8 Curated Content Examples to Help You Master The Curation Game (Infographic) | Brafton

Sorry to break it to you, but even your most loyal customers don’t want to hear about your brand all day long. That’s a universal truth in digital marketing, where a balanced mix of original and curated content is what keeps your audience truly engaged.

Your audience wants to lean on your social channels, newsletters, blogs and other outlets as sources of diversified, valuable, relevant information. Hence, why content curation is the yin to content creation’s yang.

Sharing content from other sources helps shed any sense of a self-centered brand, showing that the company respects varying perspectives, stays up to date on current trends and values providing useful content to its audience. 

In turn, your digital marketing benefits from an ever-fresh stream of ideas and viewpoints as presented in varied content types and forms.

Ready to curate content? With the following examples as useful guides, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a savvy content curator.

What Is Content Curation?

Curation is the process of finding relevant content from external sources and sharing it with your audience. Common destinations for these curated posts are social media, email newsletters and blog posts – but you can really slot them in anywhere on your content calendar that makes sense for your audience.

Another way of understanding it is this way: Curated content is created by a reputable source and shared by another brand. Think news stories, research reports, industry updates and so on — any media content that brings value to readers.

Of course, the curated post should give credit where credit is due (We’re not fans of plagiarism in the content marketing world). While it’s someone else’s original content, borrowing it can be beneficial if you think your followers will find the information interesting or valuable. Plus, you can start a conversation with your audience and add value to the curated post by including original commentary and introductory blurbs in your own voice.

Great content can easily find a home on any channel, whether you favor content, social media updates, longer-form articles or even user-generated content roundups.

By practising media content curation consistently, you streamline the entire curation process, reduce production pressure on your writers and still satisfy audience demand for fresh knowledge and perspectives.

Why Curate Content?

With so much information available on the internet, your job is to make it as easy as possible for your audience to engage with the content that’s most useful to them. Content curation only adds fuel to that fire, allowing you to get more relevant information in front of your followers.

Still not convinced? Here’s why introducing content curation to your strategy is a worthwhile decision, and why you can’t ignore the benefits content curation delivers:

• Put time back in your day: Content curation takes significantly less time (and money) to finalize than original content creation, freeing you up for creating original content that really moves the needle.
• Fill up your content calendar: If you don’t have enough resources to create original content at the pace you need, curated posts can help fill the gaps and still impress your target audience with fresh multimedia posts.
• Make a good impression: Your followers will see your brand as a thought leader when they can rely on you to share quality content from around the web. Plus, they’ll appreciate that you did the legwork of scouring the internet for them.
• Stay relevant: When you choose your curated posts wisely, you can make it clear that you’re up to date on the trends that matter to your audience. Fresh content is still useful even if it doesn’t have your byline. Personal bonus: It will help you stay as informed as you should be to continue growing the brand.
• Connect with influencers: Share their content and you’ll be on their radar. The same goes for user-generated content straight from your audience. Great content curators know that partnering with influencers around a specific topic niche can deepen your brand’s credibility and broaden your total measurable reach.

With careful and intentional content curation, you can support your wider digital marketing mix. Curating articles, podcasts, videos and infographics fuels your marketing strategy across email, paid ads and social channels, ensuring a steady cadence of media content that speaks to every stage of the buyer journey.

Furthermore, augmenting your content strategy with valuable content curated from around the web alleviates internal resource constraints. It can also be a unique way to add more diversity and variety to your social content — the same generic organic or sponsored posts look stale over time. Curation adds a new dimension to your online presence and gives followers plenty of examples of high-value content to explore.

How To Get Started With Curated Content

Start by looking for content to share on relevant social media pages, news sites, blogs and other industry resources. You’ll know you’ve found a winner when it feels relevant and personal to your audience. Add some context in your own words, and then schedule the post. This simple curation process helps you create content at scale without sacrificing quality.

A common method is re-sharing social posts or linking out to another source, using original copy for context in the post itself. As you get into the swing of curating content, create a list of all the trustworthy resources you can refer to when you’re looking for content to share. Sign up for newsletters and follow influencers on social media so relevant content goes straight to your inbox and feeds. 

