help you stay up to date on any particular subject, keep you informed on what others are thinking about, and help you discover new topics.

How to Curate More Meaningful Content on Social Media

You can use these tools to help you learn more about a topic and share your insights on the subject. You can also use these tools to follow the conversation, comment on the posts, and build relationships with people who share the same interests as you.

Here are some tips for curating meaningful content on social media:

1 – Start with the basics.

As you build your list of content curation tools, ensure that you first start with the essential tools. These tools are the most effective at helping you build your lists and track what's happening in your niche.

2 – Use tools that are easy to use.

It is much easier to stay up to date if you can quickly scan the internet for relevant topics and find the right tools to help you curate meaningful content. If you need to look for the right tools, it will take away from the time you have to do your research.

3 – Focus on your own content.

Before using these tools, it is essential to consider whether you want to focus on sharing or curating content. Most of these tools are designed to help you curate content, but they may not be the best tools to start with.

4 – Choose one tool to rule them all.

It is possible to use a variety of different tools, but it is crucial to have one tool that you can use to gather the content that you are most interested in, no matter where it comes from. This way, you won't lose valuable time using different tools.

5 – Create and manage your lists.

It is crucial to be able to organise and manage your lists. There are many different ways to categorise the different content you find, but ensure you can manage your lists and easily access them.

6 – Share your own content.

While using these tools to curate more meaningful content, you should also use them to share your own content. If you are curating content, it also makes sense to share that content. The more people who know about your work, the more likely they will share your content with their followers.

7 – Follow what others are doing.

Follow what others are doing on social media. You can use a variety of different tools to help you do this, including:

• Twitter  – Follow people who are talking about topics that interest you
• Instagram  – Use hashtags to follow relevant people or companies
• YouTube  – Subscribe to channels that are relevant to your content
• Pinterest  – Follow people who are sharing interesting content
• LinkedIn  – Join groups that are related to your work

These tools will help you discover what others are thinking about and allow you to build relationships with others in your field.

Wrapping Up

The truth is that you don't need to spend lots of money to create high-quality content. There are many free tools available that will help you produce content that people will want to share.

Curating content is simple: you find and share content your target audience is already consuming. You can find great content from other bloggers and share it on your site.

You can do this manually or through a tool like Buzzsumo, which allows you to search, tag, and save content based on keywords.

Read this article to find out how to start curating content today!

Stuart Crawford

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• Content Curation Guide: Definition, Examples, and…

Content Curation Guide: Definition, Examples, and Expert Tips

Running a website with a blog is a lot of work. You're constantly at some stage in the content production pipeline or paying people to be in that pipeline for you. It's a constant effort to keep a blog relevant, up to date, and generating value.

One trick many marketers use to help fill out their content creation calendars and engage their audiences is content curation. You may have heard of it before, or maybe not, but you've likely seen it around. Today, I've decided to dig deep and write an ultimate guide to content curation for businesses and brands. Want to curate high-quality content the right way? I'll teach you how.

First, let's start with the basics.

What is Content Curation?

"Curation" is the critical word for our discussion today. It means:

"The action or process of selecting, organizing, and looking after the items in a collection or exhibition."

A museum curates the items inside it. Museums choose artifacts/art, organize, research, catalog, care for, repair/restore, and secure these items. However, the museum comparison isn't entirely accurate. With a museum, a piece of art or an artifact is displayed in one location only. With online content, you list it on your website without removing it from its original location.

The actual act of content curation is easy. You pick a piece of content produced by someone else. You curate that content on your feed, which could be as simple as retweeting it, or as complex as creating  a roundup post . You add some value to it, so your audience sticks with you. Finally, you repeat the process as much as necessary. Some bloggers have great content fueled entirely by content curation, and others rarely (or never) curate anything. Most people are somewhere in between.

The idea of content curation for digital marketing is to give you a way to promote content to your audience, establish benefits for your brand, but minimize the time invested in filling out that editorial calendar. It helps fill gaps in your content flow while building up other benefits. What are those benefits?

Why You Should Curate Content

Content curation has a lot of benefits, but they aren't necessarily intuitive. I run into many businesses who believe that even so much as mentioning the existence of a competitor will somehow drive away their customers, so the idea of curating content is somewhat foreign to them.

(Side note: if you believe mentioning a competitor will cause you to lose customers, you need to look at why that is. Is your product so sub-par that the only way you can survive is by relying on people not knowing any better? Have some confidence; your customers are almost certainly aware of your competitors, and they chose you for a reason. You need to understand why, so you can capitalize on that. But that's all beside the point.)

Here are the primary benefits of curated content:

1. It gives your followers something more to read about than just you.

Let's be honest here; very few brands are interesting enough that people follow them just to read more about them. There are hardcore fanatics for brands like Disney or Coke, and there are people who follow sports teams as a lifestyle, but a small business? No one is making "fans of your business" their identity.

Writing about you and you alone isn't interesting enough to keep people around. By curating content, you give your followers something else to read about while capturing their interest in other ways, such as by providing commentary or context.

2. It shows you're ready to play as part of a team.

If you sequester yourself and hide from even mentioning others in your niche, how can you ever expect to build partnerships, network with other businesses, or cross-promote? Successful brands do this all the time. If you refuse to ever interact with your industry at large, no one in that industry will approach you either.

3. It helps you fill out an editorial calendar without content creators.

Marketing takes a lot of work, and you need to post pretty frequently.

Industry recommendations  include things like:

• Post on your blog 1-5 times per week.
• Post on Facebook 1-2 times per day.
• Post on Instagram 3-7 times per week.
• Post to Twitter 1-5 times per day.

Other social networks have their recommendations as well. Every platform you use needs to have content created for it, and that adds up quickly. Even if you write one blog post and repost it a couple of times a week, you still have a lot of social media slots to fill. Curating content helps you fill out some of those slots without spending too much time doing it.

4. It helps you build authority and thought leadership.

The key to curation – and one of the rules I'll talk about later – is to add value to the content you curate. That value helps position you as a leader in your industry. People will come to you because you know what you're talking about.

You curate industry news and views, add commentary, add context, and reframe data in ways they can understand; whatever it is, they can only get it from you, and that's something special.

5. Users can view you as a hub to get their news.

If you wanted to keep up with SEO news, which would you choose to do?

• Build a feed of blogs like Forbes, SEORoundTable, Search Engine Journal, Ahrefs, Neil Patel, etc., and check every one of them every day.
• View HypotheticalSEOCurator.com and get all of the essential information from those sites, in one place, with commentary and added value?

I don't know about you, but I'd choose number two every time. I don't have the time in a day to spend checking a hundred different websites, and I'd much rather have someone do the legwork for me and give me a curated feed of exciting and essential content to read each day. And, of course, our hypothetical curator gains a lot of value from being that go-to feed hub.

6. It helps you build relationships with influencers and other brands.

When you curate blog posts, you're delivering value to the people who created that content. It usually counts as a backlink, improves rankings, and drives traffic that could potentially convert for them.

These valuable metrics help you build a relationship with them, which can blossom into a partnership, a sponsorship, or something more.

What Platforms Can You Use to Curate Content?

Now that you know why you should curate content, the next topic of discussion is where you should curate content. There are three primary feeds that you can use to curate content, and each one of them has a different level of engagement necessary to curate successfully. From least to most, they are:

1. Your Social Media Feeds

Social media is practically custom-designed for curation. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram; all facilitate curation in their unique ways. Facebook, for example, requires the most editorialization to get the most out of it. Pinterest is the exact opposite, where you can curate content with zero added value other than being the one forming the collection, and people will still use your boards. Social media is also straightforward for curation, with simple buttons like Share and Retweet available to you at all times and for all content.

Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can help you automate your curated content to your followers with scheduling templates.

2. Your Newsletter

Your email newsletter is an excellent route for certain kinds of curation. You have a narrow, tight audience of interested people reading your newsletter, so you need to focus on the content and value you provide with the curation.

However, since it's not public, you don't have to worry as much about SEO issues and other quirks of content curation that crop up elsewhere.

We create blog content that converts - not just for ourselves, but for our clients, too.

We pick blog topics like hedge funds pick stocks. Then, we create articles that are 10x better to earn the top spot.

Content marketing has two ingredients - content and marketing. We've earned our black belts in both.

3. Your Blog or Website

Curating fresh content on your website is very difficult to do right and requires a lot of investment in added value and careful formulation to avoid duplicate content , content theft penalties, or other search algorithm concerns. You need to be curating  content, not  reposting  or  stealing  content, and that can be a tricky line to draw for some people.

However, since the amount of effort required to create your own content is steep, curating the occasional piece of content can have a hugely beneficial effect on the time you're saving.

How to Curate Content the Right Way

Alright, two essential questions out of the way, which leaves one left: how do you curate content? Luckily, it's not that hard; it just requires two things: the right frame of mine and structure to curation, and the groundwork set up to establish your content feeds.

Ground Rules for Content Curation

First, let's start with the ground rules. You have to follow these, or else you're either not going to get any interest in your curated content, or you're going to fall into a penalty head-first.

