Do you ever wonder why doctors still wear lab coats?
It’s not because white, drape-like clothing is less likely to carry germs or spread infection.
It’s because something about their uniform makes us – consumers of healthcare – feel safe. To us, lab coats are a sign that a doctor is a doctor, and that they know what they’re doing.
Adding influencers to your blog is a bit like wearing a lab coat. It conveys authority and credibility, which breeds trust. And when you want to establish yourself as an authoritative voice in your industry, few ways are as simple and effective as putting together a well-curated influencer roundup post.
What is an influencer roundup post? It’s a curated collection of links to and summaries of articles from leading sources in your industry. Usually these posts have catchy clickbaity headlines like ‘7 Hot Chocolate Cake Recipes – You won’t believe #2!’ or ‘14 Kitchen Organization Strategies from Around the World’.
We don’t advocate that kind of BS.
But it is important to develop authority, and by using the authority of others you too will be seen as an authoritative and relevant source of information in your industry. You know this intuitively: the very act of curation provides value. And yet you’ve spent no time creating original content.
Pretty sweet, huh?
Creating a killer influencer roundup post is a three-step process:
Step 1: Pick a topic
First things first: You have to figure out the topic of the roundup you are going to compile.
All posts in your roundup should be related this topic. The topic should be relevant to your industry (obviously). For instance, if I had a startup that delivered ingredients to people’s homes so they can effortlessly cook exciting, nutritious meals, then I would want to pick a topic around food, culinary arts, quality ingredients, and hobbyist cooking.
There are two main ways to approach picking your topic.
Keyword research
Doing some old-fashioned keyword research can uncover long tail searches that just beg for an article to be written around. (Once you write this article, you can optimize it for this keyword to ensure chances are good to be ranked for it.)
For example, Chef Boy (my totally made-up and not at all real amateur cooking ingredient delivery service startup) might benefit from researching keywords around cooking at home. Typing cooking at home into Google’s Keyword Planner reveals many different keyword ideas and how competitive it is to rank for each term. The competition level gives you an idea as to if building content around a suggested term is worth it or not.
The terms home cooked meals and easy home cooked meals stand out to me. Both have medium or low competition levels and have a combined total of over 3,000 monthly searches. This would be a great topic to write a roundup post on.
Do some intel
Another approach to choosing a topic is to see what has already been successful for competitors in your space. Make a list of 3 – 5 such individuals or companies.
For example, Chef Boy faces a seemingly insurmountable amount of competition from the likes of other up-and-coming ingredient delivery services such as Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, and Plated. But competition is good, right?
Once you’ve identified companies or competitors in your space, plug their URLs into BuzzSumo. This research tool will spit out a list of the most widely shared articles from their website. All my competitors seem to do well with blog posts about specific recipes.
Keep it listable
No matter which method you use, It’s important to keep in mind the nature of a roundup post when deciding on a topic. You want to ensure the topic you choose lends itself to a ‘top 10’ style list of links to other posts. This is to ensure that the content is both easy for you to put together into a cohesive post and easily digested (pun intended) by your audience.
In my totally fictional example, building a roundup of simple home cooked meals is supported both by my keyword research and the success of recipe posts from my competitors.
Step 2: Identify influential content
Now that you know what you are writing about, you can identify existing content in your space from influential sources that supports your topic.
We recommend Followerwonk to search for social media influencers by keywords in their Twitter bio and sort them by their Social Authority.
For example, a search for the term chef returns the usual suspects including Jamie Oliver and Andrew Zimmern. It’s important to consider reaching out to these influencers after writing your roundup to mention that they were highlighted. Just remember, the bigger their audience, the busier they are. Stay persistent and you’ll eventually make contact with prominent influencers.
Once you have a list, you can jump back over to BuzzSumo and plug in the websites of these influencers to see their most widely shared articles.
You can also skip this preliminary influencer search and instead plug relevant keywords right into BuzzSumo to see a list of widely shared content from popular blogs and authors related to that term.
For example, the term cooking returns a number of blog posts about recipes that would lend itself well to Chef Boy’s roundup post on easy home cooked meals.
The goal here is to find 5 – 20 pieces of content for your roundup. This ensures your post is not too long while still providing enough value. Again, content can come from both individuals and companies.
Step 3: Write your post
Now that you have curated your content, it’s time to assemble it all into a killer roundup post.
When it comes to roundup posts, nothing is more important than structure. This means presenting your curated content in a simple, easy to read list to ensure at a glance readability . Let the content speak for itself!
There are a few essential elements of the post you should consider.
A catchy headline
As mentioned before, an essential trope of the roundup post is a headline that is irresistible to clicks.
Think about someone scrolling through their social feeds. What kind of headline would both qualify that person as a reader and pique their curiosity to such a degree that only a click could resolve it?
Many formulas exist for writing effective headlines – including one highlighted by Buffer:
Numbers + Adjective + Target Keyword + Rationale + Promise = Headline
For example:
14 Delicious Home Cooked Meal Recipes You Can Effortlessly Make Tonight
Introduction
Write a brief intro section that tells your reader why they should care. This should work in conjunction with the headline to further pique their curiosity and cascade into your curated content.
You gotta really hook ‘em in the intro if you want them to read the rest of the article!
Content
Header
Link to each piece of content you want to highlight by featuring a short summary of the post as clickable header within the article. For instance, ‘Pesto Salmon and Italian Veggies in Foil’ would succinctly describe one recipe post I am highlighting.
Image
You should include images for some if not all posts you are highlighting.
Text
Include a brief summary of the article.
Call to action
At the end of your roundup, give your readers a clear call to action describing what action you want them to do next. This could be to opt-in for some content bribe or to reach out via email for a consultation.
Bonus: Promote your post to influencers
Now that you’ve complied your curated content into a killer roundup post, it’s time to publish and reach out to the influencers you have highlighted in your roundup.
You should tweet, email, and do all you can to let them know about your post. Some may respond by tweeting a link to your post to their followers. Most probably will not, but it is worth a shot due to the amount of views a single tweet can potentially generate.
Roundups provide value
Though at first it may seem like a cheap way to get views, influencer roundups offer a real opportunity to provide value to your audience. Take pride in your content and put together an authoritative list of content.
