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Almost half of marketers are now implementing content curation as part of their marketing strategies, according to a survey recently carried out by HiveFire Inc. providers of Curata, a software service.

Content curation is the practice of finding relevant, valuable and useful information online and presenting it  in a cohesive and comprehensive package to improve understanding and context for any topic or issue.

HiveFire surveyed more than 150 marketing professionals representing a  range of industries to better understand the extent to which they curate content as part of marketing and customer engagement programmes.

The survey shows that content curation and content marketing are becoming increasingly important.. A large majority of marketers are already understand the value of content curation, in terms of establishing thought leadership and increasing awareness, but some have yet not fully employed the technique.  Many cite creation of original content to be a key barrier to content marketing.

Key findings include:

• Almost half (48%) of marketers now implement content curation as part of their marketing strategies.
• Of those who use content curation, most businesses mix original and third-party content.
• 74% of respondents named “creating original content” as a content marketing challenge (more than any other challenge).
• 79% of content curators distribute content via social media channels (e.g. Facebook, Twitter).

My take?  Content marketing will continue to rise in importance in the overall marketing mix and those business who choose to ignore the trend risk being drowned out.  Content is not only important in establishing thought leadership and creating awareness, it pays dividends in terms of SEO and sales lead generation.

HAT TIP: Thanks to Shel & Neville for the heads up on this survey.

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