What is Content Curation? Its Crucial Role in Communication Strategies

In today’s digital age, the flow of information is relentless. It comes at employees from all sides. For communication professionals, this constant influx of data presents both a challenge and an opportunity. To stand out in a crowded digital landscape, organizations need to craft meaningful and relevant messages that engage their audiences.

This is where content curation comes into play, a powerful strategy that can make or break your communication efforts. Keep reading to get the full story, not to mention some tips that can boost your efforts.

What Is Content Curation?

A great place to begin is with this very question. Because in a world where information is abundant and easily accessible, a content curation strategy has emerged as an essential for communication professionals, marketing directors, and organizations of all sizes. But what exactly does content curation entail, and why is it so crucial for effective communication?

Defining Content Curation

Content curation is the art and science of discovering, selecting, organizing, and sharing existing content to meet specific communication objectives. Unlike content creation, which involves generating original material, content curation involves sifting through the vast sea of information on the internet to find the most valuable, relevant, and engaging content for your audience.

The Core Principles of Content Curation

• Filtering: At its core, content curation is about filtration. It’s about sorting through the immense volume of content available and hand-picking the gems that resonate with your target audience. It requires a discerning eye to distinguish quality content from noise.
• Organizing: Once the best content is identified, the next step is organizing it in a meaningful and structured way. This could involve categorizing content, creating curated lists, or arranging it in a timeline that tells a story or provides insights.
• Adding Value: Content curation is not just about collecting content; it’s also about enhancing it. This might involve providing context, giving your perspective, or adding insights that make the curated content even more valuable. The value-added can be your unique voice or perspective on the topic.

Why Curated Content Matters in a Content Marketing Strategy

We now know what a content curation strategy is, but why is it so critical to your overall content marketing strategy? Here are some of the reasons curation can prove so crucial:

• Information Overload Management: In the digital age, we are bombarded with a never-ending stream of information from countless sources. This information overload can overwhelm both businesses and their audiences. Content curation helps organizations sift through the noise to find the most relevant, valuable, and reliable information. This is particularly important for communication professionals who need to ensure that the content they deliver is focused and beneficial to their target audience as part of content marketing.
• Maintaining Relevance: Relevance is crucial in communication. Companies need to stay up-to-date with industry trends, market developments, and customer interests. Curation allows them to continuously provide fresh, timely, and pertinent content, keeping their messaging current and aligned with audience expectations.
• Building Credibility: Credibility is a cornerstone of effective communication. By consistently curating content and sharing high-quality posts, a company can establish itself as a reliable source of information and a thought leader in its industry. When audiences trust your content and overall content marketing efforts, they are more likely to trust your brand and its messaging.
• Efficiency in Resource Utilization: Content creation can be resource-intensive, both in terms of time and finances. Curating content allows companies to work more efficiently. Instead of starting from scratch, they leverage existing content created by experts and thought leaders. This not only saves resources but also ensures that the content is of a high standard.
• Diversity of Content: Effective communication requires diversity in the type of content shared. Curation enables companies to mix and match content formats, such as articles, videos, infographics, and user-generated content, to engage different audience preferences.
• Consistent Engagement: Consistency is vital in communication. Content curation provides a steady flow of content, ensuring that companies can maintain a regular posting schedule. This consistent engagement keeps audiences interested and returning for more, especially when incorporated into content marketing.
• Supporting Employee Advocacy: Curating content empowers employees to become brand advocates. Employees can easily share curated content that reflects the company’s values and messaging. Their advocacy not only amplifies the brand’s reach but also adds a personal touch that resonates with their networks.

Empowering Employee Advocacy through Content Curation

In the realm of modern communication, employee advocacy has become a potent force for enhancing brand visibility and trust. It leverages your employees as valuable assets who not only understand your brand but are also willing to endorse it. Content curation plays a pivotal role in empowering employees to become influential brand advocates.

Employee advocacy involves your team members sharing company content, promoting your brand, and representing your values and vision on their personal and professional networks. This approach humanizes your brand, extends your reach, and adds authenticity to your messaging. In short: it makes you seem relatable, and thus, reliable. But how does curation fit into this equation?

Content Curation as the Catalyst

Content curation is the fuel that drives the engine of employee advocacy. Here’s how it works:

• Access to a Wealth of Quality Content: Content curation tools–like Sociabble–provide a wide array of curated content, including articles, blog posts, videos, infographics, and more. This diverse content library ensures that employees have a broad selection of materials to share, each tailored to different audience preferences and communication channels.
• Effortless Sharing: Curation tools simplify the sharing process. Employees can conveniently browse and select content that aligns with their interests and resonates with their networks. This simplicity encourages active participation and minimizes the barriers to entry. With Sociabble, for example, employees can share branded or personal content to any major social media network with just a few clicks. It’s easy and effortless.

  

• Consistency in Messaging: By centralizing content curation on a platform like Sociabble, companies maintain control over their messaging. Employees share content that adheres to brand guidelines and values, ensuring a consistent brand image across all advocacy efforts.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Content curation needs analytics and reporting features to allow companies to track the performance of shared content and measure the impact of employee advocacy efforts. Such data can inform strategy adjustments and further optimize advocacy initiatives. The Sociabble platform comes with a full package of analytics to provide exactly the kind of detailed, segmented data admins need to get the most out of their program. 
• Educating and Engaging Employees: Content curation is not just about sharing content but also about educating employees. By engaging with curated materials, employees gain insights into industry trends, market dynamics, and your company’s values. They become more informed advocates.

