Welcome to our blog on content curation tools! In today’s digital landscape, where information overload is a common challenge, content curation is crucial in organizing, filtering, and delivering valuable content to your audience. In this blog, we will explore a range of powerful content curation tools that can streamline your content management process, save time, and enhance the quality of curated content. Whether you’re a content marketer, a social media manager, or a knowledge enthusiast, these tools offer intuitive interfaces and advanced features to help you discover, curate, and distribute relevant content seamlessly. Join us as we delve into the world of content curation tools and unlock the potential to revolutionize your content strategy. Let’s get started on the path to becoming a master curator!
What is content curation?
Content curation consists of finding material relevant to your audience from various 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 context to why you picked them. You would curate that list of demos
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 on the radio or a streaming platform like Spotify or Pandora. While you could listen to hours of music and create your 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 like it.
The same goes for content curation. As you deliver great content, your audience trusts you and sees 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.
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 bond between curator and reader that link aggregators don’t humanize quite as much.
2. Content curation should build value.
No matter your customers’ industry, they all want to stay informed and save time.
Just like you, they have demands and can’t possibly keep up with all the latest news in their industry – but they want to. Solving this problem through content curation presents a huge opportunity for brands to build relationships with their audience.
If you can deliver a curated experience that saves your customers time getting the information they need, you’ve taken a major step toward building trust and loyalty.
3. Content curation should offset promotional content.
Customers can tire of brands ceaselessly promoting their wares, so brands must think beyond products or features.
The relationship customers have with brands today transcends the product itself. After all, that’s part of the foundation of inbound marketing. While a product may initially attract you to a specific brand, something else – like great content or remarkable service – likely keeps you around.
4. Content curation shouldn’t take all day.
Once you’ve decided to curate content, the hard part begins gathering content. While bookmarking and reading lists may work initially, those are not sustainable options.
Instead, curation tools are designed to help you gather, sift through, and curate content. Here’s our list below, categorized by level of expertise.
Content Curation Tools
For Beginning Curators
If you occasionally share a relevant post with your customers, you’re already curating content. To build this into a scalable strategy, here are free curation tools to help you start getting into the habit of curating content without being overwhelmed by complex tools, subscription fees, or convoluted dashboards.
1. Flipboard
Flipboard is a mobile and desktop app that allows you to create mini-magazines with links to your favorite news stories, blog posts, and websites.
After creating these magazines, you can open them up to the public so consumers can follow your content and share them on social media.
You can also include your blog posts and links for readers to learn more about your business.
To start using Flipboard, you only need to download the app and create an account. You can also look through the magazines of other users and share their stories in your mini-publication with a quick tap.
2. Pocket
Pocket is a great place to get into the habit of accruing content to save and read later.
Instead of a laundry list of bookmarks or countless emails you’ve sent to yourself with links, it stores all your chosen images, articles, and videos in one place for reference.
You can group articles with tags, and the site’s built-in search functionality makes finding those articles easy. Plus, it integrates with over 500 other apps, like Evernote, for easy syncing.
As a bonus, Pocket tweets their @PocketHits for the most-saved articles on their platform – a must-follow if you’re active on Twitter.
3. Elink.io
Collecting content from various websites and sharing them in a presentable way and context is key to successful content curation.
Elink.io takes the pain out of content curation and allows anyone to save links on the go and turn them into beautiful, shareable content.
You can convert your links into a web page, embed them on a website, or send them as a newsletter. They have a whopping 30+ responsive templates that you can customize to your liking. With over 80,000 users worldwide, the link is one of the best tools for fast and beautiful content curation.
4. Twitter Lists
Twitter can be hard to keep up with if you don’t organize the accounts you follow. That’s where Twitter Lists come in handy: curated groups of Twitter users that you can categorize and follow separately from the rest of your feed.
Say you curate marketing content; you could create a Twitter list for email marketing, another for blogging, and so on. Even better, you can make it public so other Twitter users can access your lists.
Furthermore, if you create a Pocket account (mentioned above), you can easily save articles from Twitter directly into your account.
5. Newsletters
Whatever industry you’re in, stay on the lookout for newsletter subscriptions. And if a good one doesn’t exist in your industry, that’s the perfect opportunity to create one.
But before you start your newsletter, learn from what other outlets are doing. Here are a few that are doing a great job in original content curation:
The Hustle
The Hustle brings business and tech news to your inbox daily. The team expertly breaks down top news in a witty, sharp tone that its audience enjoys – plus links to read the original content.
Want to stay updated on all things marketing? Carney’s got you covered. Their daily newsletter includes snippets of news in the marketing world and a longer section providing context for an external article they link to.
The Daily Skimm
What this newsletter excels at is the tone and the brand voice. The team behind The Skimm knows that its readers want the TLDR version of top news stories in a digestible way. Their newsletter does just that, and that’s why it resonates so well with readers.
Quartz Daily Brief
With its Daily Brief, Quartz has figured out how to make a text-heavy newsletter a stalwart in the news business. The beauty of the newsletter, because it’s text-based, is the cross-platform functionality. The Daily Brief loads quickly without heavy images on phones, tablets, and desktops, making it easy to read on any device.
