Aggregate content vs curated content: what's the difference?

Upon the creation of social media, the world became a little louder. To make an impact and rise above the noise, it makes sense for companies to turn to aggregate content and curated content to boost their reach. But what's the difference between the two? 

We can argue whether social media is good or bad until we're blue in the face, but what we can't deny is its prevalence as a marketing tool. Indeed, 74 percent of people say they use Facebook for professional purposes. The social media opportunity is huge. 

Both aggregate content and curated content can help you take advantage of the opportunity and boost your social media marketing efforts, but there are some key differences. Here's what you need to know: 

Content curation: the art of shouting from rooftops

Content curators don’t create the content they curate. Rather, they seek out specific content, vet it and share it with their followers.

This is harder than you might think. To curate content, you not need to find it; you also need to package it in a way which is interesting to your followers. But in doing so, you create a central knowledge-hub within your niche. People will come to you for industry information and news.

Here are a few reasons why content curation is becoming more popular:

• It brings your community to directly to you;
• Visitors stay longer on your social media profiles;
• This improves brand identity, trust and eventually increases profits;
• You become an expert or influencer in your field because of ‘collection’ not ‘creation’; and
• Tools like Twitter, StumbleUpon, Alltop and Inboundli make it easier.

When you present a piece of content make sure you include your own insight on the topic. That way, you will look like a trusted and reliable source of information. To establish a relationship with your followers it’s important to highlight your brand personality.

Content aggregation: the art of letting go

There are two forms of content aggregation and one of them looks a lot like curation – helpful, I know.

The first form of aggregate content is essentially content curation through automation. It is syndication of third-party content found on their feed. Through automation, you post random content based on industry-relevant keywords.

The benefits of this style of content aggregation are:

• All social channels are in unison, reducing follower confusion
• The information that followers see is the latest available
• Aggregators can easily moderate information
• You can find relevant information with a lot less work

However, there is a significant disadvantage to this form of aggregate content. When you automate, you remove yourself. Curation, as we have seen, is manual. It allows you to make a stronger connection with followers as you show your personality.

For that reason, we advise manual, personal curation over automated aggregate content.

The more effective form of aggregate content is that which you create yourself. You create compelling content, and syndicate it yourself. Not only does this form of aggregate content have the potential for thought leadership, it shows you know what you’re talking about. Automation isn’t a problem in this instance as you show your personality through the content you have created.

Our advice? Focus on creation and curation

Whether you want to aggregate content or curate it, make sure your brand and personality is on show. With content curation, you can position yourself as someone who understands your industry through sharing relevant content. If you aggregate content, make sure it’s your own so you can establish yourself as an expert and thought leader.

So, what’s the difference between curated and aggregate content? The answer is simple, you. Here are some articles to help you get started on social media:

• The 30-day social media challenge for small businesses
• Social media automation: good, bad or somewhere in between?
• Social media success in 6 hours a week
• The beginner's guide to social media marketing