Expert Infused Roundup: Overcoming the Problems of the Expert Roundup

One popular format for blog posts is the expert roundup, where a blogger invites a lot of influencers to answer a question. These responses are then consolidated into a blog post and the influencers will often share the article on social media, which allows it to get a lot of social shares in a short amount of time.

The expert roundup was especially popular around 2014 and my first roundup article ended up getting over 7,000 social shares. In case you don’t know what an expert roundup is and why you might want to do one, you can check out the guide that I wrote on Smart Blogger.

However, expert roundups are not always effective and many roundup articles fail to even get over 100 shares. Low quality content, not having a good promotion plan (and yes, you should promote it yourself) and poor organization are just a few reasons that roundups can fail.

One expert roundup format that tends to produce more reliable results is what I call an expert infused roundup. This quick guide explains what an expert infused roundup is, as well as the pros and cons of using this format versus a traditional expert roundup.

What is an expert infused roundup?

…and how is it different from a typical expert roundup?

An expert infused roundup is simply a blog article with some expert quotes inserted into it. Adding these quotes adds value to the article by inserting expert perspectives into the content.

An expert roundup is a collection of answers from influencers to a question. The content is mostly created by the influencers answering the question that you send them, so the quality of the final article depends heavily on the quality of their answers.

With an expert infused roundup article, you can actually write the article first and then figure out how to insert quotes into it later. The reason that expert infused roundups can do really well is that you are guaranteeing the quality of the article because you created most of the content yourself.

The influencers that participate are also more likely to share it because the content is good. Expert infused roundups generally have less influencers participating, so the influencers usually get more exposure from people reading the article as well.

How to create your own expert infused roundup

You can create your own expert infused roundup by following the steps below.

1. Think of an amazing article that you can write and find influencers to contribute quotes to it

Write an amazing article that people will share. Unlike an expert roundup, the quality of the article depends mostly on you. So write an amazing article so that people will be more likely to share it once they find out about it.

2. Prepare questions to ask your influencers and think about where you will insert their quotes into your article

For an expert infused roundup, it’s perfectly fine to ask each influencer a different question.

Look at past articles that the influencer has written and make note of any interesting insights that your readers might like. Ask the influencer a question about what they wrote.

Example: I did an expert infused roundup on Pinterest marketing myths. Melyssa Griffin is a Pinterest influencer and she posted on Instagram that people should delete their old Pinterest pins from time to time. I asked her why people should do this and added her answer as a quote on my blog post.

Similar to an expert roundup, you should expect that not all of your invited contributors will reply. So you may want to invite multiple influencers to contribute to your article. People that have contributed to other expert roundups or that you have a good relationship with are good potential prospects.

3. Organize and publish your article

Your article will be organized like a typical blog post, except with expert quotes inserted into the content. I also recommend adding some visuals, including a visual header so that your content can get shared on visual social media channels like Pinterest and Facebook.

4. Promote it and let the contributing influencers know when your article is live so that they can share it on social media

Once your article is live, let the contributing influencers know that you have published it so that they can share it on social media if they want to. I usually don’t ask them specifically to share it, but they usually will if the quality is good.

Instead, I just send them an email to thank them for contributing and include a link to the article. If you want, you can include one-click social sharing links to make it easy for them to share the article.

Asides from letting the participating influencers know when the article is live, you should also promote the article yourself. Do whatever you normally do to promote your blog articles to make sure your roundup gets as much exposure as possible.

Expert roundup vs expert infused roundup

So does this mean that expert infused roundups are better than expert roundups?

Not necessarily… both formats can do well and both have their pros and cons.

Let’s take a closer look at how expert infused roundups are different from expert roundups.

1. Less experts – An expert infused roundup usually features fewer experts than an expert roundup. Having too many experts on an expert infused roundup would dilute the quality of the article and shift focus away from the main content.

The result is that since there are less experts, the overall social sharing potential is generally lower than a good expert roundup. However, since the quality of the content is good, an expert infused roundup can easily get over 1,000 social shares as well as attract links and grow your authority.

2. More authoritative and share worthy – Expert infused roundups are also good for growing your authority. Since you created most of the content in the article, people that read the article are more likely to view you as a person to follow.

Even though less experts are featured than an expert roundup, the article can still go viral because the content is good and people are more likely to keep re-sharing it.

3. More personalized questions – In an expert infused roundup, you can think of different questions to ask each influencer so that they can contribute different quotes to different sections of your article. In a typical expert roundup, you ask the same question to all contributors.

4. Less overwhelming for readers – One of the biggest problems with expert roundups is that they tend to be very long. I’ve seen roundup posts with over 100 contributors.

Many people will be impressed with really long roundups and share them on social media, but people rarely read through the entire roundup post if there are too many contributors. Sometimes, many of the answers aren’t that good either, which deters people from reading further.

Expert infused roundups are structured more like blog articles, so they are easier and usually more useful to read. The expert quotes merely supplement the article and are not the main focus.

5. More exposure for contributors – Another plus with expert infused roundups is that the contributors get more exposure, which means that influencers are more likely to contribute to roundups that follow this format. Most of the expert infused roundups that I’ve seen have less than a dozen contributors.

Since each influencer receives better visibility, they are more likely to share the article as well.

6. Can take less time to organize – Since you don’t have as many influencers participating, an expert infused roundup can take less time and effort to organize. Some of the expert roundups that I’ve done in the past took several weeks to organize.

Expert infused roundups still require more time than a typical blog post, but can be done faster since less people are involved.

7. More time to plan out – Although less people are involved, planning out an expert infused roundup can still take more time to prepare. You have to think about where you will insert each expert quote and what question you will ask each influencer.

8. Less social sharing potential – The best expert roundups will usually get more total social shares than the best expert infused roundups simply because there are more influencers sharing a good roundup post.

However, an expert infused roundup is more likely to do well in the first place because you are writing the article. Unlike an expert roundup where the content comes primarily from the influencers answering your question, you control the quality of the content with an expert infused roundup.

Bloggers should also consider other factors besides potential traffic and social sharing when deciding which format to use. Keep in mind that an expert infused roundup can boost your perceived authority better than a typical expert roundup.

Examples of expert infused roundups

Although I haven’t heard anyone talking about this format, it’s been used by a few other people. Gregory Ciotti used it a few times when he was working with Help Scout (he called it the Drip technique) and Andy Crestodina is also a fan of this method.

Here are a few examples of expert infused roundups that I’ve written or that others have written. This format of roundup seems to be a bit underutilized, but these examples show that they can do very well.

Survey of 1000+ Bloggers: How to Be in the Top 5% – http://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/blogger-analysis/

10 Popular Pinterest Marketing Myths that You Probably Believe – http://www.smallbusinessideasblog.com/pinterest-myths

Have the 4 P’s of Marketing Become Outdated? – https://www.helpscout.net/blog/new-4ps-of-marketing/

Conclusion

The most important thing to note about creating a successful expert infused roundup is that you need to have a strong understanding of what “quality content” is. You need to be able to write an article that your niche thinks is amazing or ground breaking.

At the moment, expert infused roundups seem to be less popular than regular expert roundups, probably because they require that the writer be skilled at creating amazing content in the first place.

Inserting quotes from experts makes the already great article even more authoritative and you also get a boost from the influencers sharing it on social media. Plus it works out better for the influencers because they get more actual exposure on these articles than a typical expert roundup.

So what do you think? Are expert infused roundups a good blog post format?