Over time, your team will develop a repeatable framework for content creation and curation that sits neatly alongside purely original content initiatives.

Content Curation Tools

An effective content curation strategy calls for sharing curated posts at scale. Naturally, a content curation tool can help accelerate, and even automate, the process.

For instance, some curation tools help you save content for sharing at a later date for better planning and organization, while other platforms generate curated content for you to select from. Some are like RSS feeds that allow you to cut through the noise, sifting through content based on your chosen filters.

The top industry favorites include:

By experimenting with these platforms, you can fine-tune the way you handle media and content curation, ensuring every share aligns with your broader social media marketing priorities.

Finding the Right Mix of New Content and Curated Content

You don’t have to choose between content curation and content creation. The better move is to aim for a healthy mix of curated and original content, keeping engagement high with a diverse and consistent flow of relevant information.

You can start with this general guideline:

• 65% original content.
• 25% curated content.
• 10% syndicated content.

Hootsuite also recommended a rule of thirds specifically for social media:

• ⅓ personal brand promotion.
• ⅓ curated content.
• ⅓ social conversations.

Of course, testing and measuring will help you find the most effective ratio for your audience.

Another important mix to keep in mind: Make sure you’re not favoring one source or topic too heavily. The lack of diversity can take away from your relevant thought-leadership vibes.

Content Curation Examples

So what exactly does curated content look like in the wild? Here are real-world curated content examples that demonstrate the power of strategic sharing:

1. The SanDisk Instagram Play

Instagram is all about the flashy photos, and poor SanDisk can only share so many images of memory cards and flash drives before boring its followers to tears. Instead, the brand spices up its Instagram feed with user photos.

Some posts feature the product, like these:

Other user-generated posts highlight how customers use SanDisk products to save some stunning shots from their travels and other adventures. Here’s an example: 

Sometimes SanDisk even takes it a step further, curating user photos to use for social posts recognizing holidays. Take its Earth Day 2019 post, for example:

As you can see, SanDisk always gives credit to the original photographer. As with any influencer initiative, SanDisk benefits not only from featuring quality, eye-catching content on its Instagram page but also from connecting with the original photographer’s social network and extending its media reach. 

This tactic illustrates clear benefits content curation can deliver on visually driven platforms.

SanDisk sprinkles in original product photography throughout its feed, but the curated images help it post more frequently without tiring out its collection of photos.

2. The Retweet Action

The retweet button is about to become your favorite feature on Twitter. When you can’t create enough witty, engaging tweets to keep up with your audience, sprinkle in some retweets to fill your feed.

Of course, there is some effort involved in hitting the retweet button. You should only feature posts on your feed that are relevant to your business, industry or audience. 

An out-of-the-blue retweet will throw your viewers off, while a curated one brings a relevant and useful post to their attention. For instance, when a company, influencer, employee or customer mentions your brand in a post, they provide you with a golden retweet opportunity.

Here are some examples of curated retweets in action:

ICYMI – Thanks again, Vin! 😎 https://t.co/Kaz4eMWGrt

— Demandbase (@Demandbase) February 8, 2021

Perfect 👌 https://t.co/L588gMbEuK

— Warby Parker (@WarbyParker) February 13, 2021

While it may be tempting, don’t go overboard with the retweets and forget to send out original posts. Plus, you may want to add some original copy rather than simply retweeting. Used wisely, retweets are quick examples of content curation that keeps your feed active.

3. Morning Brew’s Curated News Feeds

Morning Brew presents itself as “the daily email that makes reading the news actually enjoyable.” There are now multiple Brew newsletters readers can choose to receive, from a general overview of the day’s top stories to an Adobe-partnered letter on emerging technology, a retail version in collaboration with Listrak and a marketing list with #Paid.

Morning Brew’s various newsletters include editorially selected posts alongside those by sponsors. Quick-hit summaries of the news come with links to high-quality original reporting, letting readers pick between a seconds-long catch-up and a deep dive.

