Content curation or creation, what’s the difference?
Are the two phrases just buzz words of the marketing world or does it actually mean something for your business?
Firstly, the key is understanding the difference between the two phrases. Content curation to start with is the process of gathering existing content such a social media posts, blogs or articles and sharing it. Curation, therefore, is essentially big in the social world, where sharing other peoples content is an ‘in-thing’. But is that the right move for your business?
Content creation, on the other hand, is starting from scratch and crafting your own content to share to your network or beyond. Content creation is certainly the strategy which should be used for your website content, and arguably any blog or article which you’re putting your name to. Using the avenue of content curation and repurposing existing content for your site is a risky strategy and is likely to penalise your site in engine engines in the long run. So always be mindful of where your content is coming from and where you’re going to be using it.
Why content curation shouldn’t be neglected
While it certainly has it’s time, place and avenue. Content curation is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, content curation can help grow your brand – when done correctly. Take LinkedIn for example, a lot of the content we see on there is reshared, or repurposed from other peoples thoughts and findings. There is certainly no problem with taking someone else’s story and sharing it online, alongside your brand, should you stand behind their message or beliefs. In many ways, content curation on social media can help build relationships. Sharing of other peoples content can help grow your network, and interacting with or engaging with these like-minded people, could lead to them also sharing your content.
Content curation can also add a new dimension to the type of content you regularly put out. If you’re in a very small marketing team or do all of the content yourself, it can be hard thinking up new ideas or expanding on your knowledge. Content curation is the perfect avenue for expanding into new audiences and learning a thing or two along the way.
Content creation will alway reign superior
Your original, creative content is what really does the taking and can drive the leads to your business. New ideas, fresh thinking and something exciting from inside the brainchild of your business is what’s worth reading. We continuously see from Google’s Algorithm updates that they are ceaselessly focusing on content. In the latest update (September 2019), this appeared to favour more on a focus of the quality and purpose of the content written. Not just ‘content for content’s sake’.
Find the balance
While it isn’t always easy to come up with your next blog topic, or social media post, the best practice is striking a balance between curation and creation. The official ‘rule-book’ so to speak, suggests a 60:40 ratio towards content creation.
Share other peoples thoughts and ideas to your network by all means, but also ensure you’re spending time on jotting down those new ideas from inside your business. Perhaps you recently made a discovery or gained an unexpected result? There is usually always something stand-out which you can talk about.
Create the content which you would seek to curate.