1. Always read the content through.  One of the biggest problems with modern social media is that people see and react to a headline without reading the full content. It's easy to stir up outrage and get emotional clicks from people, but that's not going to do much good for your brand . Headlines can also be misleading, and the actual blog post might not be what you think it is. Don't get fooled by trolls or share new content that doesn't fit your brand, and don't fall for the clickbait trap .

Read every piece you want to share thoroughly, and try to stick with trusted sources if you can.

2. Never wholly duplicate content.  Whenever you're curating content, you need to do one of two things:

• Use the platform's built-in system for sharing content with attribution, or
• Curate only a tiny part of the original content, with a link to the rest.

On Twitter, you can retweet with a comment, and that's fine. On your blog, you should copy a short excerpt (possibly the first paragraph of the blog post) with a link to it and focus the rest of your post on added value.

The biggest potential issue you run into here is plagiarized content.

If you're copying an entire piece of content,  you're syndicating it, or you're stealing it , and neither of those is quite where you want to be with curation.

3. Always give attribution to the original author.  Again, curation is all about adding value to a piece of content, and that means you need to share the original content with attribution so people can view it themselves. If you're copying content without attribution, you're just stealing it.

4. Aim for content sources your readers don't know about. One of the secret tricks to content curation right here. Everyone in marketing knows about the Ahrefs blog, so curating content from Ahrefs isn't going to be very valuable unless you have some significant added value of your own. But, if you find helpful content from Bob's SEO Depot, which gets 1,000 hits a week, not many people are likely watching it. By sharing a variety of sources, you benefit them more, you get to add value in a more meaningful way, and people will be more interested to see content they haven't seen before.

5. Add something of value. I've written this a dozen times so far in this post, and I'm writing it again. Content curation requires you to add value. Content curation requires you to add value. Content curation requires you to add value. Are you with me so far?

The value you add can come in different forms, and sometimes it doesn't need to be a lot of value, but it has to be there. Value-added content includes:

• Turn your website into a hub. People will value checking one location instead of many to get their industry news; that's why industry publications exist.
• Unique thoughts and opinions. If you're a thought leader and have something interesting to say on a subject, content curation is an excellent vehicle to convey those thoughts.
• Added context. Context is particularly worthwhile for curating biased blog posts; you can add context and reframe a statement differently. For example, if someone tweets that "500 people are being fired for X reason", you can reframe it as "500 out of 1 million people, or .05% of the workforce" to help fight back against outrage clicks.

Different kinds of content and different platforms can benefit from various types of content and added value.

Finding Content to Curate

One of my tips above is to find content to curate from sources your readers aren't already reading. Curating content from Forbes, or CNN, or Ahrefs, or what have you, doesn't do a lot for you. Heck, platforms like Facebook even truncate repeated shares of the same content from multiple people on your feed, so if you're not the only one curating the content, your additions might not even be visible to a good chunk of your target audience. So, where should you look?

1. Social media feeds. Social media is an excellent resource for curating content. Look for LinkedIn or Facebook accounts that aren't top-tier names, or look for particularly insightful individuals. With social listening tools like Buzzsumo, you can monitor industry-related keywords to find social media content that most people miss.

2. Newsletters.  Subscribe to newsletters from brands, particularly smaller brands, to gather inspiration. Industry newsletters are also a great way to get a digest of interesting and relevant content.

3. Other curators.  Every industry has people who spend 60-90% of their time curating content, and those accounts can be good aggregation resources for you. Even if you're curating some of the same stuff they are, you can add more value than they probably do.

4. Niche publications.  Young magazines, small blogs, zines; these are the bread and butter of curation. You'll want to build up a list of these as you find them and check for posts they publish that aren't just the posts that go viral.

5. User-generated content. You can monitor user-generated content, but you can also solicit it. Using Twitter hashtags and Twitter chats is a great way to do this. Host a conversation about a specific topic, and curate the best responses you find. Alternatively, use Twitter search to crawl discussions on popular subjects in your industry.

6. Paywalled content. This one you have to be careful with. You can't just share paywalled blog posts for free, but you can curate some value out of it and refer people to the source for more information. You do have to pay for it, though, which makes some people less interested in using it as a source.

7. Content curation tools. Software like Feedly is excellent for collecting Atom and RSS feeds from top blogs and pulling in real-time updates from those sites. As soon as one of them publishes breaking news, they'll notify you, and you can quickly curate your content based on this new information.

Saving a site to Feedly also serves as a bookmark, where you can sort them into folders to visit later. You could also look into more specialized automation software like Curata, which does most of this work for you.

Pick a Content Curation Ratio

What is your ratio of curated posts to original content? That depends a lot on your brand, your position as a thought leader, the value you add to the content, and how your audience supports it.

I recommend starting at about 60/40. For every six original pieces you publish, you can curate four pieces. However, this varies depending on the platform. For social media , if you're tweeting five times a day, two of those can be your posts, and three can be curated, or you can skew it further. And, of course, there are accounts out there that tweet dozens of times per day, and that gives you more flexibility.

For blogs, I recommend a lot less curation. If you post three times per week, you should probably limit your curation process to once every two weeks. Of course, that also depends on the value you add. A weekly roundup post is an example of valuable content curation done right, and that can be a core part of your content marketing strategy, so it varies.

Monitor User Engagement and Interest

The key to everything in marketing is adjustments. No strategy will work indefinitely, and you'll have to change and adapt to the whims of your audience, the will of the market, and the rules of the search engines.

So, monitor your content curation efforts. Do they do well?

Can you curate more and get more value, or do you get better returns if you curate less? The answer will vary from brand to brand, so the key is monitoring it all and incrementally changing to find the best balance.

Update: New Advancements in Content Curation

There are a few new trends that have emerged in the past year, and I'm sure we'll see more of these:

• Artificial Intelligence: Things like ChatGPT are making it very easy to curate content. I've written about AI tools at length; they start to fall apart the more that AI writes, but what about if you have AI write short sections? It is more confident and accurate in short bursts. It's not going to replace writers any time soon, and you need to review and fact-check your content carefully, but it can certainly assist with content curation, especially with AI-powered tools like Clearscope .
• Automated Content Curation: Tools for automated content curation could have become more sophisticated, allowing businesses and individuals to save time while still providing relevant and high-quality content to their audiences. This strategy is nothing new; think about what Yelp is doing with its content pages. Those pages are automatically generated, and they are carefully sorted and curated by their software. Still, it can get you into trouble if you're not careful. Google has gone back and forth about automatically-generated content, but for now, it seems that as long as the results are helpful to users, they will be rewarded. We can likely expect search engines to change their stance on this type of content as it evolves over the coming years.

So, there you have it; my ultimate guide to content curation. I know it's somewhat vague on specifics in a few ways, and that's fine. If you have specific questions, feel free to ask them. The truth is, content curation is highly variable from brand to brand, so it's difficult to give any single strategy to help you succeed. Just give it a try, adjust as necessary, and learn as you go.

James Parsons is the founder and CEO of Content Powered, a premier content marketing agency that leverages nearly two decades of his experience in content marketing to drive business growth. Renowned for founding and scaling multi-million dollar eCommerce businesses through strategic content marketing, James has become a trusted voice in the industry, sharing his insights in Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, and other leading publications. His background encompasses key roles across various agencies, contributing to the content strategies of major brands like eBay and Expedia. James's expertise spans SEO, conversion rate optimization, and effective content strategies, making him a pivotal figure in the industry.

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April 28, 2022 at 6:11 pm

We've been doing the 60/40 ratio for a few months now. Should we keep at it or keep being flexible and adjust?

April 29, 2022 at 1:17 pm

Your engagement will help steer the direction of your content based on what your readers are enjoying and what they're glossing over.

There's nothing wrong with sticking to this 60/40 starting point long-term if it's working for you!

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How To Create A Content Curation Plan To Fuel Your Content Marketing Needs Without Tears

Have you considered supplementing your brand spanking new content creation with content curation ?

Many content marketers can be short-sighted about content curation . Only focused on reducing content costs, they confuse unbranded content aggregation with editorially curated content.

True content curation requires human input, specifically selection and commentary.

To consistently support your marketing needs, integrate a content curation editorial calendar into your content marketing strategy.

Scott Monty’s weekly newsletter, The Full Monty , is a prime example of content curation done well. Monty hand curates the comprehensive newsletter using Flipboard. That’s why it’s a weekly digital marketing must-read.

Content curation supports your content marketing in 3 ways: 

• Positions you as a tastemaker . Select the must-read  for your readers.
• Augments the voices in your content offering . Choose the expertise and influencers you don’t have in-house.
• Reduces content creation workload. Doesn’t mean zero content creation cost.

To keep your content marketing on track, we’ll show you how to create curated content to fulfill your 5 core content needs. In addition to specific examples, we’ll outline how to develop your own Content Curation Plan which will keep your content creation concerns under control.

Content Curation Plan Defined

A content curation plan keeps your curation activities and deliverables on track. It’s part of your documented content marketing strategy. It ensures curated content is generated consistently to supplement your original created content to achieve your content marketing mission and goals.

To create your curated content plan focus on using the 5 core types of content: Foundational, FAQ, Cyclical, Crowd Pleaser and Long Playing.

5 Core Types of Content Your Audience Needs

Here’s a content curation plan template that you can use.

