Writing Original Content Versus Sharing Other People's Content (Content Curation)
October 02, 2012
When I read the title of Roger Parker's post, "Writing Versus Content Curation for Personal Branding Success" on Dan Schwabel's Personal Branding blog, my immediate reply was "Both, of course." As I read the article, I discovered that Roger had come to a similar conclusion.
I do disagree with one point - that in order to succeed with original content you cannot delegate the task. As a ghostwriter, I have helped dozens of business owners create their own original content.
Roger points out the many benefits of creating original content for your blog, such as increased credibility, thought leadership and the ability to re-purpose your blog post content into other forms such as books, presentations or courses.
The secret to keeping your blog and website fresh with new content
And as I also reminded people recently at my Business Blogathon in Barrie, Ontario, you don't have to write a full-length (i.e., 500 words) feature article every week in order to keep your blog fresh.
You can alternate your feature articles with shorter posts (i.e., 250-500 words), what I call "connective content." Connective content might be your own personal reflections on the topic of your feature article, a case study of a client, or recommended resources. These "in between" posts could also be your own comments about related content that you've found on other blogs or via social media.
What is content curation?
The formal term for sharing other people's content is content curation. Though you may not realize it, if you're active on social media you're likely already using content curation as part of your online marketing strategy. Have you ever re-tweeted or "liked" someone else's link on social media? That's content curation - that's you saying, "Here is some content that I find valuable, and I'm sharing it with you because you might not have seen it otherwise."
All of a sudden you're taking on a whole new role for that person. You're sifting through all the noise on the Internet and finding the best, most interesting and most important content in your particular topic area. When you pair that with creating your own original content, your value as an expert rises significantly!
Sharing other people's content on your blog
If you're already doing this type of content sharing on social media, you may wonder why you would bother doing it on your blog. Here are three reasons to consider:
- Your blog is your home - your name is on the door, you decide how things are displayed and you own 100% of your content.
- You can find it later - by organizing, categorizing and storing your curated content on your own blog, both you and your readers can easily find it later so it will continue to be of value.
- Sharing other people's content boosts your blog's credibility with both readers (most importantly) and search engines - by curating and commenting on other people's content, you enhance your own position as an expert in that area.
Of course once you've published the content on your blog you should also widely promote your blog post on social media.
Please be sure to give proper attribution when you're sharing someone else's content. For more information, check out my blog post, "How to Share Great Content Without Plagiarizing."
Also, as Greg Bardwell of B2B Content Engine writes in his e-book, Curation for B2B Content Marketing, you should always read through whatever you're recommending. "Just because a blog has a great title and you know the author or source does not make it worth curating." Be sure you're not inadvertently compromising your readers' trust by sending them to a site or post that doesn't share your values.
Sharing other people's content is truly a win-win-win proposition. Your readers win because they have access to information they didn't have to find on their own. The other expert wins because their content is seen by a new audience. And you win because you're increasing your visibility, credibility and consistency.
Linda Dessau, CPCC, is the author of Write Your Way to More Clients Online and the founder of ContentMasteryGuide.com. She offers ghostwriting, editing, business blog consulting and training.
Hi Roland,
When you're curating someone else's content on your blog, I would definitely provide a link to the author's blog, website and/or social media profiles. I tend to set these types of external links to open in a new window - though I'm told that this goes against best accessibility practices.
I also encourage you to share the author's name when curating content on social media - stay tuned for a blog post I am working on about that topic. In the meantime, you can read this one:
http://www.contentmasteryguide.com/2011/02/social-media-writing-sin-4-baiting-and-switching.html
Best wishes,
Linda
Posted by: Linda Dessau | November 01, 2012 at 08:44 PM
Hi Linda,
It helps quite a lot!
So basically when I'm curating an article, Should I mention author with or without link to his homepage (i.e. G+ profile)?
Obviously in addition to his article link.
How do the search engines know this is curation and not duplicate content?
Sorry for my ignorance of what may be in front of my eyes.
Have a great day,
Roland
Posted by: Roland | November 01, 2012 at 07:00 PM
That's a good question! I don't think it's disrespectful to comment on or even disagree with the opinions someone has shared in a blog post. In today's landscape where everyone is a publisher, I don't think you need to treat blog posts any differently than industry news posts.
I hope that helps!
Thanks for your comment.
Posted by: Linda Dessau | October 30, 2012 at 06:57 PM
Hi Linda,
When I do content curation, I like to focus on industry news, government publications, etc. rather than on an author's personal post. It just seems more respectful of the idea they may be trying to convey as I do not want to derail it.
I tend to think of "curation" as chewing and digesting the essence of a news article, adding my personal thoughts and delivering it to my audience.
Am I wrong in my thinking of what curation should be?
Posted by: Background Checks | October 30, 2012 at 06:49 PM