The Employee’s Role in Content Curation

As employees engage with curated content, they become well-versed in your brand’s story, industry trends, and the interests of their own networks. This knowledge empowers them to not only share content but also to add their perspectives, personal experiences, and insights, making their advocacy even more authentic and impactful.

Enhancing Brand Reach and Trust

When employees share curated content on their personal and professional networks, they reach an audience that may be beyond the company’s immediate sphere. The trust and credibility that employees have with their connections significantly influence the way their network perceives the shared content and the brand behind it. This social proof contributes to building trust and authority in the eyes of the audience.

Real-World Success Stories

Many organizations have experienced remarkable success by integrating content curation into their social media efforts and their employee advocacy programs. They have witnessed increased engagement, broader reach, and, most importantly, higher levels of trust from their audiences. These success stories stand as testament to the power of content curation in empowering employee advocacy.

Helpful Tools for Content Curation

Are there tools out there that can help make curation easier? Yes, indeed. In the ever-evolving landscape of content curation and communication, the Sociabble platform can play a pivotal role in simplifying, streamlining, and enhancing the entire process. We provide an array of features that make content curation more efficient and effective for communication professionals and marketing directors alike.

Centralized Content Hub

Sociabble serves as a multi-channel and a centralized hub for content curation. It aggregates content from diverse sources such as news articles, industry publications, blogs, and social media posts. This eliminates the need to scour the internet for relevant content, saving valuable time to curate content. 

Customized Content Streams

One of the standout features of Sociabble is the ability to create customized content streams. Communication professionals can tailor these streams to match the specific interests and preferences of their target audiences. For example, if your audience consists of tech enthusiasts on social media platforms, you can create a stream that curates tech-related content exclusively. Discover some newsfeed examples!

Content Scheduling and Distribution

Sociabble allows you to schedule the distribution of curated content. This feature ensures that content is shared at the most optimal times, maximizing its reach and engagement potential. The content can be shared across various channels, from social media to email newsletters.

Analytics and Performance Insights

To gauge the effectiveness of content curation efforts, Sociabble offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities. These tools provide valuable insights into how your curated content is performing. You can track metrics such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and social media sharing, helping you make data-driven decisions to refine your strategy.

Internal Collaboration and Feedback

Content curation is often a collaborative effort. Sociabble fosters internal collaboration among team members by allowing them to contribute content suggestions and insights. Additionally, it offers a feedback loop for employees to share their thoughts on the curated content. This interactive process helps fine-tune the curation strategy.

User-Friendly Interface

Sociabble boasts a user-friendly interface that simplifies the content curation process. Even team members without extensive technical skills can navigate the platform effortlessly. This ease of use encourages active participation and engagement.

Content Curation for Employee Advocacy

Sociabble seamlessly integrates content curation with employee advocacy. Employees can access curated content from the platform and share it with their networks. The platform’s features make the sharing process straightforward, encouraging more employees to participate in advocacy efforts.

Scalability and Adaptability

Whether you’re a small startup or a global corporation, Sociabble’s features are scalable and adaptable to your specific needs. As your company grows, the platform can accommodate the increasing demands of your communication and social media strategy.

Client Case Study: Renault Trucks

Renault Trucks is an important brand of the AB Volvo group, which develops, assembles, and sells industrial and commercial vehicles. The division is largely responsible for the brand’s distribution and services in France. Representing 40% of the group’s overall activity, Renault Trucks France has 3 regional hubs, as well as 310 locations. Together with the 4 industrial sites, there are more than 4,000 employees working together as part of the Renault Trucks team.

One challenge the division ran into, however, was uniting these dispersed employees around a single information hub, and keeping them informed and up to speed on the latest developments, both at the company and in the industry. With so much content and so many interests, they knew they needed a solution that made curation simple. 

To accomplish this, they chose Sociabble, collaborating to create their platform called “Tous.” On Tous, thematic channels have been designed to quickly identify the main topics. This allows everyone to easily choose the content to consult. But the platform also encourages curiosity: all topics, even those of colleagues from other regions or professions, are available to all. In this way, new synergies are created.

And while employees publish numerous messages every day, the marketing team members at headquarters keep control of the editorial focus thanks to Sociabble’s curation and content distribution features. Their new platform and strategy have created a more informed and united workforce, that is able to stay connected and up to date thanks to a constant stream of relevant content.

Content Curation is a Necessary Component of Modern Communications 

In the era of digital communication and social media ubiquity, the role of content curation in crafting impactful and engaging messages is undeniable. It’s the compass that guides your communication efforts, ensuring you stand out in the crowded digital landscape. With content curation, you harness the power of filtration, organization, and added value, creating content that resonates with your audience. The benefits are multifold, making it an indispensable tool for communication professionals, marketing directors, and organizations of all sizes.

Ready to revolutionize your communication strategies with the power of content curation and employee advocacy? Explore Sociabble and discover how our features can streamline your efforts and empower your team members to be influential advocates for your brand.

We’ve already partnered with global leaders like the Renault Group, Coca-Cola CCEP, and L’Occitane en Provence, and we’d love to discuss ways we can help your company, too. Request a demo or consultation to learn more about how Sociabble can empower you to curate content and elevate your hr communication strategies to new heights. Don’t miss this opportunity to unlock your organization’s full potential in the digital landscape. Contact us today.