Content Curation: How it wins instructions.
We have no time. We have no patience.
There is an unfathomable amount of content online and we are subjected to thousands of catchy headlines each day. This huge amount of option leaves many people clueless on what to actually take notice of – more choice leads to less decisions.
In 2000 psychologists ran an experiment: 24 variations of jam on one display, 6 variations on another. When it came to making a purchase decision, people who were shown the larger display were one-tenth as likely to buy. One-tenth.
OK, so that’s jam. But it has been proven in various contexts that an overload of information not only decreases the chance of us bothering, it is also shown to increase anxiety, dissatisfaction and – if we ever actually make a decision – regret.
The more complicated the world becomes, the more people want life made simpler. People no longer want to hunt multiple places for what they want, they want one place to get the best the world can offer. And it is this shift in behaviour that has resulted in curated content being considered by many as the wave of the future.
Content curation is all about sorting through the vast amounts of content online and presenting a selection in an organised, meaningful way; finding, aggregating and sharing the best existing content with your followers online.
How can you use content curation as an agent?
– Focus on making your social profiles the go-to place to place for industry news nationally and locally. Find quality articles as they are posted and share often. Focus on giving people a reason to come back, and a reason to refer you as the agent ‘in the know’.
– Create blogs listing the websites that provide the best industry articles, or a list of the best articles on a particular topic. Think: ‘15 must-read articles to read before buying’, ‘Top 10 tips from industry experts on selling your home’, etcetera. Be active, be curious, and discover what sellers and buyers find interesting.
– This ‘paradox of choice’ should also inform your overall marketing – choice can no longer be used to justify any strategy – make everything simple and provide a smaller amount of good quality options in all you offer.
Curation is not only making our own lives easier as consumers, but by becoming a curator yourself you are able to build a huge amount of authority online. If you consistently share good content, you give people a reason to remember you and return. You take care of your audiences’ limited time, add value to their lives, and nurture relationships. By consistently sharing top quality content, you also build the trust that primes them to engage with your own company’s material if and when you share it. Win-win-win.
As a successful estate agent you have limited time. Content curation also means you don’t have to spend hours creating tonnes of fresh, new, original material yourself. Win-win-win-win.
The shift towards curation is the impetus behind one of my own company’s products. Our Newsroom is designed to make property professionals’ lives simpler and more productive when it comes to finding content online. By adding the address of your favourite industry websites, The Newsroom will create one feed curating the best material from these sources – everything in one place, on demand. Not only can you peruse at your leisure, you can share articles to social media without ever leaving the feed, which helps you build your own curator reputation.
Content curation is big in marketing and for good reason. Make your life and that of your customers (and future customers) simpler, and start building authority as the go-to source locally and nationally.
I run a digital intelligence company called Propertyflock, and we build automated tools to help estate agents win instructions through social media. To get your own curated Newsroom for free, and to start seeing real business results from social media, visit our website or call us on 0131 510 2117.
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