Within the last year, there has been an unprecedented shift in social media popularity. Facebook has shown declining user numbers, and even social media giant Twitter has seen a decline in activity. Despite the natural tendency of internet users towards content creation, these statistics seem to reflect a change in priorities.
Meanwhile, sites for "content curation" seem to be prospering. Based on the concept of compiling, sorting, discovering, and sharing the most relevant and valuable pieces of content, these sites have seen an increase in users and overall popularity. As such, it has become a great tool for content marketing and strategy. These sites should be highly considered as potential tools for your next campaign.
Pinterest has been underestimated in the past as a viable source for content sharing. Turns out, their audience expands far beyond the world of crafty stay-at-home moms; it has grown to be the 3rd most popular social network for general audiences. It allows users to easily "pin" and share their own favorite pieces of content, and more easily discover other content - all for free. What's more, Pinterest supports SEO strategies by creating backlinks for each piece of content on one's profile, and allowing for effective keyword implementation on board titles and descriptions.
Stumbleupon
For users who are hungry for viral content, the toolbar provided by Stumbleupon is their ticket to streamlined, relevant pieces of content gold. By creating content with these viewers in mind, and properly utilizing the free exposure offered by Stumbleupon, one can significantly increase their readership and drive traffic to their site. Plus, based on Stumbleupon's success in the social networking world, a link to your site from theirs can be very positive for your site's Google ranking.
Feedly
Feedly is a free and helpful tool for discovering content relevant to your industry. It aggregates multiple content sources into one convenient reader and allows for easy content browsing across numerous sites. Whether your content marketing strategy is based on sharing useful industry content with your audience, or creating content of your own to inform and lead others to your site, Feedly is a great application to utilize heavily for sharing and discovering.
nRelate
Unlike the many free content curation tools out there, nRelate is a bit more sophisticated related post plugin. It uses a relevancy scoring algorithm that, after a reader has finished reading one piece of content, pulls up a series of content options most likely to be of interest next to the reader. This is a paid service that gets your content seen by engaged, information-hungry audiences, and presents it to them at exactly the right moment. This can help increase page views and lower your bounce rate.
Taboola
Taboola offers exposure for your content on major news sites and reporting sites, recommending your articles whenever relevant with native advertising. This will help build your audience from pools of people your content brings value to, but might never have heard of your content otherwise. Taboola also allows you to recommend content on your own site, which can serve as an extra form of revenue. This curation tool is a bit pricier, but has proven to churn out real results for those who have used it.
Like all trends that come and go in rapid waves on the internet, it's hard to say how long this content curation phase will last. Whether or not it is on its way in becoming the new social media or is paving the way for something new, it's hard to know for certain. But as long as these sites and others like them prove to be such a valuable asset for your content and SEO strategies, it's in your best interest to jump on the bandwagon and run with it for now.