Although much of content marketing is creating original content, there is also a lot to be said for content curation, in which you share content that you think will be relevant to your audience. This technique builds trust in your business as a provider of quality information and content — even when it doesn’t come directly from you.

But what sounds like an easy task is particularly easy to mess up. Here are three things you shouldn’t do if you want to succeed at content curation.

Sharing blind
Have you ever shared or commented on an article without actually reading it? Don’t be shy, it’s more common than you’d think, as NPR’s April Fool’s Day joke this year proved. Sharing something when you don’t know what exactly you’re sharing is an easy way to make a fool out of yourself and your business.

The point of content curation is to share quality content with your followers. If you didn’t read the piece, how can you be sure it will be useful to them?

Vague sharing
Your audience is unique. They have specific needs and specific questions. You are the best person to understand what those needs and questions are. Your content curation should respond to those questions and meet those needs.

If you share anything that relates to your industry heading, you’re not curating anything … you’re just parroting industry news back at your readers. If you can plug keywords into Google News, so can your customers. In order to get reader relying on your recommendations, you need to know your audience and tailor your content curation choices based on what you know of them.

Too much curating, not enough creating
Content curation can be extremely helpful to your business, but by itself, it isn’t enough. You have to create some content to really shine as an industry leader.

“Though curating content can be particularly useful when you are trying to bring early-stage leads to your website,” says Rachel Foster, B2B copywriter, “as the sales cycle progresses, you will need more original content to help position your business as a trusted advisor — and the ideal solution for your customers’ problems.”

Ultimately, you need to balance your efforts between content curation and creation in order to present well-rounded expertise.

Content curation might sound like an easy way out, since you don’t have to write the content yourself. But in truth, both content curation and creation require a lot of effort and constant focus. If your content curation is lazy, your readers will be able to tell — and they won’t be your readers for long.

Are you doing your content marketing right? Contact the experts at Proven Systems by email or at (970) 223-6565 for a no-cost, no-obligation evaluation of your current marketing practices.