For businesses looking to make an impact online, content is one of the most important parts of any digital marketing strategy. With so many brands now operating in the online space, competition is fiercer than ever and original, engaging content is needed to make your brand stand out to engage users.

Content curation explained

Content curation is a broader term that covers finding, organizing, sharing and developing various forms of content, from blogs to videos. For businesses, this is a key part of the digital marketing strategy and is often handled by the social media and content teams, but it can also be closely related to website management and some elements of SEO.

The most important thing to note regarding content creation is that whatever content you share it needs to be of value to your audience and properly attributed to the original creators. Whether that is tagging them on Instagram, backlinking on a blog or newsletter in which you reference them or asking permission to share their image.

Why is content curation worth it?

It saves time, money and resources

Although creating original content is important for SEO and positioning your brand as trusted industry experts, it takes a lot of time and resources and can be very expensive. Fortunately, content creation is there to support your original content, give you something to share on social media, and find new ways to engage your audience.

Commenting on a recent industry news story can be more beneficial to your brand than a 1000-word blog released a week after the story broke. Curated content can fill the gap and allow you to get involved with trends.

If you already have experience in content curation you may be thinking ‘If it is so time and resource-efficient, why am I spending so much time on it?’. Well, content curation only really saves time, money and resources when done correctly. Here are three tips to help you be more efficient with your time:

Plan topics: Keep in mind your target audience and your businesses’ goals, selling points, products, services and industry.
Use tech: Tools like Pocket and Feedly make it super easy to keep track of relevant articles to share later. There are also tons of social media tools like Tagify for keeping on top of new trends in relevant subjects.
Schedule ahead: There are many social media scheduling tools, like HootSuite, that help you plan for the week ahead. Plus, most modern CMS systems, like WordPress have options for scheduling blogs for release in the future.

It adds value for your audience

Careful content curation will mean that you have more interesting and useful content to share with your audience, whether they are followers on social media or subscribers to your newsletter.

By providing content from a range of sources, you are giving your audience multiple content, helping them to fully understand the topics in discussion. This also shows that your brand is not just about making sales and promoting itself, instead it shows you are committed to providing valuable and insightful information and resources.

It creates networking opportunities

When you choose to share someone else’s content you are endorsing their work. This can be flattering for the creator and can be a good way to open doors to new partnerships with relevant businesses, social influencers, consultants, and other industry experts.

Here are some tips for developing your network through content curation:

Always link to the original creator. A backlink to the original piece of work makes it clear you are not trying to pass off their work as your own and is likely to be appreciated by the original creator as it also benefits their website.
Always tag them. You need to ensure they are aware of what you have done and, hopefully, encourage them to engage with your social post.
Collaborate: Think carefully about which brands have a natural alignment and would be useful to collaborate with and then reference their content to start the relationships off well.
Include your brand voice: Just because you are sharing another brand’s content does not mean you don’t need to do so in your brand’s voice. Try to add value to whatever info you need while presenting your brand as positively as possible.

As you can see, content creation can provide several benefits to your brand. In today’s world original content is seen as so crucial to digital marketing. However, content curation can provide many extra benefits and be done quickly, easily and without much time and resources.

Author Bio:

Zoe Dromgoole is the Marketing Executive at Wood Flooring Ireland and runs social media marketing. Wood Flooring Ireland sells bespoke engineered wood flooring throughout the entire country. Click here to learn more – https://woodflooringireland.ie/engineered-wood-flooring/.

I think it’s safe to say that pretty much everyone working in the Search Engine Optimization and in particular working on either content marketing and/or link building campaigns has at some point struggled with coming up with new content ideas.

There are various brainstorming techniques as well as tools designed especially to help you with this task. What I am going to discuss here today is mind mapping, or to be more specific, how to use mind maps to brainstorm content ideas.

What is mind mapping

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. Just like the example below.

The term mind map was coined by a British author and TV personality Tony Buzzan

Mind maps have multiple uses, you can use them to take notes, to study, brainstorm ideas or even plan a new website.

Tips and Tricks

Before we start, there are a few great tips and tricks to brainstorming with mind maps effectively. If you follow and remember these little pieces of useful information, then you are sure to have no trouble when it comes to brainstorming.

