10 Content Curation Tools Every Marketer Needs

By patrick@blogmutt.com (Patrick Armitage)

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“Curation” is one of those words that’s always conveyed coolness to me.

Take, for example, curating an art gallery, or curating music for a soundtrack. Cool, right? Content curation can be just as cool – and just as important.

Where do you get started on content curation?

In this blog post, you’ll find an explanation of what it is, how it can serve your brand and a series of tools you can use at every experience level.

What is content curation?

Content curation consists of finding material relevant to your audience from a variety of sources and sharing it strategically through your communication channels.

Say you’re a marketing agency. You could write a blog post with a roundup of top product demos and add some context on why you picked them. That list of demos would be curated by you based on what you believe your audience will find most valuable.

So, now that we’ve answered, “What is curated content? ” Let’s get into the benefits of this approach.

Benefits of Content Curation

One of the biggest benefits of content curation is that it adds value to your audience.

There’s so much information out there today and most consumers don’t have the time (or the desire) to sift through hours of content. That’s where you come in.

You can figure out what matters most to them, find the content they care the most about and present it to them in a perfect bow. Who wouldn’t want that?

Think about your favorite music station, whether it’s on the radio or a streaming platform like Spotify or Pandora. While you could listen to hours of music and create your own playlists, it’s even better when someone does it for you and delivers all the hits you love most.

That develops into trust. Even if the curator drops a song you haven’t heard before, you give it a chance knowing there’s a good chance you’ll end up liking it.

The same goes for content curation. As you deliver great content, your audience starts to trust you and see you as a thought leader.

Furthermore, content curation is a great strategy for those weeks when you’re low on original content.

It’s easier to gather content from other sources than start from scratch. So when in doubt, curate content that other experts in your industry have covered.

What makes a successful content curator?

1. Content curation should be personal.

Image Source

The beauty of news roundup NextDraft is the personal touch and context that its chief curator, Dave Pell, gives to each story.

I don’t just want a bunch of browsable links – I want to know why I should read this stuff, and how it pertains to me. That personalized context creates a type of bond between curator and reader that link aggregators doesn’t humanize quite as much.