Most of my clients go one of two ways about creating newsletters, blogs or videos: They outsource or stay silent. Either way is not optimal since outsourcing it often turns into a generic soup of mishmash that blends in with what everyone else is saying in the market. And we all know the consequences of staying silent in your marketing (if you don’t, please read any of my previous opinionated posts or watch my weekly livestream!) But there is another way…curation.

What Is It?

It’s basically stealing other people’s content and re-purposing it as your own. There are a few rules that take it from stealing to curating though, so listen up!

Rules of Engagement

The first rule of fight club is we don’t talk about fight club–no, I’m just dating myself now…The first rule of curating is that you have to source it. Ie. tell people who first wrote it and where it was published. If you don’t credit the source, then it’s totally stealing or plagiarizing or whatever fancy name you want to call it and as someone who has often been plagiarized, please don’t do it. It doesn’t look good on you.

Make it Your Own

The second rule of Curating is that you should add your own two cents to the topic or shared content. Even if you write a single paragraph summarizing your viewpoint while sharing, you will have positioned your own brand while stealing someone else’s expertise about the topic.

Why Use It?

I think this is fairly obvious but in case it’s not: most small business owners are starved for time. Also, they have no clue what topics to write, post or do videos about. Lastly, sharing timely content about your specialty from similar thought leaders makes you look like you’re in the loop. It also doesn’t hurt that you’re tipping your hat at a fellow industry expert. It’s a win-win!

Where to Find it?

Articles about your targeted industry or interest group (the only two ways I recommend my you niche your targets) and their pain points can be found through websites such as Feedly, Inoreader, Thunderbird, QuiteRSS, Tiny Tiny RSS and NewsBlur. These are free feed portals where I simply set my feed settings for the topic of interest and get served as many articles and content about it as I want to curate.

So the next time you are struggling with creating content, think about stealing it. But not in that weird way…

Want to reposition your messaging to grow your leads? Follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, watch my Podcast on YouTube or connect with me on LinkedIn –and let’s talk.