One of the key promises made by Morning Brew is that it will mix fun and entertaining items alongside the need-to-know news of the day. This combination of relevance and relaxation is the type of experience promised by the daily newspaper, back in a more analog age. Will it really be “smarter in just 5 minutes” as its tagline promises? Maybe, maybe not. Either way, it’ll certainly give you something to think about in that time span.

If you’re seeking to emulate Morning Brew’s success in your own outreach efforts, there’s plenty to take away. The easily readable summaries that group up several stories on the same topic, with credit paid to the original authors and easy-to-follow links, are a great example of curation done right. The fact that there are multiple newsletters for various verticals is another good practice in action — each individual letter knows its audience and stays on message.

4. BuzzFeed’s Bevy of Newsletters

If you wonder what the Morning Brew model looks like taken to its logical extreme, check out BuzzFeed’s list of offerings. The extremely online content hub and news outlet has newsletters for each of its many verticals, from award-winning journalism to its silliest types of content.

Whether readers are looking for a serious look at misinformation across media platforms or just a steady drip of cute animal photos to relax them in the morning, Buzzfeed has a newsletter to meet that niche need. This demonstrates the twinned values of curating the type of content viewers will want and getting very specific.

5. The IBM Social Suite

Even one of the world’s greatest technology giants is in the business of curating content across its social media platforms. Not only do the curated posts help boost engagement, but they also give the company a humble edge that’s well suited to social platforms.

IBM’s approach highlights media content curation that blends thought leadership, employee advocacy and third-party validation — a holistic example of curation content woven into enterprise marketing strategy.

In this Tweet, it spotlights a TechCrunch post by its worldwide ecosystems and blockchain SVP about activist developers:

Developers stepped up like never before to tackle numerous global issues, demonstrating they not only love solving incredibly hard problems but can do it well and at scale. Thanks, @TechCrunch for sharing my thoughts on the rise of activist developers. https://t.co/cxC4PeH4Jl

— Bob Lord (@rwlord) February 9, 2021

And here, it spotlights an Art of Leading post by the the company’s then-SVP of digital sales and CMO, Michelle Peluso:

In a classy move, the company retweeted Peluso’s farewell when she departed to take a role with CVS.

In this post, the company took a more lighthearted approach and offered up glamor shots of its data centers as Zoom backgrounds. While not curated content, it created opportunities to keep the conversation going with its millions of followers, potentially leading to content it can curate in the near future:

6. The Moz’s Magical Curation

Some of these are based on curating the best of BuzzFeed’s own coverage, while others are dedicated to large-scale aggregation of existing content, including roundups of top tweets of the week and a BuzzFeed News digest focusing on what social media influencers were up to that week.

As a marketing analytics software provider, Moz has a rightful place in the thought leadership sphere. However, the company’s content curation strategy has a lot to do with its trustworthy status.

The Moz blog is a curated masterpiece, featuring posts by SEO pros from various companies. The approach creates a steady supply of high-quality articles while giving contributors a platform — a classic win-win that demonstrates how brands can create content ecosystems through collaboration.

7. Inc. Magazine’s Contributing Writers

Inc.com’s contributor network further illustrates the power of curated expertise. By gathering insights directly from consultants, founders and subject-matter experts, the publication provides readers with authentic, experience-driven advice — an advanced play in the world of examples curated content that builds credibility at scale.

8. Spotify’s Audio and Visual Playlists

As any Spotify user knows, the front page of the app features a healthy, refreshing dose of curated playlists based on your listening patterns. Whether it’s podcasts, today’s top pop hits or comedy specials, Spotify layers sophisticated algorithms on top of manual editors for next-level curation. 

It’s a reminder that the principles of content curation apply across formats, from social media marketing to music streaming platforms.

Cue the Content Curation

Now that you’ve seen 8 ways to take on curated content in every context imaginable, it’s time to start putting these skills to work to promote your own business, product or expertise. Build out a repeatable workflow for finding and sharing the right curated content. Then, measure engagement so you can refine your approach over time.

We wish you the best of luck with your content curation endeavours! Embrace the practice, lean into the benefits content curation delivers and watch your brand’s social footprint flourish.

Editor’s note: Updated September 2025.