The Experts’ Guide to Hiring a Content Creator

At Peppermint Design and Marketing Agency we love Newscred. These guys do a great job of keeping us up-to-date in Spain with what’s happening in the digital media and marketing world. This week we spotted a typically ‘on trend’ story that looks at the job of a content curator and gets the views of a few digital media experts about what qualities a person needs for the post.

Content curator is a pretty new job description and it opens up a world of opportunities for professionals with a specific set of skills. Some companies have made the decision to split the job into two: one person to curate and another to create. Others expect their content marketing strategy to be managed by one person, who can do both.

If you’re considering hiring a content curator, here’s what you should look out for, according to new media experts:

Passion
The curator should know your industry inside out. If you’re selling music hire someone with a music industry background or performance experience, or at least someone who is very knowledgeable about music and lives and breathes it, according to Robin Good, a publisher and new media expert. It’s vital that your curator has experience of the product or service you’re selling, or they won’t choose the right content to showcase it.

Resourceful researchers
Good recommends hiring former journalists because they’re good at sourcing stories and have the kind of curiosity bred into them that ensures they dig deeper into a story than others may do. They also know the difference between good and bad content.

Know the audience
Pablo Binkowski, leader in digital marketing, suggests that you look for a person who knows your audience and respects them enough to never publish content that doesn’t get that audience talking. Ideally, the curator should have an interest in exactly the same topics as the audience, says marketing consultant Martha Spelman, which takes us back to ‘Passion.’ They’ll also know where the audience is usually found in digital media channels and knows how to reach them there.

Endless measuring
A content curator must know analytics tools backwards and be able to design content marketing platforms on WordPress, YouTube and social media channels. The curator must be able to show that the content marketing strategy is working and have the skills to change it, if it isn’t working.