In today’s market, content is the fuel that promotes your business and drives sales. But let’s face it, producing great content on a consistent basis takes time and money

That’s where content marketing comes in.

Compared to traditional marketing, content marketing is a lot less expensive. In fact, according to a recent article by Neil Patel, it can cost 62% less than traditional marketing.

That’s a big deal for small business owners.

There’s just one problem.

To really benefit from content marketing you need a lot of content. And not just any content. You need content that consistently provides value to your target audience and builds your relationship with them over time.

Producing that kind of content takes time, and that’s a problem for busy business owners who are already stretched too thin

But what if I told you that you don’t have to produce all of that content yourself?

It’s true. In fact, you shouldn’t produce it all yourself.

You will better serve your target audience if you provide the best content available, whether it’s yours or not.

I know it seems counter intuitive, but sharing high value content from reliable sources, doesn’t detract from your expertise, it elevates it. You position yourself as the “go to” resource who can be depended upon to provide value to your consumers.

The Benefits of Content Curation for Small Business

Content curation is the process of gathering, organizing and sharing information from a variety of resources on a specific topic, and it has several benefits for small business owners.

• It expands the range of information you bring to any particular topic, allowing you to introduce new and different perspectives along with your expert opinion on the subject.
• It provides fresh content when your well runs dry. Let’s face it, we all hit dry spells where our creativity lags. Curating content gives you quick access to content that’s of high interest to your followers.
• It establishes you as an expert who is always current on the trending topics and developments that affect your prospective clients and customers.

Using Linkedin to Curate Content.

You probably already check your Linkedin newsfeed to stay current on what’s happening in your industry, but did you know that Linkedin offers two easy ways customize your newsfeed to collect information about specific topics?

Just follow the simple directions below to get started. It won’t happen overnight, but you’ll notice that your feed starts displaying content on the topics you specify.

Use Hashtags (#) to follow specific topics.

On your home page, scroll down to “Follow hashtags” at the bottom of the left-hand column and click on “Discover more” under “Followed Hashtags.”

This will take you to a screen where you can select or deselect topics by clicking the plus (+) sign.

Improve my feed

You can also use the “Improve my feed” feature to customize your newsfeed: start by clicking on the three dots in the upper right-hand corner any post in your feed.

Select Improve my feed from the drop-down window.

This takes you to a screen where you can choose to follow topics or people by clicking on the + symbol.

Sharing content

Another benefit of using your Linkedin newsfeed to curate content is the ease with which you can share content. First click “Share” under the

Select whether you want to share it as a message to a specific person or persons or share it in a post.

Select who you’ll share it with: Anyone, Anyone + Twitter or Connections only. Be aware that Linkedin discourages spamming groups by only allowing you to share with one group at a time.

A word of caution.

Effective content curation involves more than just collecting and sharing information. It requires selecting and organizing the best information available and presenting it from your unique perspective or with your expert opinion.

Linkedin offers these guidelines for getting the most out of sharing content.

• Take the time to review the post and share your own perspective and insights based on your expertise on the subject.
• Use the “@name” symbol to let the content creator know that you’re sharing their content. or to invite others to comment.
• Use hashtags to indicate what your post is about and optimize it for search engines.
• Encourage engagement by asking questions and responding to comments.

Last Thoughts

Linkedin makes curating and sharing content easy but be sure to put some thought into the kinds of content your ideal clients need and value before you set it up. If you haven’t created a buyer’s persona to define your ideal clients’ attributes and buying behaviors, download our free customer avatar worksheet.

Dumont Owen, Ph.D. builds personal brands that help small business owners generate 100% right-fit leads, clients, and opportunities. A storyteller at heart, she puts her unique stamp on the process of personal branding and Linkedin marketing. A certified Master Personal Brand Strategist and Social Media (Linkedin) Analyst, she helps her clients promote their brands on Linkedin.