Internet Brunch
Digital agency Big Spaceship created Internet Brunch to help folks “find the best news, GIFs, and trends across the Internet.” This roundup will cover the important stuff that helps readers stay in the loop, from holidays to current events to celebrity birthdays.
Also read: Website Monitoring Tools
For Intermediate Content Curators
Here are some great sources for when you’ve got the basics covered and are looking for something more comprehensive.
6. Scoop. it
I like to think of Scoop. It is a nexus of content curation and social media, with a Pinterest-like user interface.
Start with a topic of interest and Scoop. It will generate the most relevant articles to view, share, and suggest relevant topics.
Why we recommend Scoop It:
- Their smart engine can monitor the topics you’re most interested in and identify related content you may like.
- Easy integration with WordPress.
- Content creation for multiple channels, including websites, emails, and social media
Pricing:
$0 to $79/month, with customized pricing available for enterprise accounts.
7. Feedly
Feedly should be at the top of your list if you’re stepping up your content curation game. This tool is a news aggregator powered by artificial intelligence, one the brand has named Leo.
When you add a few of your favorite sources to Feedly, you can aggregate and browse these feeds in one place from your desktop and mobile devices.
This tool is best for filtering the content you’re interested in. Feedly leverages Leo to identify the content you care most about and filter out the ones you don’t.
Pricing:
$6 to $12 monthly, with an adaptable plan for business accounts.
8. Sniply
You might wonder why Sniply, a conversion platform, is on this list.
Well, this tool goes hand-in-hand with content curation.
Let’s say you have a monthly newsletter with links to articles about your industry. With a tool like Sniply, you can place a call-to-action (CTA) on the page you’re linking to. This way, you can redirect users to your content and help them convert.
It’s also a custom link shortener, so you can create branded links short enough to share on Twitter and the like.
Pricing:
$29 – $299/month
7. Quuu
Quuu integrates with most major social media scheduling tools, including HubSpot, and allows you to discover and share content.
Why we recommend Quuu:
- It auto-categorizes your content, making it easier to sift through later.
- It offers reader mode to make your experience free of distractions.
- The integrated scheduling dashboard makes it easy to share the content you discover.
Pricing:
$0 to $15.83/month
9. UpContent
Are you looking for a one-stop shop for your content curation? UpContent’s got you covered.
UpContent’s top features include:
- Content recommendations backed by machine learning algorithms.
- Approval workflows to ensure articles met brands’ guidelines.
- Integration with top web hosting, social media scheduling, and email marketing software.
Pricing:
$15 to $265/month
For Advanced Content Curators,
Now, we’re getting into some serious, enterprise-level curation software. These solutions are ideal for companies looking for a proven platform that supports a team of users, editors, and content curators.
Enterprise-level curation requires advanced algorithms to identify relevant content, a centralized publishing platform, and customizable publishing options.
10. Curata
The power of Curata lies in its ability to recommend and help you discover relevant content relevant to their respective audiences without manual labor.
Users can fine-tune, customize, and categorize content sources for review and then distribute them from one central platform.
You can then use Curata’s publishing and promotion tools to repurpose curated content across your blog, social media accounts, newsletter, and automated marketing platforms.
Pricing:
Not available
Conclusion
In conclusion, content curation tools are invaluable assets for content creators and marketers seeking to streamline their curation process and deliver high-quality content to their audience. These tools provide efficient ways to discover, organize, and share relevant content from various sources, saving time and effort. By leveraging content curation tools, you can enhance your content strategy, establish yourself as an authority in your niche, and engage your audience with valuable and curated content. Remember to assess your specific needs and explore different tools to find the one that aligns best with your requirements. Start harnessing the power of content curation tools today and elevate your content to new heights of relevance and value.
FAQs
What are content curation tools?
Content curation tools are software or online platforms that help individuals and businesses discover, organize, and distribute relevant content from various sources. These tools streamline content curation and enable users to deliver valuable content to their audience.
How do content curation tools save time for content creators?
Content curation tools automate finding and organizing content, saving content creators valuable time searching for relevant material. These tools often have advanced algorithms and filters to quickly identify and curate content based on specific keywords, topics, or sources.
Can content curation tools help with content discovery?
Absolutely! Content curation tools provide many sources, including news articles, blog posts, social media feeds, etc. These tools offer search and discovery features that enable users to find fresh and engaging content from different channels and industries.
Do content curation tools assist in maintaining content quality?
Yes, content curation tools often include features that allow users to evaluate the quality and relevance of curated content. Some tools provide analytics, audience engagement metrics, and user feedback to help content creators ensure they are curating high-quality and valuable content for their audience.
Are content curation tools suitable for personal use or only for businesses?
Content curation tools are beneficial for both personal and business use. Individuals can use these tools to curate content for personal blogs, social media accounts, or personal knowledge management. Businesses can leverage content curation tools to enhance their content marketing efforts, engage their audience, and establish thought leadership in their industry.
