The Definitions of Curated Content (and its Business Implications)

Curated content: What is it and why is it important for content marketing? Where does content curation sit in the content strategy? If you’ve heard about curated content before but want to find out more, read on and we’ll give you the answers.

When people think of content marketing, a lot of the time, they assume that just creating or sharing content is good enough. However, most content comes from an inspirational source or two. You pull ideas from various sites and showcase them across your social media accounts with something called curated content. This is a practice that has gained massive popularity in recent years. 

If you’re not sure what curated content is or what the business implications of this practice are, this is for you. We’re going to give you a few definitions of curation and tell you why it’s a good idea to incorporate it into your own content marketing and social media strategy.

What Does Curated Mean?

The three definitions below can give you a better idea of the meaning of curated content. To define curate can be tricky because it can mean different things for different people. However, it seems to have a few core standards that everyone agrees upon.

 According to EContent, the curation definition is: 

“Content curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content that surrounds specific subject matter. Content curation does not include generating content, but instead, amassing content from a variety of sources, and delivering it in an organized fashion.”

Medium defines curated meaning: 

“Content curation is the art of finding, organizing, adding value and publicly sharing digital information artifacts on a specific topic for a particular audience interest.”

Kontentino in its post on how to curate content explains the meaning of curated content as:

“Curated content is content from other sources that you share on your social media platforms. It is something that corresponds with your brand and you consider it a valuable piece of information for your target audience. Content curation means collecting, categorizing and sharing valuable pieces of content on a specific topic. And similarly, like the curator in a museum, you curate your own collection across social media platforms.”

Huffington Post captures the meaning of curated content using this definition of content curation:

“Social media content curation is simply filtering through all the interesting content across the web and sharing the best news, articles, videos and infographics on your social channels. To curate it is to collect it.”

Ideally, with your curated content, you gather and share links to your brand or products in a way. You want it to both correspond with your brand and resonate with your target audience to make a positive and thought-provoking impression.

Curator and Curate Definition 

Think of a museum. The person who is responsible for putting the displays together, keeping track of the various pieces, and organizing them all is the curator of the museum. Similarly, you become a curator when you collect and showcase your content through your social media channels to connect your brand to your audience. 

If you define curate, again, it can have different meanings depending on the niche you’re talking to or working with. However, Macmillian Dictionary has a very straightforward way to define ‘curate’ for business purposes, and it is:

“Broadly speaking, to curate is the act of examining a number of items – concrete objects, pieces of music, printed or other media, etc, i.e. anything that the public might look at, listen to, or otherwise ‘consume’ – and selecting what you consider to be the best of the bunch. These items are then presented in a way which makes them easy to digest and thereby of maximum benefit to ‘consumers.'”

The Business Implications of Curated Content 

If you want to be a curator and feature curated content on your social media platforms, you have to know the business implications. It doesn’t make sense to do something unless you realize why it’s a good idea to do it. This way, you’ll understand why it’s so important to incorporate it into your business marketing plan. 

Establish Your Brand as a Thought Leader 

Sharing content that is relevant to your business or niche helps to build your reputation as your industry’s go-to resource. Sharing content tells your audience that you’ve read it, and you know it. People will learn that you have the answers when they have questions or need help. Even though you didn’t personally write it, you’ve shared it. 

Your targeted audience will know that you have the content on-hand to assist them with their problems. When this happens, they’ll subscribe and follow your platforms closely. You can also add your own insight by adding a comment to everything you curate. It gives a personalized touch, and it gives your followers more to think about. 

Grow Your Audience with Content Curation

Curated content is an excellent platform to get your responsive audience talking, connecting and interacting. Having a responsive audience forms the framework for your social media marketing strategy.

Curation is an excellent way to spark conversations pertaining to the things your audience is talking about and interested in. When you search for content, you want to ask yourself why your audience would care if you curated some piece of content. 

Make sure you add informative content in several different formats. Share blog posts, but also remember to share infographics, images, videos, charts, and more. It helps you engage different audience members, and it can stop your content from feeling boring and stale. 

Boost Your Brand’s Public Image

Your image is huge, and growing a reputable brand isn’t easy. It takes effort and time. Creating content also takes time, but content curation makes this easy. Using certain tools can give you a good idea on who’s talking about what online. You can use it to find out what people are saying about your products or brand. 

When you find content that mentions your brand, curate it. This could be as simple as blog posts that link to your brand’s blog, infographics that quote your team, or articles detailing your new products or services. Add your own thoughts to it to make it seem more insightful and less like promotional items.

Start Working on Curated Content in Your Marketing Strategy

Now that we’ve defined the term ‘curate’ and explained what curated content is, you can incorporate it into your marketing strategy. We also went over the ‘curate’ and ‘curation’ definitions for you to give you an in-depth understanding of this practice. Done correctly, it can yield significant results for your overall online marketing strategy.