Annual Content Curation Plan Template

To supplement the annual content curation plan, here’s a template for your monthly content curation.

Curated Foundational Content

Foundational content is cornerstone content you want to be known for. It’s aligned with your top keyword phrases, content hubs and silos to yield maximum results.

Regardless of how you create foundational content, it is an investment in time and budget.

Curated foundational content includes:

• Ultimate List. A comprehensive compilation spotlighting the best resources on a topic. Content curation requires research to collect and vet relevant resources. These list posts gain traction based on length and breadth. Unfortunately, big numbers can translate to TL;DR (aka: Too Long; Didn’t Read) yielding shares but limited consumption.
• Research Roundup . Provides different perspectives using multiple pieces of market research. Although each piece of research may use different samples and have different objectives, readers get a well-informed perspective. They also benefit from sharable charts in roundup posts.

Actionable Content Curation Plan Tips:

• Offer a download version. Allow readers to save content for later consumption via Pocket or download. Hubspot frequently does this.
• Transform content into another format at the same time. To extend content distribution and maximize its visibility, create a related presentation or ebook.

Curated Foundational Content Publishing Frequency: 1 to 4 times per year

Curated FAQ Content

FAQ Content includes detailed product information, answers to customer questions, case studies, ratings and reviews, how to’s, and styling and patterns. Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business FAQ content closes sales. This content works well for blogs as well as Facebook and Pinterest.

Curate FAQ content includes:

• Add links to relevant content on each product page . Answer customer questions when they’re in shopping mode.
• Combine related FAQ content into a larger piece of content. Content Marketing Institute does this by combining their core content into a user guide. Also add this information into your welcome series and on-boarding content to reach newbies.
• Use FAQ content to support sales . Incorporate your product into patterns and recipes. For example recipe sites like King Arthur Flour and Kraft Foods do. While content marketing shouldn’t be promotional you can suggest related products at the end of useful content.
• Include product photos in your FAQ content . Build your brand and expand shares on Pinterest with images and directions.

Curated FAQ Content Publishing Frequency: Create based on customer needs and questions. Integrate it into your weekly, bi-weekly or monthly content offering .

Curated Cyclical Content

Cyclical content is information published on a regular basis. It can be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or annually. Use it to establish your content as part of your audience’s weekly content diet.

Curated Cyclical Content includes:

Example of weekly content curation – Christopher Penn

Example of weekly content curation for your content curation plan

• Establish a process to support cyclical content curation. Ideally incorporate this into your on-going content consumption using tools like Feedly, Pocket and Flipboard.

Curated Cyclical Content Publishing Frequency: Weekly, bi-weekly or monthly . It’s useful for bloggers who have difficultly maintaining publishing consistency. (Check Orbit Media’s Blogging Survey .)

Curated Crowd Pleaser Content

Crowd pleaser content aims to drive traffic and keep your brand top-of-mind. It includes guest blogging, LinkedIn Publishing and Medium.

Curated Crowd Pleaser Content includes:

• Influencer roundups . Are specialized list posts that tap into the power of influencers. I discovered their power by accident with my 31 PR Definitions post. Lee Odden perfected the influencer roundup with his epic curated content for conferences.

• Follow up with contributors to amplify and distribute your content. Don’t expect contributors to share your content. Use their names on social media to tap into their networks.
• Incorporate visuals into your curated crowd pleaser content. Include other formats summarizing the top information as well as sharable graphics.

Crowd Pleaser Content Publishing Frequency: Publish crowd pleaser content on a monthly basis to support your business goals while balancing content creation and maximizing content distribution .  Curation should account for about half of this content.

Curated Long Playing Content

Long Playing Content is updated or consolidated existing content focused on keywords and topics. Its goal is to keep your image timely and visible for your audience and search.

Brian Dean of Backlinko doesn’t create new content until all of his existing content is up-to-date.

According to Michele Linn, Content Marketing Institute updates blog content on a regular basis. The refreshed content yields strong performance following the update’s publication.

Vox research showed that even minor updates and tweaks to their content yielded significant results in aggregate.

Curated Long Playing Content includes:

• Successful curated content formats. Use successful formats based on results to create quarterly or annual pieces such as X Best Articles of YEAR . For example, Content Marketing Institute uses several versions of this approach to spotlight their best performing content including X Posts We’re Thankful For and X Stolen Marketing Ideas.

Example of Curated Long Playing Content for your curated content plan

• Use successful curated formats to help with content during slow perioids such as holidays.

  Curated Long Playing Content Publishing Frequency: Beyond auditing existing content annually to ensure it remains relevant include at least one successful curation format per year . For example, use a Best X of YEAR post.

How Create Your Content Curation Plan

Use curated content to fill your on-going content marketing needs.

Assuming you publish at least 2 pieces of content per week, one on your owned media and one on social or third party media, that’s roughly 100 pieces of content each year.

Using this suggested content curation plan frequency, here’s how you can publish almost half of your content (specifically 45 pieces) using a combination these formats. That’s almost one curated piece of content per week.

• Foundational Content: Twice per year
• FAQ Content: Once per month
• Cyclical Content: Twice per month
• Crowd Pleaser Content: 6 times per year
• Long Playing Content – Once per year (although this could be as much as once a quarter)

(Note: These numbers are assumptions. Your content needs and use may vary.)

To get the maximum value from your curated content plan, ensure you have a mix of the 5 core types of content.

Start with your original content for the year and then add curated content where appropriate.

You should be able to tap into the power of a curated content plan while streamlining your content creation resources.

Happy Marketing, Heidi Cohen

Now there are two ways to get Heidi Cohen’s Actionable Marketing Guide by Email:

1. Signup for the weekly Actionable Marketing Newsletter and get a roundup of of the week’s posts, plus extra content you won’t find on the website, plus a free e-book: What Every Blogger Needs to Know – 101 Actionable Blog Tips

Want to check out the newsletter before you subscribe? Visit the Actionable Marketing Guide newsletter archive.

2. Receive an email notice each time a new post is published on the Actionable Marketing Guide .

Actionable Marketing Guide publishes new posts from 2 to 5 times each week. You will receive a summary of each new post from “Heidi Cohen”. The email’s subject line will begin “Actionable Marketing Guide” followed by the title of the new post.

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How Content Curation Can Help Grow Your Business

Written by Brooke B. Sellas

Published Apr. 27 2015 · 6 min read

Table of Contents

Want to receive the best of our blog every single month?

No time to create some content for your social media channels? No worries. Consider content curation instead!

Your business is doing everything it can to get noticed.  It feels like you have to be EVERYWHERE , and the second you feel comfortable on one platform, another new shiny toy pops up.

It’s so hard to keep up, and on top of being available on every channel, at every waking hour, you’re also tasked with “writing epic content” and publishing as fast as you can.

You need more content, and on top of that, you need people to share your content.

Enter content curation.  Use it strategically, and this simple marketing tactic can help grow your business by highlighting your brand as a useful, helpful, practical, and sustainable place to find solutions to problems.

The Psychology of Sharing

Before the interwebs came along, we spent more face-to-face time with our friends and family, sharing.

Sharing meals, sharing smiles, and sharing stories. We also undoubtedly shared useful and helpful information.

“There’s going to be a storm later today — don’t forget your umbrella!”

“Brooke, Nordstrom is having a shoe sale, and those heels you like are 50% off!”

“Mom, I printed out this low-fat recipe for dessert.”

It’s in our nature to want to help those we love, whether we truly aim to please or we feel that providing practical advice will give us deeper connections, we all share (online or off) for basic psychological reasons.

Today, we use the internet, social media, blogs, and other online forums to share that useful and helpful information.

Think about how much easier this has made our lives!

• Using the internet to share
• Makes it easier to find and share content
• Provides scale at mass — we can send to many people at once

Curating content meets the inherent needs consumers have, and if used wisely, can help you move your content as well.

A Closer Look at Content Curation

Many people confuse sharing with content curation .

Sharing isn’t curation, and here’s why: Curation is the act of analyzing, organizing, and/or summarizing.

[Tweet “True content curation takes sharing to a much deeper level.”]

Did you know that when most people share content online, the majority haven’t even read what they’re passing along ?

As a business, you need to curate content carefully for your particular audience.

Ask yourself:

• What problems do my current and would-be customers face? How can I solve them?
• What information would be critical for my audience(s) to know?
• How does my community consume information (social media? email? blogs?)?
• Where can we add commentary to curated articles? How can we use this commentary to show we’ve curated this information especially to help solve their issues?

You may still be asking, “How does this help MY business?”

The answer is simple. You’re doing the work; you’re becoming the gatekeeper, the filter; you’re saving your community precious time.

As long as you understand your industry and audience, and can find content that fulfills those questions I listed above, you’ll be off to a stellar start.

How to Tackle Content Curation

There are ways to curate content no matter what industry you’re in!

Perhaps you’re a gym or fitness brand. Curating healthy but delicious recipes to share on your blog, newsletter, or social channels is a great way to grow your audience.

Even if you didn’t write the recipes, you’re highlighting the authors who did. And they share similar interests, and so does their community. And guess what? If you link to them or give them a shout out on social and a reason why you’re including their recipe (“these are seriously the BEST no-flour brownies out there!”) they will probably share your content as well.

