How can you balance creating original content with curating content?

1 Define your goals

Before you start creating or curating content, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your content strategy. What are your objectives, key messages, and desired outcomes? How do you measure your success? How do you align your content with your organizational vision, values, and culture? Having a clear vision and purpose for your content will help you decide what kind of content to create and what kind of content to curate.

2 Know your audience

Another essential factor to consider when balancing content creation and curation is your audience. Who are your employees, and what are their needs, preferences, and challenges? What kind of content do they consume, and how do they access it? What kind of content do they find valuable, engaging, and relevant? How do they respond to your content, and what feedback do they give you? Knowing your audience will help you create and curate content that resonates with them and meets their expectations.

3 Plan your content

Once you have defined your goals and audience, you need to plan your content accordingly. A content calendar is a useful tool to help you organize your content creation and curation activities. It can help you map out your content topics, formats, channels, and frequency. It can also help you balance your content types, such as informative, educational, inspirational, entertaining, or promotional. A content calendar can also help you identify content gaps and opportunities, as well as content sources and partners.

4 Create original content

When creating original content, you need to focus on quality over quantity. You don't need to create new content every day, but you need to create content that is relevant, useful, and engaging for your audience. You also need to create content that showcases your brand voice, personality, and values. To create original content, you can use various methods, such as conducting interviews, surveys, or polls, sharing stories, case studies, or testimonials, creating infographics, videos, or podcasts, or writing blogs, newsletters, or reports.

5 Curate relevant content

When curating content, you need to be selective and strategic. You don't need to share every piece of content that you find, but you need to share content that is relevant, useful, and engaging for your audience. You also need to curate content that complements your original content, adds value and diversity to your content mix, and enhances your credibility and authority. To curate relevant content, you can use various sources, such as industry publications, news outlets, social media, blogs, podcasts, or webinars. You can also curate content from internal sources, such as employee-generated content, user-generated content, or peer-to-peer content.

6 Add your perspective

Whether you create or curate content, you need to add your perspective to it. You need to show your audience why you are sharing this content, what it means for them, and how it relates to your goals and messages. You also need to encourage your audience to engage with your content, by asking questions, inviting feedback, or soliciting opinions. Adding your perspective to your content will help you personalize it, contextualize it, and differentiate it from other sources.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?