3 Content Curation Steps to Become the Most-Trusted Source

Kelly McCausey and I met over 10 years ago at an event in Atlanta. I remember immediately falling in love with her bubbly personality and giggly smile. She was such a bright light to be around. And s-m-a-r-t about online business, especially content curation!

If you’re looking to build a community, Kelly’s your gal! She has a natural talent for bringing people together online and off. That’s why I asked her to give some content curation tips to help you become the most-trusted source of information for your peeps.

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Did you hold back from recommending something because you saw it mentioned somewhere else? Why?

Even if you are not the first person your followers hear the information from, you may be the first person they trust. There’s a big difference. You’ve probably seen it yourself. When you read something on an unknown website, you might think, Ehh… that’s OK. But seeing a link to blog post, podcast, article or other information from someone you know really perks you up!

The feedback from my community told me that seeing information referred by me to them was like using a big, powerful rubber stamp to label it “justified,” “confirmed,” or “authentic.”

Person after person said things like:

• I follow you because I trust you.
• I follow you because you’re honest.
• I follow you because you tell it like it is.

Trust equals being the source. And when you’re the source of shared, high-quality information, people rely on you, spend time with you, and look forward to what you’ll send them next.

How about you? Why are you not assuming that you are the source?

Don’t make the mistake of setting your eyes on marketplace leaders you consider more successful than you.

Paying too much attention to what other thought leaders are up to will only get you stuck inside your own head. It makes you doubt yourself.

Shake it off and assume you are the source and set yourself free to share more great ideas and resources through content curation.

 

What exactly is content curation?

Curation is assembling and managing a collection. That’s it.

A curator is someone who oversees and manages the collection.

The word brings up fond movie memories for me, like the museum curator in The Mummy.

Museum curators might be managing a collection of artifacts collected by archaeologists.

An art curator might be managing a collection of paintings from a certain era or from a certain prolific artist.

A historical archive curator might be managing a collection of items and information from a country or from a certain war.

With the digital information age, we have a new wave of online curators who manage collections of data. Take Oprah or Dr. Oz. They both built their entire careers on sharing other people and their thoughts / products with their audiences.

When you think about it, we’re all digital curators in some way these days.

Why do you need a content curation strategy?

Content curation is a supplemental content strategy. Meaning, I don’t recommend you only curate content, but also use it in addition to your own content.

It’s a great way to cure the dreaded writer’s block. Have you ever sat down to write something and come up blank? Whether you’re writing for your own site or for social media, content curation is an easy way to published because it requires very little writing on your part.

Piggybacking off this previous statement, content curation can also be the cure for a quiet blog. If you haven’t been active for a bit, find some great pieces to curate and start building up some activity on your blog again.

But ultimately, you need a content curation strategy because it’s a way to serve your community and create new relationships.

So, how do you curate content? Here are 3 easy steps…

Step 1: Find Out What Your Followers Want More Info About

This is no different from researching problems your audience needs solutions to for planning your own content strategy.

For example, my target market is hungry for useful, relevant content. They want:

• News
• The latest tools and trends in their niche
• To know what’s working and what’s not
• To know who is rocking it in their world and be introduced to them
• To be in the know and not left out

Step 2: Be a Filter

Across the board, most people feel overwhelmed by the flood of information available to them.

Step up to be a resource to them. Act as a filter of sorts to weed out the garbage and let the best info rise to the top. When you do, you’ll make them feel they are in the loop and they’ll thank you for it.

Remember, I approach curation as a supplemental content strategy — not as a strategy unto itself. I’m not interested in only pointing to what others say, and I doubt that would be engaging to my audience.

My readers respect my curated content because they’ve grown to respect my overall unique opinions. For the same reasons, they love the unique content I create for them. I write blog posts, record podcasts, and publish original learning resources based on my experience.

My target market is made up of entrepreneurs running online businesses, and they’re interested in content that helps them work smarter and be more profitable. They love business tactics that lend more flexibility to their day and tend to move away from things that gobble up large amounts of time.

They love user-friendly tech, social media time savers, and information that helps them better reach and establish relationships with their chosen markets.

That is just the sort of content I curate on LovePeopleMakeMoney.com.

Step 3: Start Curating

If you think about it, most of us are curating already.

You find an interesting post featuring a new useful WordPress plug-in and post a link to Facebook, saying “Hey, cool new time-saving plug-in!” and a few people like it and share it and even comment on it, saying “Thanks for the find!”

By the end of the day, that post has drifted down the river of social media and it’s gone. Those who appreciated the find may or may not later remember that it was you who offered them the connection.

With just a little more effort — I can take that find and turn it into fresh content and traffic for my site.

I find that interesting post featuring a new useful WordPress plug-in, grab a small quote, start a post on my site, add my own thoughts as to why an entrepreneur will want to know about it, and click Publish.

Now I post the link to the curated content on my site to social media. I get the same likes, shares and thanks — but each person who clicks through to check it out has been exposed to my brand along the way. While they’re on my site, they can’t help but notice I have other great content for them and maybe they subscribe to my list to stay in touch.

Because I am bringing them back to my site and exposing them to my brand, I’m reminding them about me and all that I have to offer — and I have a LOT to offer! I’m guessing you do, too.

To learn more about how I curate content quickly and easily, check out my training Content Curation Skills. Save $10 now when you use the SCSKARON coupon code. You can be up and running with a curation strategy in less than a day!

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Have questions about content curation? Talk to me below!