Reciprocity plays a huge part in why content curation works to gain attention and influence.

To set yourself up to be successful, all you have to do is ensure you:

• Know your audience and community inside and out
• Set up a steady stream of relevant content to sift through and share
• Include commentary as to why this piece of content has been carefully curated for your community

There are also tools that can help solidify success …

11 Content Curation Tools

[Tweet “These 11 content curation tools will easily help you source incredible content!”]

Google Alerts : Set up a google alert on your niche topics and have them sent to you daily.

Bonus: Use these Boolean search guidelines to help narrow down your search :

• Use quotes to search for an exact phrase. Example: “flourless recipes”
• To search for two terms use AND (must be capitalized). Example: fitness AND work-life balance
• Use OR (must be capitalized) to find two or more terms you can separate. Example: “best workouts” OR “fast workouts”
• Use parenthesis to give depth to a search and combine terms. Example: fitness AND (core strength OR ab exercises)
• Use NOT (must be capitalized) to exclude specific terms. Example: fitness jobs NOT trainer

Subscribe to industry-specific newsletters or journals. I personally LOVE using SmartBrief to find hidden gems.

Use social media searches, but also to follow other influencers in your industry. Following other experts (or even competitors) can give you an idea of content that’s trending for your industry and audience. See my example below …

Triberr can help you find blog posts that are specific to tribes or areas of expertise. It can also help you move your own content!

RSS aggregates are a good way to follow experts and get their content delivered straight to you, rather than having to find their content. I love and use Feedly.

Many curation experts use curation sites, like Scoop.it or Paper.li to find and disseminate curated content.

I also love sites that assemble curated content just for me or based on my parameters, like LinkedIn Pulse or Flipboard.

Finally, using Buzzsumo can help you find the most shared content in your industry, a must check!

Benefits of Content Curation

If one of your biggest headaches as a business owner is producing enough content, then content curation can be one way in which you can feed the proverbial beast.

Not only does it help with the acquisition of new community or audience members, it:

• Can help generate leads
• Can assist with authority and influence
• Helps supplement your need for producing content (but not replace it!)
• May provide context for the solutions your company provides to customers

More from the blog

How to Create Great Social Media Content in a “Boring” Industry

Publish Canva’s AI Images Easily With Agorapulse

Master Your Social Media Calendar Game in 2024

Keep up to date with social media marketing!

Our newsletter is packed with the hottest posts and latest news in social media.

• Search Search Search …

How to Create a Content Plan (Step-by-Step Guide + Examples)

Content marketing got you feeling like this?

I don’t blame you. If you care about the quality and efficacy of your content, there’s a lot to consider. 

But a content plan will simplify the process. It’ll help you figure out the who, what, when, where, why and how before you dive in (and help you stay in charge of it all when you do).

Here’s everything you need to know about content planning so that you can create quality content at scale and with ease:

What Is a Content Plan?

Why you need a content plan, how to create a content plan, content plan examples and templates, top tips for creating a content plan.

A content plan is where you map out and organize all of the tasks related to content creation and promotion. It should include content assets and/or campaigns along with deadlines or key dates.

If you’re in charge of a team, you’ll assign ownership of tasks or entire projects. You may also allocate resources and budget in your content plan. 

The best content plans contain defined processes and workflows for content creation/promotion. For example, you might outline the finer details of each activity and include templates or briefs. 

You may be wondering about the difference between a content plan and a content strategy. Well, your content strategy is a bit like your content marketing manual and your content plan comprises a significant chapter of that manual.

A documented content strategy contains your goals, research and analysis, the overarching methods you’ll use to achieve your goals, as well as your content plan. You’ll need to refer to the other elements, i.e. the research and so on, to put together your content plan.

Some don’t bother with a content plan because it seems like a lot of unnecessary, hard work. Others are like hummingbirds, flitting around, eager to just get started on content creation.

But, trust me, having a content plan will pay off. Here’s why:

1. Scale and Speed

You might feel like you’d need a time-freezing device to be able to scale content production. There’s a demand for quality content (and rightly so). Thus, it takes a long time to create a good infographic, email newsletter, blog post etc. 

For instance, we now spend 63% more time creating a blog post than six years ago.

Yet, the defined, repeatable processes within your content plan mean you can create more content within a given time period. And the automation features of many content planning tools save even more time.

2. Manage Content Easily

Create a lot of content? Manage a content team or group of freelancers? A content plan will help you allocate your time accordingly and/or delegate tasks to others easily, all while staying on top of everything. 

Four out of five of the most successful content marketers use an editorial calendar. So, there’s a lot to be said about being super organized in your approach.

3. Create Better Content

54% of marketers think their organization’s level of content marketing success is mediocre. 

We need to do better.

A content plan forces you to think carefully about each content asset or content marketing activity – how it’ll help your audience, how it fits in with your wider goals, how you can get the most from it and so on. This makes it almost impossible not to create better content.

Speedier production, easier management and better quality content – aren’t these three things what all content creators and marketers want at the end of the day? 

Here’s how to put your content plan together:

1. Choose Your Weapon

The very first step is figuring out the best way to document your content plan. Here are the main options:

• Regular Documents  

You might want to put all or some elements of your content plan, e.g. templates, in regular doc format. However, this is not the clearest nor most collaborative route.

• Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets work well for content management. You can keep all of the information you and/or your colleagues need well-organized.

• A Project Management Tool

Project management tools, such as Trello or Asana make collaboration and content management super easy.

• A Content Management Tool

There are some fantastic tools geared specifically towards content management and organization, such as CoSchedule and Contently . 

2. Weigh Your Content Strategies

What are your most important goals? 

You’ll create content assets or use content marketing tactics that’ll help you achieve every one of your goals, but you must give more weight to what’s most important. 

If it’s not immediately clear, you might want to use a scoring system e.g. rate how well an asset aligns with your goals or what kind of ROI it will produce.

To complicate things, *sigh*, you also have to keep best practices in mind. For example, you might only need to blog twice a month but tweet daily to get the kind of impact you hope to achieve.

3. Include the 5 Ws and 1H

Now we’re getting onto the good stuff… The actual contents of your content strategy. However you choose to document your plan, here’s what it should include:

You’ll need to assign tasks and responsibilities to the right members of your team (unless you’re a superstar that’s doing it all yourself). Make sure each person knows every step of content creation or promotion that they’re in charge of.

Add your content assets, campaigns and/or projects to your content plan. Include the types of content you’ll create e.g. infographic, blog post, video etc, as well as the topic, headline and any other information you think is relevant, such as calls to action.

Set realistic and achievable deadlines for your content projects. You may also wish to set deadlines for individual tasks, i.e. each step of creation and promotion.

Add the channels you’ll use to publish and promote content. Also, note when and where you’ll be able to repurpose content on other channels.

Outline the purpose of each content asset. Who are you targeting and why? What action would you like them to take?

It’s a good idea to include content templates, style guides and/or briefs to guide content creation. You may also wish to create workflows or checklists for content creation and promotion. These are examples of the kind of repeatable processes that’ll help you speed up your content marketing efforts.

Now you know what a content plan should include. But, what will it look like?

Here are some fantastic examples and templates you can use to create your own content plan:

Content Planning Spreadsheet

This example from Smartsheet covers most of the bases:

As you can see the content is split into categories in the first column according to format. The next columns establish the topic, ownership, important dates, the status of the piece and more. As you move across, there are also columns with metrics for measuring content performance.

This would be a great general overview to share with your team. Use Smartsheet’s content planning template or create your own custom version on Excel or Google Sheets.

Content Plan for Social Media

If you create a lot of native social media content or social media content takes up the lion’s share of your strategy, you may want to create a content plan that’s purely for social media.

Here’s an example from Content Marketing Institute:

For each social media channel, it covers goals, topics, a posting schedule, ownership, a mini style guide, calls to action and more. In other words, it covers the 5Ws and 1H pretty darn well.

You can use CMI’s social media plan template or create something similar for you and your team. 

Editorial Calendar Examples

Some of my clients like to use Trello to manage content projects and it works really well in my experience. Here’s an example of a blog editorial calendar on Trello :

Each block contains a piece of content, which you can move through the various stages of completion from “Writing” to “Ready to Upload”. This is a simple way to organize content and monitor progress.

Within each block, you can label the type of content, set a deadline, add custom fields e.g. the focus keyword and add a description. In the description field, you might want to outline the goals of the piece, the target audience etc. 

You can also add any attachments that the content creator might need, e.g. templates, outlines, guides, or resources.

And finally, you can place a checklist that acts as a workflow for content creation.

If you decide to use Trello to plan content, you could create more boards for the other types of content you create, e.g. video, podcasts etc.

I, personally, like to use Asana to manage my blog and other content projects. If you want to get started quickly, the tool has ready-made content and editorial calendar templates .

The big selling-point of Asana for me is the different view formats. You can use a calendar format for an overview of all your projects:

( Image Source )

You can move each individual piece of content through a kanban board as you’re working on it:

And there are more views you can use such as a simple list format or timeline for project milestones.

