The seven best tools to curate content and generate traffic to your page

A content marketer’s job seems simple on paper; all he needs to do is publish high quality content, amassing and retaining a large number of readers in the process, ensuring that they will always come back for more.

However, a company’s identity is built upon the substantiated content published, and each article posted carries the answer to a universal, overarching question in every customer's mind: “What does your company have to offer me?”

Answering this question becomes a primary objective, fuelling and funnelling the content writer’s creative efforts, so that he/she churns out quality content on a consistent basis.

However, in today’s world where millions of pieces of content are generated and shared on a daily basis, modern content marketers will – at one point or another – find themselves overwhelmed by the volume of information available online, and how difficult it is for their work to break through the noise. Thankfully, there are several powerful content curation tools available, which help make a content marketer's life a bit easier. 

Balancing curated content and original content

The biggest benefit that curated content offers your business, is that it is an effective way to generate traffic to your website. The more you publish, and the more often, and the more likely you are to attract a large readership. Moreover, if used knowledgeably well, the content curated will be relevant to and engage with your audience. While content curation can help you generate larger volumes of content, it's also important that you balance it with original content.

The biggest benefit that comes with original content is that it is the best way to keep your audience interested in what your company has to offer. However, unless it receives promotion through shares, comments and optimisation for search engines, originally written content may get lost in the incredible volume of information available on the internet.

Content curation can be done manually, but it is far more effective, both in terms of time and money, to use a tool that automates the process for you. There are several content curation tools available for mobile and desktop use, and here are five of the best ones available for free:

DrumUp (completely free)

DrumUp is an emerging, but powerful content curation tool that acts as a central dashboard for you Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. It also lets you connect your website’s RSS feed to your social accounts. The most unique feature about this tool is that its functionality is completely devoted to curating content with a distraction-free approach, while giving you absolute control over what posts you share.

The app is available on all Android devices and is completely free.

Scoop.it (free and paid)

This tool may seem a tad pricy to most, with a limited range of features available on the free-to-use version. However, it is an in-depth curation tool that will search the internet for the latest and most relevant articles on any single topic of your interest, until you sign up for an upgrade. Otherwise, the apparent limitations are easily offset if the tool is used alongside others.

The app is available on Android and iOS-compatible devices.

Klout (free)

While Klout is by no means a specialised content curation tool, its unique function to generate a social ranking, also allows it to discover what predominantly interests your audience, which lets you discover content that is most relevant to them. The tool is under the Create tab, which will curate articles that fall under four categories: 'Hidden Gem', 'Hot off the Press', 'Crowd Pleaser' and 'On the Rise'.

The app is available on the Android and iOS devices.

Spundge (free and paid)

Spundge is a content curation tool that is aimed towards professionals, which carries with it a rather steep learning curve. Once overcome, however, it becomes an app that is incredibly customisable and actually fun to use. The curated content is presented in the style of a personal blog, and the tool is designed to adapt to the content you show the most avid interest in.

The app is not available for mobile devices, unfortunately.

Diigo (free and paid)

This is a complex content curation tool that markets itself as a tool designed for 'knowledge management', which enables you to create your personal library of web pages and directly collaborate with co-workers. The app is incredibly easy to use, and offers a diverse range of functions, even without opting for the paid version.

The app is available for Android and iOS devices.

Curated content is meant to be used alongside original content to maximise the effectiveness of any content marketing strategy. Similarly, for a content curation tool to be used most effectively, it is imperative that you possess at least a fair knowledge of what interests your audience.

Uddhav Srivilasan is passionate about digital media marketing and enjoys writing about new tools he discovers. Apart from social media, his other interests include music and film.