How to Create and Curate Content Without Being a CopyCat of Everyone Else In Your Industry

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It is becoming increasingly overwhelming for marketers to consistently create content that is fresh, relevant and provides real value to their audience, customers, and prospective customers.

Given the social, always on, always connected and always consuming content digital world of today, the demands for businesses of all sizes to create content is not slowing anytime soon.

Did you know… 

• 47% of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)
• B2B marketers allocate approximately 28% of their total marketing budget to content marketing. (Content Marketing Institute)
• 53% of marketers say blog content creation is their top inbound marketing priority. (HubSpot, 2017)
• 40% marketers said white papers produce the most revenue, followed closely by webinars (38%). (DemandWave State of 2017 Digital Marketing Report)
• Nearly half of B2B marketers expect to invest more in digital marketing this year; 38% of marketers plan to spend 60% or more of their marketing budget online. (DemandWave State of 2017 Digital Marketing Report)
• 96% of B2B buyers want content with more input from industry thought leaders. (Demand Gen Report, 2016)

It's important to understand that regardless what method of content creation you are using, your focus should be on quality over quantity. One really good piece of content that truly connects in an emotional, valuable way with your ideal customer is far better than 10 pieces of random content. Avoid random acts of content always!

One good way to help build up a powerful arsenal of top quality content is to curate content from industry thought leaders.

The good news is that you don't have to create every piece of content yourself. Have you ever heard of content curation? If not, then you can't leave this page without understanding what it is and how it can help your business. Even if you know what it is, I encourage you to dig in to help maximize your content marketing results and impact.

Because of the pressure to produce more and more content, unfortunately many marketers fall to lazy marketing tactics. They quit creating their own content and start curating and sharing other helpful content from leaders in their industry. Curation can be good. However, many lazy marketers start copying, pasting and regurgitating other people's content. They copy, tweak and pretend it is theirs when in reality they have often lost the real meaning of it without even knowing. They wind up hurting their brand more than helping.

Believe it or not there are even top social marketing and digital marketing leaders who teach courses on how to leverage ideas every morning from your competition.  These so called “experts” will tell you to “steal their ideas, but make them your own.” While this may be a strategy that works for the short term, in the long term it will only dilute your brand and help build the competitor for which you copy.

Though curation can be an impactful and excellent way to establish your brand online as well as serve the needs of your audience, it requires both art and science to see real benefit.

Is anything really new anyway? Does content have to be new to be relevant? How can you curate content from other industry leaders and still be relevant to your audience? Where do you draw the line of endorsing other people's content vs supporting their brand more than your own? What are the negatives of content regurgitation?

If these are some of the questions you have then take a listen to the 105th episode of the Social Zoom Factor podcast to learn the difference between creation, curation and regurgitation of content. I also include tips and strategies to develop your own curation platform and ensure you are not simply regurgitating content that will hurt you more than help.

In this 30 minute podcast you will learn: 

• Definition of content creation and new ideas
• Definition of content curation
• Definition of content regurgitation
• How to create content that represents the brand of you!
• Why you must keep the brand of you in your content
• The importance of adding your own perspective in every piece of content
• How to curate content like a curation rock star
• The difference between regurgitation and curation of content
• Why you must stop regurgitating other people's content.

Take a listen and be sure to subscribe to the entire series on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud!

Need more help? Social Profit Factor Training Academy and Marketing Nutz Can Help! 

Check out our new comprehensive online social media and branding training academy, the Social Profit Factor, that will help create a solid social media and content marketing strategy and plan that will connect you with your ideal customer in a human way!  Sign up now to become a founding member and receive some incredible deals plus bonus offers.

Need us to help train your team? Give us a shout and let's get a custom workshop scheduled for your organization. Increase sales by generating more leads using social media to nurture relationships.

Supporting Resources:

• Social Profit Factor Training Academy + Member Community (social media, digital marketing and branding online training)
• Content Editorial Calendar Template (worksheet / template)
• Content Editorial Calendar Podcast Tutorial
• Audience analysis worksheet to help you identify and prioritize your top audiences.
• Content Marketing in a Nutshell (episode 50)
• How to Create a Content Marketing Framework, Strategy & Plan
• Evergreen Content Marketing in a Nutshell
• Content Marketing ROI: Leverage Content You Already Have (episode 30)
• 16 Content Marketing Golden Rules

How to Subscribe to Social Zoom Factor Podcast 

•  iTunes
• Stitcher
• SoundCloud
  

• This Social Zoom Factor podcast episode is sponsored by the following: 

  • Hostgator