Similar to Trello, there’s lots you can do within each individual task block. Assign a task, set a due date, add a description, create sub-tasks and so on:

As an added bonus, a little rainbow unicorn sometimes flashes across the screen when you complete a task. *eek*

In my humble opinion, tools like these make content planning much easier. You (and your team) have all of the information you need set out clearly in one place. Plus, you can easily tweak your content plan as you go along.

Now you should have a good grasp of the practical side of creating a content plan. Here’s some further advice that’ll help you create the most useful and effective content plan possible:

1. Make Good Use of Your Research

There are some steps that come before creating a content plan. As part of creating your content strategy, hopefully, you’ve already carried out a content audit, audience research, goal-setting and so on.

As mentioned above, you really need to refer to this research and analysis when creating your content plan. It’ll not only make content planning easier but also more effective. 

MavSocial’s Kieran Driver told me:

“My number one tip for creating a content plan would be to understand who your audience is. The better picture you have of your audience, the more you will be able to plan, create, and publish content that they will be able to relate with and enjoy. Only then will you be able to effectively meet your audience’s expectations, have them come back for more and get them to remain engaged with your business.” Kieran Driver, Digital Marketing Associate, MavSocial

2. Come up With Ideas for High-Performing Content

The ideation stage or the “what” is one of the most important and time-consuming aspects of creating a content plan. But, you can use your research and analysis to come up with the content ideas that are most likely to perform well.

CoSchedule’s Ben Sailer shared his formula for generating first-rate content ideas with me:

“Put your customer’s needs first. Prioritize content that fits at the intersection of 1) the primary functions of your product or service and 2) your customer’s most pressing pain points.  If you can align those topics with solid keyword research, then so much the better (common problems often have high search volume and high difficulty, but don’t let that scare you away — just focus on providing the best content you can that meets those needs).  Uncovering these topics may be more complex than it seems on the surface, and they may change over time as your product evolves or your target market changes, but this is where everything should start at the most basic level. Not exactly a groundbreaking tip, but it’s imperative to get good at the fundamentals so you can build your content strategy on a strong foundation.” Ben Sailer, Inbound Marketing Director, CoSchedule

3. Make Sure Everybody Is on the Same Page

When you run a business or head up a content marketing department, you need to make sure your content plan is aligned with wider business goals and the activities of other departments. Not only that, it’s a good idea to make sure those departments or colleagues have a solid understanding of what you’re doing and why.

G2’s Lauren Pope explains:

“You must create content with intention. A lot of companies have a blog or they’ll do a periodic webinar, but they aren’t leveraging content marketing to the fullest extent. You need to know who your audience is and what action you’re trying to get them to take before the pen ever hits paper. This doesn’t mean you need to waste months crafting a meticulous content calendar. You just need a North Star for the goal of each piece before you begin. All of the content I create needs to fit into one of these buckets:  – Content that drives traffic (80%) – This is your long-form SEO content designed to rank for organic search. This content is perfect for reaching people who have a problem your product fixes, they just might not know it yet. – Content that drives opinions (10%) – These are your podcasts, career profiles, video series, and thought-leader hot takes designed to get people talking. This is the stuff that gets shared across social media. – Content that drives leads (10%) – This is the stuff your sales team wants. Why such a small percent? These are comprehensive guides where quality beats quantity. You don’t need a ton of these resources to do it right.  If someone asks me to create something that falls outside these existing buckets, I can sit down with them and figure out why. A lot of times we have existing content types for other teams’ needs, they just don’t know it. Internal education about our content strategy is just as important as the content we create for our readers. Taking the time to ensure our sales team knows what is available to them, how we can partner with them, and most importantly how content marketing can aid in winning deals totally changes the game.” Lauren Pope, Content Marketing Manager, G2

4. Be Flexible

Things happen that may mean you need to alter your content plan. To give you a totally random example off the top of my head, say a global pandemic occurred…

In all seriousness, there needs to be flexibility within your content plan for many reasons. Firstly, to account for trending topics. Also, you’ll need to measure content performance and tweak your content plan accordingly.

Jordan Teicher at Contently suggests organizing content around larger themes and leaving a decent amount of wiggle room for whatever comes up:

“My number one tip is to think in terms of content series and bigger projects. When you’re developing a new content plan, there’s a tendency to try to predict every single story you’re going to create over the next 12 months. That sounds good in theory, but it winds up boxing you in. A better approach would be to map out some major themes and then schedule a series of e-books, webinars, and videos around them. For example, when Contently’s marketing team met at the beginning of the year, we decided to organize our content based on our key industries. So in the first quarter, we’d focus on finance. In the second quarter, healthcare. Third quarter, B2B tech, and so on. For each quarter, I knew we’d need an industry report and an accompanying webinar. Those two big content series gave us major releases spread out during the year. They also gave us the freedom to explore relevant topics for one-off blog posts, videos, etc. that fit under those themes. This approach gives you good structure but still provides enough flexibility for new ideas that are timely.” Jordan Teicher, Director of Content, Contently

It’s tempting to dive right in and just start creating content. But, if you’ve got higher goals for your content then you need to use your brain and have some form of plan in place.

Set your intentions like a yogi and start putting together your content plan.

Bonus Material: Content Marketing Strategy Checklist

From goal-setting to research to content planning, make sure you cover every step of creating your content marketing manual:

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2 thoughts on “ How to Create a Content Plan (Step-by-Step Guide + Examples) ”

• 2 comments

Thanks for the great tips! I love how simple you make it. It’s not rocket science, but it does require an investment of time and a lot of marketers are intimidated just because they don’t know where to start.

Very true! I hope marketers will be able to use this post to make a strong start. Thanks for your comment, Alison.

• Blogging and Written Content

Content Curation

Written by Brian Dean

What Is Content Curation?

Content curation is the act of choosing, collecting, packaging, and sharing content from around the web. Curated content typically contains a list of high-quality resources on a given topic, like “best of” lists or content designed to help someone learn a specific skill.

What Makes Content Curation Useful?

Why should you use content curation in your content marketing?

It’s the same idea with curating content. You’re doing the hard work of reading dozens (or even hundreds) of articles. And you’re applying a filter that only leaves the absolute best stuff.

For example, some time ago I sent out a newsletter that linked to my favorite pieces of comprehensive content:

Some of these posts were old. Others were new. The idea here wasn’t to send my readers all new stuff. Instead, my goal was to curate GREAT examples of content that covers a specific topic.

And because I showed my audience content that they hadn’t seen before, the response was great.

• Content curation is (relatively) fast: Although it does take time to do, curating content is usually much faster than creating a new piece of content from scratch. In fact, some companies even automate the process at scale for their users. Google Discover is a great example of this.
• Content curation helps establish you as a thought leader: The very fact that you can filter through the noise and identify the BEST content on a topic shows that you’re an expert.

Best Practices

Find content worth curating.

Think of curating content like sports highlights: you may not be the athlete or the cameraman. But you’re providing a valuable service by cutting all the footage down to the best parts.

And your first step is to find the highlight that you can feature in your content curation posts. Here’s how.

Use BuzzSumo Content Explorer

This content marketing tool is like a search engine designed for content curators.

To use this helpful content curation tool, type in a topic.

And then, sort through the results.

Finally, sort through the results and save any posts that seem worthy of curating.

What you include or don’t include in your curation post depends on the topic. If you’re curating a list of case studies, then you want to zero in on content that includes real-life examples.

But if you’re looking to curate infographics, then you should keep an eye out for high-quality infographics in the results.

Subscribe to Industry Email Newsletters

Many of these newsletters curate the best content for you.

For example, The Moz Top 10 goes out on a monthly basis. This popular newsletter highlights the best SEO and content marketing articles from the month.

Keep a Swipe File

Create an ongoing list of what you see people sharing and talking about on social media. Even if you’re not sure how you’ll use that content yet, it’s nice to have a list of amazing content ready to go whenever you want to write a content curation post.

You can use your browser’s bookmarks to save this content. Or use a content curation tool like Scoop.it , Pocket , or Evernote .

You can even include your own content on this list. There’s nothing wrong with including content that you’ve published on your curated content list.

Pro Tip: Search on Twitter and Instagram with hashtags to find content that’s getting a lot of traction.

Search In Google

In a way, Google’s algorithm curates some of the best content online for you.

For example, when you search for “content curation tools”, the results are sorted by what Google deems as the best content.

Obviously, you may not agree that the first page is full of content that’s worth curating. And that’s OK. After all, part of your job as a curator is to figure out what’s good or not.

This is why I recommend looking at the 2nd, 3rd or even 10th page for “underground” content that may be amazing… but for whatever reason hasn’t cracked Google’s first page.

Scan Popular Blogs

Instead of searching for content based on a topic , go straight to blogs that tend to publish amazing content.

All you need to do is scan their blog feed for content that would be a good fit.

(Or subscribe to their RSS feed using a tool like Feedly .)

Sometimes, the blog will even have a “Popular posts” list that you can use to quickly find their best stuff.

Share Other People’s Content on Social

Now that you have a list of amazing content from a variety of sources, what’s next?

The easiest way to curate content is to simply share that content on social media.

