The Underestimated Power of Content Curation for Personal Branding

When I was little I remember trying to talk my dad into things I wanted like new shoes or a new cassette (yes I’m showing my age!) but I didn’t always go too well because mum was the boss and was in charge of those types of decisions!

So I soon worked out that if I said that mum said I could have it then dad would listen because he trusted my mum of course. Otherwise, it was just me banging on again about something I wanted.  The power of being able to influence an outcome was not so much about me asking for it, but the value of the right person saying it.

Content curation in social media provides the same influence. A Content Curator is a bit like a museum curator. If you think about a Museum Curator they decide on all the artefacts that are going to go into the museum for people to come and see. Their job is to research and know what they’re looking for so the customer will come to the museum. The curator’s knowledge, expertise, and experience are the most valuable skills to make it work. So as a Content Curator your skill is highlighted by the content you shareonn your social media.

After delivering some workshops recently I found many clients procrastinate about sharing content because they feel like it should be their own blog so they end up with less visibility. They don’t believe that curation has as much value, when in fact curation can be even more valuable.

My good friend and President of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Marketing Institute, Kellie-Ann Robinson recently shared her insights with me being that a new role called a “Content Curator” will start to emerge in organisations in Australia and will be the new Public Relations. This week’s slideshare presentation by King Content shares some insights about the future of this type of work.

So, there are 4 big reasons why content curation works:

• Someone else has said it: The fact that it wasn't just you saying it and no-one else means that your opinion is validated by other experts in the field. You’re therefore opening yourself up to being more trusted.

• You get to contrast your insights: You can combine more than one piece of information with another to curate and share your insights. You can still add your expertise, even if you don’t agree with what is being said.

• Less “salesy”: Instead of constantly pumping out your own content and being too  self-promoting, you can leverage what others say and genuinely add value to your audience without it seeming like it’s all about you just marketing your own products and services. Let’s face it we don’t like having sales talk shoved down out throat in feeds all day.

•  It’s more efficient: You spend less time writing content from scratch and more on your insights and value add. This means you can get through more, share more, add more value and increase your visibility.

You might be thinking, well if I share others insights won’t I just be sending clients to them? Not necessarily. It depends if they’re a direct competitor or what they do. There are some experts only write so if you’re a coach you won’t be competing. Equally, if you’re in Business Development for your company you’re looking for independent sources to validate your insights.

If you can allocate a few minutes to do this each day it will help your visibility. Equally, you can get your virtual assistants and marketing teams to help manage it. It’s also an easy way to be consistent so that you can make it easy for the reader to learn more about what you do and how you help them. By not doing it means your competition will be working with your customers before you do.

Love to know your thoughts...