We all use the internet. It’s that simple. You’re using it right now, reading this article. It’s become a completely fundamental part of consumers’ lives. If you wish to write articles like this, then this content curation tools are for you.
This is an absolutely massive figure, and one that will only increase. With this in mind, there is clearly an extremely attractive proposition open to businesses of all sizes to sell their goods and services on the internet, from window cleaners to butchers, IT repairs to football coaching. More and more businesses are creating a website for both a local and global audience.
However, many small businesses may feel that their time is needed elsewhere, that they don’t have the time or resources to be constantly updating a website. The Lloyds Bank UK Business Digital Index 2015 confirmed this, with a lack of time being the third biggest reason for UK businesses not doing more online.
While it is true that a website with outdated content can be ineffective and not engage properly with users, Verisign’s The Small Business Guide is constantly offering advice on how to make sure this doesn’t happen.
There are also a range of tools available to ensure your website can constantly be updated to keep it looking fresh, and crucially – with minimal time and effort.
Content curation tools
You may not have the time to be constantly writing about your industry and its trends, but others do, and this presents lots of opportunities. Content curation tools are websites that collect relevant content for certain industries or products across a range of sources, and present that content back to users in a visually engaging platform, often known as a “feed.”
It is then simple for businesses to embed the content feeds that some of these tools offer into their own websites, so your website is updating and offering new information, but all the while you’re spending time on the areas of your business that most need your attention.
And if you do get the time to write your own content, these tools can offer inspiration and ideas. They allow businesses to keep up with trends and hot topics within their industries – making them aware of what other businesses are doing and what consumers are demanding, and shaping future products and marketing.
What content curation tools are out there?
Here’s five of the top content curation tools:
Users can sign themselves up to receive content from certain contributors or on specific topics, and if it is of interest you can then ‘scoop it’ and place the content on your own news board.
A blog-based platform, which allows you to subscribe to a wide range of blogs that are relevant to you and you can then read and easily share all the worthwhile content you find.
You can sign up for alerts using keywords that relate to your business, and you’ll get messages when something comes up that is applicable to you. It also allows you to save content for later, adding a planning element.
This site has access to over 200,000 feeds of content, meaning it’s very likely that you’ll find something relevant to your business that you can repurpose.
If your business is a little more visually-focused then this is a great tool that can actually help you create storyboards, utilising the content of others or using your own.
Don’t forget social
You may well have social media channels that you’re already using and find that it takes 20 seconds to write a tweet, but you’re spending far longer updating your website using a Content Management System (CMS) for example.
That’s perfectly fine; just make sure that your social media channels are being well displayed throughout your web pages. There are plenty of ways to embed your social media feeds into your website, and then once you update one of these channels by sending out a new post, you’re also updating the site’s content as well.
If your business has the time to spare then great, but even if not, there are plenty of options out there to ensure that you can keep your website content flowing and your visitors coming back.
This article is a part of the ‘Getting Online’ series sponsored by Verisign