Here’s an example of a tweet that’s curating content from around the web:

This type of content curation can benefit you in a few different ways:

• First, it gives you content to share with your social network, without having to produce it all yourself.
• Second, it can help you build relationships with other people in your industry.
• Finally, people may include your curated social media posts in their articles and roundups (often as an “h/t” to thank you for helping them find the post). Which can send some traffic your way.

Pro Tip: Whenever you share other people’s content on social media, add your own insights, commentary or opinion. This adds value for your followers and positions you as an expert.

Here’s an example:

Curate Resources In a Blog Post

While sharing other people’s content on social media is the fastest way to curate content, you’ll usually get more long-term value out of a blog post.

For example, few years ago I curated some of the best SEO content out there into a post that I called: “ How to Learn SEO (In Record Time) ”

And because I published this content as a blog post, it has serious staying power.

Not only did that post bring in a spike of traffic in the first week…

…but that curated post continues to bring in 1,995 visitors to my site every month.

My learn SEO guide was on the small size. In all I curated about 50 total resources. But you can definitely go bigger. For example, FYI’s marketing templates list includes 374 free marketing resources.

Pro Tip: Many listicles also as curated content. For example, this list of the 100 best infographics from Siege Media is a listicle of curated infographics that have performed well. They even went the extra mile by putting each of the 100 infographics in different categories:

Other Ideas for Curating Content

Stuck? Here are some more ways to find ideas for curated content.

Email Subscribers “Best Of Content”

You probably already know that emailing your subscribers is important. But if you don’t publish new content very often, curating quality content can fill the gap. This is what Tim Ferriss does with his “5 Bullet Fridays.”

Mine For Gold On Other Platforms

This BuzzFeed article simply lists the best sandwich restaurant in each state based on its Yelp ratings. It also includes a quoted Yelp review for each one.

Since most of the content on this list was taken from Yelp, this post was probably a breeze to put together.

We actually did something similar to this here at Backlinko. Even though it was a little bit more involved.

We curated the best Chicago SEO companies based on a formula that we developed internally.

Even though we had to create the formula from scratch, the actual data came from Google reviews and data from Ahrefs. Which meant that creating the actual list was pretty easy.

Curate Your Audience’s Questions

Here’s where you collect and answer your audience’s most burning questions.

Mark Sisson does this every week with his “Dear Mark” series.

Go In-Depth

The Brain Pickings blog is an excellent example of in-depth content curation. Each post is a collection of quotes on a given topic, typically focused around a single famous person (like a writer, artist, or historical figure). For example, Hemingway’s Tough-Love Letter of Advice to F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing and Turning Suffering into Creative Fuel .

Add Curation to Normal Blog Posts

You can curate relevant content inside of your normal how-to posts, case studies and list posts.

For example, take this guide on our blog about becoming an SEO expert .

It’s mostly original content that I wrote. So in that sense, it’s a “normal” blog post.

But I knew that no single guide could cover everything there is to SEO. It’s too complex of a topic.

So to make my post more comprehensive, I added links to some additional resources that people could use to learn more.

Add Your Own Original Content

Sure, a straight-up list of links to great content provides value.

But if you want to take your content curation to the next level, consider adding original commentary or advice to your post.

For example, take the Learn SEO post that I mentioned earlier. Simple listing out the resources would have been helpful. But that probably wouldn’t be enough to get people to link to my content or share it on social media.

This is why I wrote unique descriptions for every resource on the list

And invested in a custom design to help my guide stand out even more.

This didn’t take that much extra effort. But it made a big difference in how this piece of curated content was perceived.

It was the same story with our Chicago SEO services list. Because we used an objective formula to rank the companies, we could have easily just listed them in order.

But that wouldn’t make for a very compelling piece of content. So we described each company and included a screenshot of their homepage.

Again, this didn’t take 20 hours to pull off. But it helped round out our content a little bit. And increased the perceived value of what we put together.

Reach Out to The People You Included

One of the great things about content curation is that email outreach is built right into it.

Think about it this way:

If you publish a post and email an influencer about it, they MIGHT be interested in it.

But when you publish a post that features that person, they’re pretty much guaranteed to be interested.

So as long as you get your content in front of them in a non-pushy way, most people will be receptive to your outreach.

For example, a few years ago I curated the best SEO tools on the market.

And to help get the word out, I personally emailed someone that worked at each of the companies that I listed.

(Who I reached out to depended on the tool. If it was a huge company with 100+ employees, I usually emailed the social media or content manager. If it was a small tool that one person developed, I emailed that person directly.)

And because I wasn’t shoving a random article in their face, but an article they were featured in, many of them shared my content on Twitter.

Examples of Content Curation

Here are some great examples of content curation to draw inspiration from:

• FYI’s free resources for marketing . (Great showcase for the tool itself as well, which solves the problem of organizing documents across multiple platforms.)
• House of Highlights , a YouTube channel devoted to sports highlights.
• Tim Ferriss’s 5 Bullet Fridays email newsletter.
• Podcast Notes : summaries of popular podcast episodes.
• This All-Things-Tech-History List by a Notion user.
• “Supercuts” like these three different shortened versions of the same Apple event: The Verge , Tech Insider and CNET .

BuzzSumo: The Definitive Guide: BuzzSumo is a powerful tool for content curation. This guide will show you how to use some of BuzzSumo’s more advanced features. That way, you can easily find content that’s worth curating.

Content Strategy: Learn how content curation fits into your overall content marketing strategy.

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Home » Business Model

Content Curation Business Model – How Does It Work and Make Money?

This business model involves sharing content from other people or brands with your target audience. When you curate content, you choose content that is relevant to your industry. This strategy allows you to bring varying content related to your audience without spending time creating additional content.

It is an excellent way to meet your audience’s demand for a steady stream of information from your company. This is hardly a novel idea: art galleries curate works of art, fashion editors curate fashion trends, radio stations curate music, and so on.

Curating digital content has become very popular, particularly in the email marketing industry. In the context of increasing supply and stable demand for content, content curation makes absolute sense. While content curation necessitates an investment of time, energy, and money, it is nowhere near as time-consuming as content creation.

It enables brands to add value to their audiences without the need to create original content from the scratch. This is especially useful for staying in touch with your audience via email marketing, mainly because you have to always contact your email subscribers at least once a week, otherwise they will forget who you are.

As a content creator and brand, you need to develop your own voice and opinions, but no one wants to live in an echo chamber all the time.

The same is true for your target audience. Sharing opposing (but respectful) viewpoints and new ideas from other industry experts adds depth to your platform. It has the potential to spark interesting conversations and foster social connections.

How Does Content Curation as a Business Model Work?

We find it difficult to choose a solution, a product, or a tool when there are too many options available. When there are few, carefully chosen options and an expert we recognize explains their value to us, we are much more likely to choose one.

In a system with a large number of seemingly alternative options, there is always the possibility of organizing, picking, and selecting groups of items pertaining to specific needs, requirements, objectives, costs, and a variety of other variables.

Curation as a business model entails gathering, — for instance, female clothing, showcasing a selection of them, and assisting people in making the best decision. Doing this online eliminates the need for a physical store or even the purchase of clothing; all you need to understand is what good fashion is and also be able to write about them.

Note that people will be delighted to discover your guidance that they will purchase the products from you, or through an affiliate link on your website, where you earn a percentage of the printer’s cost as well as many other variables. Even a simple, intelligent aggregation of all available assets in a specific interest area yields a good enough resource that can increase capacity, reputation, and economic returns.

Those who can offer expert trusted advice in circumstances where there are many alternative options have a valued, sellable asset that can save people a lot of time while offering them an effective and immediate solution to their varying needs.

How Do Businesses With This Business Model Make Money?

The viable means of monetizing this business model is to manage and analyze information in a very particular niche for a specific audience and application, whenever possible. The more specific a collection, the more convenient it should be to monetize it, as Google, Amazon, and other large providers can barely compete with specialists in the field.

One distinguishing feature of commercially viable curated collections is that a significant proportion of the collection is frequently shared publicly and for free. Voluntarily sharing high-value curated information gives the curator/author/publisher credibility, authority, reputation, and visibility if he is not already a renowned authority in his segment.

According to experts, curators can tangibly demonstrate their expertise, competence, and experience with the subject matter at hand by publicly sharing curated info collections. They can accomplish this by not simply aggregating everything which fits their theme, but by carefully choosing only what meets their well-defined (and possibly publicly shared) selection criteria.

A paid newsletter is another way to monetize curation. Other options include blogs, eBooks, e-commerce stores, and consulting/speaking engagements.

Curators can make headway by developing a targeted online presence and then delivering curated content to that audience. It’s obvious that curating content within a specific niche can be a fantastic method for establishing an audience and adding value.

Top 20 Companies Operating This Business Model

• Really Good Emails
• Webflow Blog
• Pocket Hits Newsletter
• New York Times Wirecutter
• Daily Skimm
• Buffer Social Media Newsletter
• Raisin Bread by MarketerHire
• McKinsey Featured Insights
• Grow And Convert Blog
• Warby Parker
• Apex Legends
• Lush Cosmetics
• Grove Collaborative
• Asos Instagram
• Airbnb on Instagram
• Starter Story

Content curation allows people to find high-quality, interesting, and relevant content without having to search for it. Although there is more content than one can possibly ingest in a lifetime, it is likely safe to say that the majority of it is of questionable quality.

