5 Great Tools for Content Curation

When it's done well, content curation can form an integral part of your content marketing strategy. The online world is in dire need of capable content curators to sift and sort through the myriad of social networks, news feeds and emails that contribute to information overload. Make no mistake. Curating content is a skill that takes dedicated time and effort. However, there are some tools for content curation that can improve your workflow and increase your efficiency.

Tools for Content Curation

Pocket

This app is perfect for anyone just starting out with content curation. Pocket is one of those tools for content curation that keeps track of articles, images and videos so you can refer to them in the future. The search functionality combined with tagging makes it simple to find your saved content. Installing Pocket's button, available for all major browsers, lets you easily save any content you come across while perusing the web. The Pocket app can be downloaded and synced to your smartphone, which is a boon if you use multiple devices. An added bonus is that Pocket integrates with over 500+ apps, like Feedly discussed below, allowing fledgling curators to cobble together their own inexpensive tool set. Pocket is free to use, although the premium version provides advanced search capabilities plus other advanced features.

Feedly

Even novice curators eventually find themselves referring to a select list of blogs and websites for the majority of their curation efforts. It's at this point that a RSS feed reader comes in handy as one of your tools for content curation. Feedly is an RSS reader where you can add your favorite RSS sources to the app, and browse these feeds form your desktop or mobile device. Feeds can be grouped into custom collections for easy reading while stories can be saved for later or used with services like Pocket. Stories can be shared directly to social media channels or scheduled using Buffer or Hootsuite. A Premium version provides advanced search capabilities, keyword alerts, team curation and additional features.

Curated

Publishing a curated newsletter is a great way to establish your expertise, although it can be time-consuming. Curated streamlines your workflow so you can collect and publish quickly and easily. It takes care of all the backend work so you can just focus on the content. Use their bookmarklet to save any material you come across while browsing the web. Create your digest using the best links and add commentary to each piece. The customizable template is kept separate from the content, saving time in publishing a gorgeous looking newsletter. Plus, Curated automatically produces a website with fully searchable back issue archives.

Curata

Curata is a full-featured tool to find, curate and share content across a wide variety of channels and platforms. Unique to this app is its ability to learn your content preferences and present fresh content from the sources you want. A browser plugin lets you curate content as you go, or you can crowdsource from within your organization. Original content can be created within Curata, plus you can add insight and context to content that's curated. Curata includes a built-in site and blog, yet also integrates with popular content management systems like WordPress. This app integrates nicely with a number of marketing automation platforms like Hubspot.

Waywire Enterprise

Unlike the other tools in the list, this app focuses strictly on curating video and photographs. Wayward Enterprise uses automated video discovery to provide relevant content based on your search. The aggregated collection is the delivered to its web based curation app. Businesses can also store and deliver their own videos on the platform, although Wayward Enterprise integrates with other solutions, providing a complete "player and player page delivery, encoding, transcoding and content delivery."

Content curation is not simple nor is it easy. But when done well, it can provide companies with a competitive edge. Tools for content curation like the ones in this list can help organize a curator's workflow, enabling them to become more efficient at their craft.