Have a clear idea of what the topic is.
Define your desired outcome.
The subject title should be the mind map title to remind you what you are brainstorming.
Add branches and topics and the sub-branches with their sub-topics without worrying about organization for now (you can organize it later).
Brainstorming is all about letting the idea flow freely from your mind.
Take a break when you run out of ideas or become tired from concentration. Return to it after a short break.
Once you have collected all of your ideas you can start structuring and organizing them.

Brainstorming content ideas with mind maps

Here’s the part you’ve been waiting for eagerly – how do you brainstorm content ideas with mind maps? Well, once you have followed the steps for preparing your mind all you need is some paper and colored pens or some mind mapping software.

Here is how you can brainstorm ideas using mind maps.

1) Place your main topic in the center of the page.

2) Close your eyes, take a deep breath and let the ideas come to you.

3) As the ideas start to form, draw arms for your mind map and label them.

4) As your ideas become more detailed, make sub-arms from the key ideas and write short, detailed notes. As you think of content ideas think of all the questions your audience may ask. Look at your keyword research spreadsheet and include these in your mind map as well.

5) You can continue expanding until you have explained and described your ideas to the best of your ability.

6) Out of quantity comes quality. You can now pick up the best ideas from your mind map.

Your final result should look like the example below.

Group brainstorming with mind maps

If you are brainstorming in a group, make sure you have someone to record the ideas and a ‘leader’ for the session to keep things organized and under control. You will also want the group to be small.

Mind mapping tools

There are a lot of tools available online and in the App Store both paid and free or you could simply use pen and paper. I suggest you try a couple (using free trials) and pick the one which works for you best. Some of the tools are very simple others can let you add links, images and attachments to your mind map.

To get you started here is a short list (in no particular order).

mindmapfree.com– quick and easy to use, free, browser based tool.
MindNode one for Apple fans, available for Mac, iPad and iPhone. Very nice, clean design.
SimpleMind – available on Windows, Mac, Android & iOS.
iMindQ – available on Mac, iOS, Web, Android and Windows.

Summary

Mind mapping is an amazing and versatile method that allows for us to be creative and really get our ideas down in an organized and highly structured manner. I hope this post will inspire you to try mind mapping and that it will help you with brainstorming your content ideas.

When it comes to online marketing, most people know that providing high quality content for their website visitors is one of the most crucial steps in the process. Although consistently coming up with new content can be quite challenging, it is possible to do so. Here are 5 ideas to get you started on your content curation journey the next time you need to provide content for your site.

Sign up for Google Alerts

This is one of the easiest ways to come up with fresh new content. Setting up Google Alerts will enable you to receive email alerts when an article or blog post is compiled that discusses a topic that you are interested in. Alerts arrive in your inbox, so all you need to do is open the email, read through the snippets and decide which ones are most appropriate. Clicking the links provided will take you to the site where the articles were first posted, and from there, you can usually pick up a few great ideas for content of your own.

Scan Social Media

If you use social media regularly to attract website traffic, chances are that competitors in your niche are doing so as well. Heading over, liking their pages and opting to receive notifications from them will enable you to see when they post new content online. Once their content has been posted, you will be able to read it and in most cases, pick up a few ideas for new posts for your own website or blog.

Magazine Articles

Most people scan the covers of magazines while they are out shopping or even reading them online. In many cases, there will be article headlines that can be customized to suit almost any niche or category. For example, an article entitled “5 Ways to Save Electricity” could be tweaked to read along the lines of “5 Ways to customize your Smartphone’s App Screen.”

Take Notes

Many people find that great ideas for content may come to them at some of the most unexpected times. For example, while they are in the shower, reading a book or even out shopping. As a result, it is recommended that you keep a notebook and pen on hand to jot down ideas that come to mind on the spur of the moment. If pen and paper writing is not for you, there are numerous note-taking smartphone apps that can do the job for you.

Consider Stumbleupon.com

Another excellent content curation method is to pay regular visits to stumbleupon.com, because hundreds of thousands of links to great articles are shared here each day. Although you may not find exact matches for your industry or niche, chances are that something else you read there may spark an idea for new article.

The next time you feel stuck for content ideas, why not consider using a few of the above mentioned sources to help kick start the idea process? In most cases, you will be able to come up with quite a few ideas in a relatively short period of time.

Other sources

This next list is a list of miscellaneous content tools. Our friend Ken Lyons from measuredSEM put this list together. Good stuff right here!

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