\n\tWhen you are responsible for educating everyone in your organization, it is helpful to draw upon various mediums of communication to assist with this goal. This raises the question of whether you should be creating new content to get the message out or curating existing content that you deliver to your organization\u2019s readers and viewers.<\/p>\n
\n\tContent creation, as the name implies, is all about creating original content and then marketing or broadcasting it to staff, followers, or subscribers. It necessitates knowing the topics of interest of your target audience and creating visual or text-based content that would appeal to them. The created content could be disseminated through blogs, ebooks, videos, podcasts, social media, memes, and infographics, to name a few of the available options.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn contrast, content curation is gathering existing and specific information from other external sources that is relevant to a particular topic or need, and then sharing it with your employees or followers of your brand. Sources of information can come via blogs, social media posts, news outlets, associations, and ebooks, all relating to the expertise or subject matter you advocate for.<\/p>\n
\n\tMAKING THE CHOICE<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWhat\u2019s the best solution for dealing with this create-or-curate conundrum?<\/p>\n \n\tYou don\u2019t have to burn yourself out trying to generate novel content to meet the editorial or content calendar needs of your organization. Nor are you expected to share informative content from external sources just because it is there.<\/p>\n \n\tAs a content marketer, you must strategize and carefully plan the content you need around specific topics of interest your organization wants addressed.<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to social media marketing firm Argyle Social, the right answer is a balanced approach between creating and curating. It found that organizations using third-party content between 50 and 75 percent of the time (with the ideal at 40 percent) obtained more clicks and conversions per post than organizations using one method or the other. Posts linking to third-party content generated 33 percent more clicks than posts linking to an organization\u2019s own site.<\/p>\n \n\tHowever, Argyle\u2019s research also shows if you want to drive conversions, the optimal strategy is to create your own content. The reason is because you are taking the reader or viewer to your Website and not to an outside organization. Apparently, posts linking to your organization\u2019s Website have a 54 percent higher click-to-conversion rate than posts linking to external third-party Websites.<\/p>\n \n\tHOW TO EFFECTIVELY CURATE<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWhenever you are dealing with breaking news, it\u2019s easier to draw upon curated content from mainstream media than trying to create your own content on the topic. Utilize the many curation sites and companies to find and share the most relevant stories on specific topics, issues, or areas of interest applicable to employees and customers.<\/p>\n \n\tFor example, Flipboard is a social news app that scours the news and collects articles personalized to the content parameters you set up. It creates a magazine-like layout for you, which you then can share on your media channels.<\/p>\n \n\tBuzzSumo is a tool that finds the most shared content on the Internet around selected topics you feed it. It provides timeframes for when postings were made.<\/p>\n \n\tYou can set up a corporate Twitter account with Twitter Lists to categorize and organize followers with mutual topic interests and engage and interact with them.<\/p>\n \n\tUse Pocket to capture and collect content personalized to your topic interest in one place. This keeps articles and videos from your favorite feeds that you can review and share when applicable.<\/p>\n \n\tNOVEL WAYS TO CREATE<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tWhen creating content, always think about how to get multiple uses from one piece of content. Consider the following:.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen presented with a choice between two options, we\u2019re tempted to think \u201cthis or that.\u201d But with creating or curating, the best option is to think \u201cand\u201d instead of \u201cor.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRoy Saunderson, MA, CRP, is author of \u201cGIVING the Real Recognition Way\u201d and Chief Learning Officer at Rideau Recognition Solutions. His consulting and learning skills focus on helping companies \u201cgive real recognition the right way wherever they are.\u201d For recognition insights, visit:\u00a0http:\/\/AuthenticRecognition.com<\/a>. For more information, e-mail him at RoySaunderson@Rideau.com<\/a> or visit www.Rideau.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \n\tWhen presented with a choice between two options, we\u2019re tempted to think \u201cthis or that.\u201d But with creating or curating, the best option is to think \u201cand\u201d instead of \u201cor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[25],"class_list":{"0":"post-11469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-magazine","7":"tag-talent-tips","8":"magazine_issues-november-2019"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n