Content may be the king, but how far would you got to create valuable content that will win you raving fans? An emerging trend among entrepreneurs, bloggers and marketing agencies (big and small) is that once their well of original content dries up, they resort to content curation.
There’s nothing wrong with it, of course, except that most confuse Content Curation with Content Aggregation (sites like Alltop, Flipboard, Feedly). And here’s the challenge — content curation is still original! You must add your thoughts to an already popular or even a not-so-popular idea to add value to your readers.
I don’t see a point in rampanting posting and reposting other people’s content — it feels like spamming. (May be it is spamming!)
I carried out an experiment recently. I signed up for a Scoop.it account, hoping to fix the consistency issues (as far as having a posting schedule is concerned) with this blog. Scoop.it is an awesome service and gives you just the right content for your audience that’s craving for more wholesome content! Just hit publish and you can have content published on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even your WordPress blog!
And publish I did. Only that it just didn’t feel right. I felt awkward, out of place and like an idiotic wanna-be blogger/entreprenuer. I’d even added my two-cents to the piece, but it just fell out of place. Two days later, I logged into my account and deleted the post. I felt so much better.
Fundamentally, here’s what happened — I basically was promoting someone else’s content on my real estate (blog). Isn’t that free advertising? I think it is. Not that it’s a bad idea, but I don’t even know this person! And most importantly — why? Why do I have to do it? I didn’t have an answer except that I was trying too hard.
Sure, sharing content that you love with others is a great idea for your social media accounts. It’s something that I practice regularly (heck, everyday for the past several weeks now!) and often encourage other people to do. However, when it comes to your original ideas, it should go straight to your blog. Your social media accounts should act as outposts to make your blog post(s) trending within (and even outside) your network.
Remember that “your body of work” counts more than curated work. It doesn’t matter how viral the content has been, it just feels out of place when its in your blog. Use the right platform to share such posts — and yes, your influence would only grow.
Another clever way to showcase some of the best curated content on your website is to have a dedicated — “best of the web” (or something similar) section in your website. Your can then direct readers to your curated posts on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn through such a link.
The main thing is to ensure that “your body of work” remains sacred and separate from other people’s creation that’s mean to be shared.