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1. TRAPIT PRODUCT OVERVIEW 2014 1
YOUR CONTENT
CURATION
WORKBOOK
Learn how to plan your content curation strategy!

2. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 2
So, you’re ready to take the plunge and get started with content
curation. Fantastic! This workbook will help you plan your
content curation efforts.
Yes, it’s a real workbook – like the ones you had in second grade.
Go ahead and click the links! Check the boxes! Fill in the blanks!
To help you plan, we’ve split the curation process into several
parts. Click on the links below to navigate to the different
sections of your workbook.
Table of Contents
HELLO THERE!
What are your curation objectives?
What’s the 4-1-1 rule?
Who’s your audience?
Content: Who, What, When, Where,
Why?
What’s your plan for social media?
Do you have a plan for e-mail?
What about your blog and your website?
3
4
5
6
9
12
13

3. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 3
Before you begin discovering and sharing content, it is important
to establish your objectives. What do you hope to accomplish by
sharing content across multiple channels?
Your answer can be focused externally. For instance, you may
want to demonstrate thought leadership on social media
platforms. On the flip side, your objectives can be focused
internally. You may, for example, want to use content to educate
your employees.
Here’s a list of potential objectives:
OBJECTIVES
Demonstrate thought leadership.
Establish brand identity.
Engage followers and start conversations online.
Create a community around a specific topic.
Educate your employees.
Increase traffic to your site.

4. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 4
We’re not the creators of the 4-1-1 rule, but we sure do believe in
it. At Trapit, we always aim to post four pieces of content written
by others for every one soft promotion (e.g. a link to a webinar,
an e-book download, etc.) and for every one hard promotion (e.g.
a demo request).
Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, has
championed this approach. And we’ve found it to be a helpful
guideline across our marketing channels–from our e-mail
marketing to our social media marketing. This rule prevents us
from exhausting our prospects with pitches and promotions.
Instead, it allows us to build trust and educate our audience–
without seeming too pushy.
Sure, every marketer wants to announce new product features.
Sure, every marketer wants to share exciting company news.
But don’t spend your days tweeting about new releases and
advertising demos. Ultimately, you want to gain your audience’s
trust, and unrestrained self-promotion is only going to annoy
your followers.
Think of curating like going to a dinner party. You don’t want
to be the loathsome guest who can speak about only one topic:
himself. Yawn.
THE 4-1-1 RULE

5. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 5
Persona name:
Job title:
Key responsibilities:
Primary goals:
Struggles and pain points:
How does this persona measure success?
Key demographic information (age, family, education, etc.):
A typical day consists of:
AUDIENCE
Personas are a crucial part of a content curation strategy. For
your purposes, a persona can be defined as a representation
of your ideal audience member. When curating, you want to
know with whom you are speaking, how you should speak
with them, and what types of content will be useful to them.
Often, personas are developed by speaking with current
customers and prospects.
If you already know who your target audience is, take a few
minutes to fill in the blanks to the right. If not, take a few
days to interview current customers, and then return to this
workbook.

6. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 6
CONTENT THEMES
Once you’ve defined your personas, you’ll want to
brainstorm topics that will interest your audience. To start,
create a list of 5 broad themes.
For instance, if you are marketing to marketers, one
theme might be “e-mail marketing.” Or if you are the
world’s leading manufacturer of chairs, a theme might be
“ergonomics.”
List your five broad themes below:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Now that you have the broad themes mapped out, it’s time to
get more granular. What are the components that make up the
larger theme?
For example, “e-mail marketing” is a pretty broad term.
My audience might want to know more about: A/B testing,
deliverability, spam laws, and list hygiene.
BROAD THEMES SUBTHEMES

7. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 7
CONTENT SOURCES
Great! You have chosen the themes and subthemes that
will guide your curation efforts. Now, it’s time to determine
where you will find content about those themes.
A good content curation platform will supply you with a large
source library, which ensures that you always have a wide
variety of content at your disposal. That said, there might be
some types of sources that you favor over others. Indicate
those below.
In addition to providing you with a large library, a good content
curation platform will allow you to blacklist sources. For
instance, you may want to avoid your competitors’ blog posts or
any mention of your competitors, for that matter.
Create a list of sources and words that you would like to avoid:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Blogs
Videos
Mainstream news sources
Trade publications
Lifestyle magazines
Your own blogs, white papers, and infographics.

8. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 8
CONTENT TACTICS
You’re well on your way. You’ve done the high-level
thinking. Now, you’re ready to address the nitty-gritty
details. Who’s doing what? And when? And how often?
Aligning your team will ensure that your content curation
workflow runs smoothly and efficiently.
Who is responsible for finding content?
How frequently should your curator look for fresh content?
Once a day
Twice a day
Three times per week
How many fresh pieces of content should your curator find?
Where will you share content?
Externally
Internally
To what end points will you share content?
Social media
Facebook
Google+
LinkedIn
Pinterest
Twitter
E-mail
Website
Blog

9. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 9
FACEBOOK
With over 1 billion active users, Facebook is by far one of
the largest social networks. It’s likely that you can find your
audience on this social platform. But be warned: If you flood
your followers’ feeds with posts, they may unfollow. No one
likes to be bombarded on Facebook. So, best practices say
that you should post between one and two times per day.
Fill out this form to start building your Facebook strategy.
Who is responsible for posting to and monitoring Facebook?
How often will you post?
Times per day
Days per week
Types of content that will resonate with your Facebook
audience (e.g. videos, infographics):
GOOGLE+
The Google+ community tends to be younger. Two thirds of the
network’s active users are between ages 16 and 34. In addition,
they tend to be an adventurous group. 77% of users like to
try new products (GlobalWebIndex), which is great news for
marketers! As with Facebook, you do not want to bombard your
followers with messages. So, try to post once or twice each day.
Fill out this form to start building your Google+ strategy.
Who is responsible for posting to and monitoring Google+?
How often will you post?
Times per day
Days per week
Types of content that will resonate with your Google+ audience
(e.g. tips, gifs):

10. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 10
LINKEDIN
When using LinkedIn, remember that it is a professional
network. Unlike the more “fun” platforms like Facebook and
Twitter, LinkedIn is pegged as the “serious” platform. B2B
companies tend to find success on this platform, and they do
so through curation. Did you know that 42% of HP’s LinkedIn
content is OPC (Other People’s Content) (LinkedIn)?
Fill out this form to start building your LinkedIn strategy.
Who is responsible for posting to and monitoring LinkedIn?
How often will you post? (We recommend 1-2 times per day.)
Times per day
Days per week
Types of content that will resonate with your LinkedIn
audience (e.g. industry news, educational content):
PINTEREST
Pinterest is the most visual of the networks covered in this
workbook. If it doesn’t look cool, it doesn’t belong on Pinterest.
Plain and simple. While the site’s user base is smaller than
Twitter’s, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Twitter
(MarketingSherpa). Are you beginning to see why so many
marketers have fallen in love with the site?
Fill out this form to start building your Pinterest strategy.
Who is responsible for posting to and monitoring Pinterest?
How often will you post?
Times per day
Days per week
Types of content that will resonate with your Pinterest audience
(e.g. infographics, photos, and more infographics):

11. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 11
TWITTER
Unlike the other social networks, you can post several times
per day on Twitter. In fact, many companies post roughly
once per hour. To tweet at that clip, you will want to schedule
your posts ahead of time. A good content curation platform
will provide you with scheduling capabilities. We suggest
that you post between 10 and 14 times every day! Good luck!
Fill out this form to start building your Twitter strategy.
Who is responsible for posting to and monitoring Twitter?
How often will you post?
Times per day
Days per week
Types of content that will resonate with your Twitter
audience (e.g. industry news, pithy tips, etc.):

12. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 12
E-MAIL
E-mail newsletters have been around for quite some time,
but they have not gone out of fashion (unlike Myspace or
Crocs). When done correctly, a good e-mail digest of content
can be a powerful lead generation and lead nurturing tool.
The thing is… It can be difficult to create an e-mail digest
because there are many moving parts. To help you keep track
of them, fill out the form below.
Who’s in charge of writing the e-mail?
Who’s in charge of designing the e-mail?
Who’s in charge of maintaining the e-mail list?
How frequently will you provide an e-mail newsletter?
Times per week
Weeks per month
CHECKLIST
Here’s a portion of an e-mail checklist that we use at Trapit:
This e-mail speaks to the recipient’s pain points.
This e-mail has a logic or theme to the curated
articles.
The time zone for your scheduled send is correct.
You selected the right list for this e-mail.
You have given yourself enough time to edit the
e-mail - at least one hour.
All the links work.
There aren’t any run-on sentences.
Every word is spelled correctly.
I can’t cut any words or sentences.
My capitalization is consistent.
My e-mail does not look long and intimidating.
I checked the plain text version of the e-mail for
mistakes, as well.

13. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 13
BLOG
You’ve probably read a curated blog post or two. These
posts round up the latest news in your industry and serve
it to you in digestible chunks. For instance, every Friday,
MarketingProfs puts together their #SocialSkim, a digest of
the latest news in social media. By adhering to a set schedule
(i.e. every Friday), MarketingProfs gives readers something
that they can depend on. Readers know exactly when to
return to the MarketingProfs site to find out what happened
in social media.
Curated blog posts take time and a keen ability to sift
through industry news, but when done correctly, they are a
great recurring feature on your blog.
Who’s in charge of writing the blog post?
How frequently will you post a curated blog?
Times per week
Weeks per month
On these days of the week
CHECKLIST
This is a portion of a blog checklist that we use at Trapit:
This blog post has an introduction.
This blog post has a conclusion.
All the links work.
The headers follow the company’s style guidelines.
You have given yourself enough time to edit the
post - at least 5 hours ahead of the deadline.
There aren’t any run-on sentences.
Every word is spelled correctly.
I can’t cut any words or sentences.
My capitalization is consistent.
I have included images to break up the text.
I have provided context to the articles. My readers
can understand why this article is important.
I have added my own take on the articles provided
in the post.

14. YOUR CONTENT CURATION WORKBOOK 14
WEBSITE
When we think of curation, social media is the first end point
that comes to mind. Then, maybe e-mail. And then, maybe
blogs. Few people think about curating content directly to
their website.
On the Trapit website, we curate new content five days a
week. In fact, our pages with curated content tend to have
the highest engagement times on our site.
Below, you can see how we have designed the curated section
of our site. Click the image to check out some curated
content.
Who will design website layout for your curated content?
Who will choose the content that appears on the website?
Should your curator add commentary and change the headlines?
Yes No
How frequently will you update the curated content on your site?
Times per day Days per week

15. TRAPIT PRODUCT OVERVIEW 2014 15
VISIT US
AT TRAPIT.COM
TO REQUEST
A DEMO.
Trapit is the world’s most powerful application for content curation. Trapit helps organizations of all kinds, discover, curate, and
deliver relevant content to the right audience in real time, at the right time, on any device. And it provides detailed analysis on how
that content is received. The service draws on an unrivaled library of sources, including blogs, professional journals, news services,
magazines, and video feeds that have been discovered by technology and vetted by human editors.
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