That’s why having someone else separate the wheat from the chaff and then present their best finds to you has real value. Considering the benefits of content curation to both brands and consumers; it is not unusual that the global content curation market is predicted to hit $2,427.60 million by the end of 2027.

More on Business Model

Free Content Plan Templates and Samples

By Joe Weller | July 27, 2020

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In this article, we’ve compiled the most useful expert-tested and expert-approved content plan templates available to download in Word, PDF, and Excel formats.

Included on this page, you’ll find a content plan sample , a content planning calendar template , a digital content plan , and more. We’ve also included content planning tips to boost your content creation efforts.

Content Plan Sample Template

Use this content plan template to organize and prioritize potential topics by theme or by any category that suits your needs. Provide a brief summary of a topic, identify the content’s unique angle, pinpoint your target reader, decide which types of content you’ll need, and describe your main goal. Next, add a benefit and cost score value using the provided keys. Once you enter those values, the built-in formula auto-calculates a topic score to help you decide if a topic is worth pursuing.

Download Content Plan Sample Template - Excel

Content Planning Calendar Template

Use this content planning calendar template to map out and organize your content plan by content type or any category that suits your needs. Add the content title, description, and theme, then assign ownership and key dates. You can track the status of each content piece, along with monthly performance metrics to determine which pieces are high performers and which need updates.

Download Content Planning Calendar Template

Excel  | Smartsheet

Content Planning and Documentation Template

This customizable template is ideal for establishing and tracking documentation for all aspects of the content planning process in one location. Add the name and description of guidelines and processes, assign ownership, input the key dates and status for documents that you need to create or modify, then add the location or link where users can access the documents. Use this template to manage your team’s resources and to ensure all policies and procedures are up to date.

Download Content Planning and Documentation Template

Excel |  Word | PDF | Smartsheet

Monthly Content Plan Template

Use this template to plan and track content topics and ideas monthly. Provide a summary of the topic, identify opportunities that exist with current search trends and seasonal patterns, then outline the content types, keywords, distribution channels, and more. You also have room to assign the topic, establish the start and publish date, and designate a status using the provided key.

Download Monthly Content Plan Template

Excel | Word | PDF

Annual Content Planning Template Set

This customizable template set serves as a tool to brainstorm, plan, and track content ideas for each month of the year. This set includes a content calendar to execute on topics approved in the brainstorming phase, and it provides space to assign and schedule topics, determine measurements of success, and much more. The template also has a tab you can use to track previous posts and archived content in a central location.

Download Annual Content Planning Template Set - Excel

Digital Content Plan Template

Use this customizable digital content plan template to plan, assign, and track digital content ideas on a monthly basis for the entire year. In the space provided, you can add the content topic, type, category, goal, and unique angle that sets the piece apart from the competition. Then assign an owner, due date, and status to ensure your plan stays on track.

Download Digital Content Plan Template - Excel

Social Media Content Plan Template

This customizable social media template can help you plan and categorize your content across social platforms for each month of the year. Add the content idea or theme, choose the content category, detail the stage of the buyer journey for your targeted leads, then add the date posted. There is also space to include post details for multiple platforms, including the post title, author, link, key performance metrics, and other pertinent information.

Download Social Media Content Plan Template - Excel

For additional resources, visit “ Free Social Media Templates for Excel .”

Marketing Content Plan Template

This template is useful for planning and tracking marketing content monthly and annually according to the stage of the buyer’s journey your content is targeting. This template helps you plan for each topic by outlining its theme, category, and target audience, along with the content type, owner, due date, and status. There is also space for you to add details associated with marketing distribution channels for each piece of content, including the channel type, publish date, and key performance metrics.

Download Marketing Marketing Content Plan Template - Excel

For additional resources, visit “ The 61 Best Free Content Marketing Templates to Drive Performance .”

Blog Content Plan Template

Use this blog content plan template to develop a strategy for blog posts on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. Add content details by theme, determine a category, pinpoint the target audience, assign and schedule content, track the status of each piece, and more. This template also provides space to include details for each marketing distribution channel, such as the post title, date, link, performance metrics, and important notes. 

Download Blog Content Plan Template - Excel

For additional resources, including expert tips and checklists, take a look at the tools and advice for creating an effective blog strategy and plan .

Video Content Plan Template

Use this customizable video content plan template to identify and classify ideas that align with your business and marketing goals during each stage of the buyer’s journey. There’s space to add the video category, content topic, key audience takeaways, topic owner, estimated release date, and marketing platforms used to reach your target audience.

Download Video Content Plan Template

Excel | Word

Website Content Plan Template

Use this template to plan and organize your website content into groups. In the space provided, modify the main categories according to sitemap and business needs, then determine the pages that fall under each category to establish a hierarchy. Add a description and purpose for each entry, and detail the audience takeaway to ensure you’ve structured your content in a way that is useful for visitors. There is also room to include the content goal, call to action, ownership, status, and key dates to keep the plan on track.

Download Website Content Plan Template - Excel

Content Curation Plan Template

Use this content curation plan template to create standards on the process of compiling and selecting topics that align with business and marketing goals. In the space included, you can establish process guidelines, assign role ownership, and set deadlines to identify key opportunities for adding value to existing content.

Download Content Curation Plan Template

Content Inventory Audit Worksheet

Use this content inventory audit worksheet to track content inventory and to use in conjunction with your content curation plan. This worksheet helps you organize all of your content and provides space to add the page title, page type, topic, meta description, keywords, page author, and more. You can also track search data and performance metrics to identify existing content that you can update and improve.

Download Content Inventory Audit Worksheet Template

Excel | Smartsheet

Content Decision-Making Matrix Template

This content decision-making matrix template is useful for evaluating potential content topics ideas that align closely with criteria you establish. Add criteria descriptions at the top of the matrix, then list topic ideas to analyze. Determine the rating scale you’ll use for rankings and assign a score to each topic. Once you input values, the built-in formulas calculate the total scores. Use this information to determine which topics have the potential to bring the most value.

Download Content Decision-Making Matrix Template - Excel

Content Planning Tips

The content you produce connects your business to your audience. It also requires careful planning in order to effectively attract customers and reach business goals. 

The following tips can help you create a streamlined process to develop a successful content plan .

• Research, Research, Research: Conduct research on the themes and topics outlined in your content strategy to identify opportunities. Take a look at what competitors are offering for inspiration, and be sure to account for industry trends and seasonal patterns.
• Prioritize Content Ideas: Tackle the low-hanging fruit first. List, evaluate, and score topic ideas (see the content decision-making matrix template above), then identify your high-value, low-cost topics for quick wins. 
• Focus on Your Audience: Plan your content around your intended reader. Consider the problem you are solving or the question that you are answering for the viewer. Determine who is seeking out and consuming your content, and create your content accordingly.
• Know Your Goal: Determine what you are trying to achieve before you execute to avoid losing time and wasting resources on efforts that don’t align with goals. Are you trying to raise awareness about your brand? Are you educating a group of people on a particular topic? By understanding what you’re trying to achieve, you can decide on a direction and determine the type of content to produce (e.g. video, infographic, blog content).
• Hold Brainstorming Sessions: Create an environment to get creative juices flowing and to encourage others to share fresh ideas. Learn effective ways to brainstorm to find ways to produce better, more valuable content than what’s currently available. This includes looking at your content inventory to find ways to repurpose and improve upon existing assets, which leads to the next tip.
• Check Your Content Inventory: Don’t waste time reinventing the wheel when you have current pieces available that you can modify to satisfy current search trends and business goals. Use the content inventory audit worksheet above to organize and list published assets in one place. Then pinpoint which pieces are high performers and which ones you can update to better align with present-day marketing and business objectives.
• Prepare for Plan Execution: Decide if you will create content in-house or outsource it. Prepare a creative brief to provide a clear action plan to writers and designers. The brief also helps ensure the content “voice” and style are consistent with the brand.

Seamlessly Execute Your Content Plan with Smartsheet for Marketing

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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Get this complete sample business plan as a free text document.

Content Creator Business Plan

Start your own content creator business plan

Content Catalyst

Value proposition.

Content Catalyst is a content creation service specializing in producing high-quality, engaging, and targeted content for businesses looking to outsource their marketing efforts. As an experienced content creator and influencer, we provide personalized content strategies and creations tailored to a company’s brand, audience, and marketing goals.

The Problem

Many businesses struggle to consistently produce high-quality content that resonates with their target audience, lacking the time, resources, or expertise to do so. This leads to missed opportunities for customer engagement, brand awareness, and revenue growth.

Content Catalyst provides personalized content marketing solutions, including custom content creation, influencer campaigns, strategy consultation, and performance tracking—tailored to clients’ needs and goals.

Target Market

Our target market includes small to medium-sized businesses seeking to outsource their content creation and marketing efforts. We aim to serve businesses looking for:

• A personalized approach to content marketing
• Authentic and engaging content
• A knowledgeable partner with a proven track record

Competitors and Differentiation

Key competitors include other content creators, marketing agencies, and freelancers. Content Catalyst differentiates itself by offering a unique combination of content creation, influencer marketing, and strategic consultation. Our personalized approach, backed by our own success as content creators, ensures that we understand the unique needs of our clients and deliver results that resonate with their audience.

