Content curation is one of the most effective strategies that you can use to build the online presence of your law firm. But it must be done correctly in order to get the best results and establish relationships with industry leaders.
The following will help you understand the benefits of content curation and know how to cite your content sources.
Content Curation vs. Creation
Content curation has been used by many law firms to maintain a high level of content volume while providing additional value to their audiences. It lets you put your own spin on important topics in a way that supports your brand voice.
Maintaining consistent and relevant content over time can place a heavy demand on valuable resources. Curating the content of others is an opportunity to provide useful, new, and interesting information to existing and future clients.
How to Curate Content
How you curate content is critical to its success within your marketing strategy. Your law firm must be careful not to create duplicate content, plagiarize, or forget to cite sources.
There are many tools available that help law firms streamline the curation process. Feedly makes it easy to subscribe to related blogs to gather useful content in one place.
Storify allows you to create storyboards that are powerful tools in curating content and allowing others to use your information for their own curation needs.
Your law firm must have a system in place for its content curation. Using these and other tools makes it easy to organize the information you gather and customize it to meet a variety of needs and objectives.
The curation process requires time and other valuable resources. Having a system in place will maximize the return on your efforts and reduce any disruption to your content marketing.
Giving Credit Where Credit is Due
Successful content curators cite their sources. Article links, website URLs, and social media profiles should be included when sharing someone else’s content.
This prevents copyright and ownership issues and helps build relationships with thought leaders within your industry.
There are many ways to cite your sources. For social media, the following are some examples of how to give credit to content creators.
On Twitter, include the username of the original source of the content you share. This provides a reference for your audience, and notifies the original user that you’ve shared their content.
Include “RT” (retweet) or “MT” (modified tweet) whenever you share another user’s tweet. If you’re just sharing a link, you can add “/via @username” to designate the original source of that link.
Facebook includes a “share” option under each update. This makes it easy for your law firm to share content on its own business page.
This simplifies the citation process and makes it easy to ensure that you’ve credited the original source. But if you’re curating content that you’ve gathered outside of Facebook, you should include and tag the name of the original source.
One option is to include a link to that creator’s website. Another is to simply “mention” the name of the individual or business, and Facebook will generate a link that allows users to visit their page.
Content curation is one of the easiest ways to boost your content marketing efforts and provide useful content to your audience. Understanding the benefits of content curation lets you leverage this strategy for greater results.
Knowing how to cite your sources across social media ensures that you maintain best practices while building relationships with other industry professionals.
If you’re not sure how to set up your own content curation system, let us know in the comments below. We can provide you with the steps you need to take to help your law firm leverage existing content while improving the value it offers to your clients.