Our experience, passion for storytelling, platform expertise, and commitment to genuine connections enable us to craft engaging content that drives results and keeps clients ahead in the content marketing landscape.

Funding Needs

We seek an initial investment of $50,000 to expand our content production capabilities, invest in marketing efforts to attract clients and enhance our analytics tools to better serve clients’ needs.

Sales Channels

Our primary sales channels include our personal website, social media platforms, and referrals from existing clients. We will also engage in outreach campaigns, targeting businesses in our niche with personalized content solutions.

Marketing Activities

To attract clients and showcase our skills, we will:

• Develop a strong online presence, with regular content updates and portfolio showcases.
• Network at industry events and conferences to build connections with potential clients.
• Offer free webinars and workshops to educate businesses on the value of content marketing and the services we provide.
• Utilize targeted advertising campaigns on social media platforms and industry-specific websites.

Financial Projections

Year 1: $120,000

Year 2: $200,000

Year 3: $300,000

Expenses/Costs

Year 1: $60,000 

Year 2: $80,000

Year 3: $100,000

Year 1: $60,000

Year 2: $120,000

Year 3: $200,000

• Secure initial investment and establish business structure.
• Develop a comprehensive marketing plan to attract clients.
• Reach $10,000 in monthly revenue within the first six months.
• Expand client base and develop long-term partnerships with businesses.
• Continuously refine content strategies and offerings based on analytics and feedback.

Key Team and Roles

Content creator and strategist, responsible for crafting engaging content, developing content strategies, and managing client relationships., social media manager, manages and maintains the online presence, engages with the audience, and tracks the performance of content..

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Business Plan

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UKSC and JCPC Business Plan 2023/26 - Year 2

4 april 2024.

The Supreme Court has published the second year of its 2023-2026 business plan. This plan sets out our vision and direction with five clear strategic priorities that are:

• Serving the public
• Providing a world class service
• Focusing on our people
• Engaging outwards
• Diversity, inclusion and belonging

As the plan outlines, we remain ambitious in achieving our vision to be a world leading court. We will balance providing a high-quality business as usual service with delivery of the final year of our Change Programme. This will prepare us well for the future and enable us to provide a modern and excellent service to the public and users, which is both customer-focused and digital. We will continue to engage outwards. We will build and maintain close relationships with our partners, stakeholders, and national courts, run education programmes for schools and universities and welcome more visitors both national and international to the Court. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion remains unwavering and we will continue to strive to ensure that all our services and activities are as accessible as possible to all in the UK, JCPC jurisdictions who use us and beyond. We will play our part in advocating for and supporting greater diversity and inclusion across the legal profession.

Download a copy of the business plan here .

Transportation | City proposes key change to O’Hare airport…

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Transportation

Transportation | city proposes key change to o’hare airport rebuild, after months of negotiations with airlines.

After months of negotiations with airlines over the massive, delayed rebuild of O’Hare International Airport, city officials are proposing a path forward with a key change.

In a letter to airlines this week, the city proposed changing the sequencing of construction on a new Global Terminal and nearby satellite concourses, opting to “accelerate the completion of the Global Terminal,” which is set to replace aging Terminal 2, city Chief Operating Officer John Roberson told the Tribune. Initially, the plan was to build two satellite concourses first, which would have added gate space for airlines to use while Terminal 2 was torn down and replaced with the Global Terminal.

A change in the order of construction had been sought by airlines during months of contentious negotiations with the city over the rebuild, as they sought to ensure the new terminal wasn’t threatened by future budget issues. O’Hare’s two main carriers, American and United, had pushed back against rising construction costs at the airport , a key piece of the city’s economy and a hub in the nation’s air system.

The airlines signed off on an $8.5 billion overhaul of the airport in 2018. The main feature of the rebuild was the soaring, 2.2 million-square-foot Global Terminal, designed by a team led by architect Jeanne Gang, which would more than double the space of the current Terminal 2 and add additional gates, and allow travelers to move more seamlessly between domestic and international flights.

But costs, largely financed by city bonds backed by airline fees, ballooned, and the project fell significantly behind schedule.

The city would not provide a copy of the letter sent to the airlines this week, but Roberson said that under the latest proposal, the full project agreed upon in 2018, including both satellite concourses, will be built.

“It also provides the airport with the capacity for growth so that we can be competitive with our other airport peers around the world,” he said. “And it is absolutely critical that we move forward with the implementation of this so that we can remain competitive and make sure that we are positioning O’Hare to be a key driver of our economic development process locally.”

In a joint statement, United and American airlines said they were still reviewing the proposal.

“The City has indicated that they are looking at all options to get an on-budget (terminal project) moving forward, one being sequencing the project to deliver the most impactful elements the quickest. The Global Terminal has always been the centerpiece of this program and the most critical piece needed to ensure Chicago maintains its status as a global hub,” the carriers said.

Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, chair of the City Council’s Aviation Committee, praised the revised phasing plan as “great news.”

“This is about airlines and government collaborating, looking out for airline passengers and modernizing,” he said. “We want to make sure we get this right. That we’re keeping this under budget, we’re avoiding cost overruns, but we’re also remaining competitive.”

When asked if any parts of the project could be not built if development goes over budget, O’Shea said the Department of Aviation has committed to building all major parts of the project within its budget.

“I think we move forward,” he said. “Everyone wanted a Cadillac fully loaded. And it’s not going to be that, but we’re going to modernize it, we’re going to allow for growth and we’re going to stay competitive.”

In an op-ed in the Tribune last month, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin called for both satellite terminals to be built along with the Global Terminal, writing that the satellites made up the bulk of the new gate capacity and accusing the airlines of wanting to “build only the part of the project that benefits them and doesn’t increase competition.”

“This means putting off the construction of both satellite terminals to focus on the Global Terminal,” he wrote. “For a price tag still in the billions of dollars, O’Hare would gain two new gates in 10 years.”

Durbin sent a letter Friday to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg urging Buttigieg to convene a meeting with the city, airlines and state Congressional delegation on the project. In the letter, shared with media after news of the city’s new proposal broke, Durbin highlighted the importance of adding the second satellite terminal to create significant new gate capacity.

“All parties urgently need the expert mediation that only the U.S. Department of Transportation can provide to ensure a deal that is both fair and beneficial to local taxpayers and all passengers who fly through O’Hare,” Durbin wrote.

O’Hare ’s cost per enplaned passenger, a metric tracked by airlines, is already among the nation’s highest, and more than twice that of airports in Detroit and Minneapolis-St. Paul, which are significant bases for Delta, Bloomberg News has reported.

High costs at the airport are a consideration for airlines, and can make the airport less appealing as a hub. They are a key factor for O’Hare, traditionally a major hub for American and United, as its recovery from the pandemic lagged in recent months.

Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt contributed.

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Two plead guilty to insider trading related to Trump Media merger

Two men pleaded guilty on Wednesday to insider trading in securities in the company that ultimately took former U.S. President  Donald Trump’s  media business public.

Michael Shvartsman, 53, head of Miami-based venture capital firm Rocket One Capital, and his brother Gerald Shvartsman, 46, each pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud before U.S. District Judge Lewis Liman in Manhattan.

Rocket One’s chief investment officer, Bruce Garelick, is scheduled to face trial on related charges on April 29.

Prosecutors charged the trio  last year with illegally trading on inside information about Trump Media & Technology Group’s plan to go public through a merger with a blank-check company. TMTG operates Truth Social, Trump’s main social media platform.

Prosecutors said the trio signed confidentiality agreements in June 2021 when they were approached to become early investors in Digital World Acquisition, the blank-check company. The agreements required them to keep information they learned confidential and not trade the company’s securities in the open market, prosecutors said.

After hearing the company was in merger talks with TMTG, prosecutors said the trio tipped others and bought Digital World securities, selling them after the deal was announced on Oct. 20, 2021, to make a total of $22 million in illegal profit.

Michael and Gerald Shvartsman said in court that they knew what they were doing was wrong when they traded on nonpublic information.

“I’ve made a terrible mistake,” Gerald Shvartsman said at the hearing.

“Insider trading is cheating, plain and simple,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the pleas.

The Shvartsmans are scheduled to be sentenced on July 17. Securities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but any sentence would be imposed by the judge based on a range of factors. The average prison sentence in federal fraud cases in the U.S. last year was around two years.

TMTG was publicly listed in late March, and its shares have been on a  wild ride fueled by speculators  betting on enthusiasm for Trump, the Republican presidential candidate in  November’s election .

The stock shed early gains this week as Truth Social’s parent company disclosed it had lost more than $58 million in 2023.

TMTG shares were trading at around $51.60 on Wednesday morning, making Trump’s stake worth about $4 billion, though he is not allowed to sell or borrow against it for six months.

Trump Media is also embroiled in legal battles in Delaware and Florida with co-founders Wesley Moss and Andrew Litinsky, who have accused the company of trying to improperly dilute their stake. Trump Media has argued they failed to earn their shares and seeks to strip them of their ownership.