“How do you find content?”
That’s one of the top three questions seasoned social media professionals are normally asked. Along with finding the perfect time to post and which social media channels to post on, business owners, entrepreneurs, and those new to digital marketing are often faced with the challenge of finding interesting and engaging social media content to share with followers. It’s not easy. And frankly, it’s a time-consuming process, but with a few thoughtful tactics, curating content to share with your Facebook and Twitter followers (and everywhere else you’re at) can be simplified. This is how we do it at WebDevStudios (WDS).
We rely on Buffer Content Inbox.
We use Buffer for social media scheduling, and our social media brand management includes three brands: WDS, Maintainn, and Pluginize. Juggling three brands that offer three different products and services, each with its own individual brand voice, can be a heavy load. Using Buffer helps a lot. One of the ways it helps is the Content Inbox tool.
With Content Inbox, you can add up to 15 RSS feeds per profile. That’s a lot of content. I recommend selecting the feeds of respectable and reputable brands that complement your line of work. So for example, let’s say your business sells flooring. It’s pretty safe to assume that your social media followers have interests in home decorating, DIY, and home buying. So adding the feeds and sharing the content of places like HGTV, home improvement companies (especially if they carry your flooring materials), and interior decoration magazines and websites are safe bets. Once you do that, you can open your Buffer Content Inbox daily to find various pieces of content to share. They won’t all be hits, but at least you’ll have quite a selection to choose from.
BONUS TIP
Buffer now offers a Chrome extension that allows you to easily add and/or schedule an article straight from the internet to your Buffer queue in one swift click. I highly recommend installing it.
We sign up for email newsletters.
The concept is the same as it is with Buffer Content Inbox. I sign up to receive newsletters from various places where I know I can find some good content options. Does it make for a heavy email inbox with many emails to sort through? Yes. But at least I have quick and easy to access to shareable content without having to search the internet.
We rely on social media.
I mean, seriously. What better place to find engaging social media content than on social media? Look at what your followers are sharing and either re-tweet them (which your followers will enjoy, especially if you credit them for sharing great content), or schedule the content to be posted at a later time.
We rely on our teammates.
Some of the best content I have ever discovered was because one of our own developers shared it with the company. What are your employees sharing on their social media or commenting on? Your team is a great resource of information.
We set up Google Alerts.
One of the first things I did when I started at WDS was set up a Google Alert for the term WordPress. Again, straight to my inbox, I receive relevant articles that I can share on our social media.
We stay current with news and trends.
Things like changes in TSA rules for laptops, the new internet privacy bill, net neutrality, and “WannaCry” hacking are all current topics that affect our social media followers, most of whom are developers, marketing executives, key decision makers, and entrepreneurs. Stay on top of what’s going on in the world and keep your followers informed. They’ll appreciate it.
We have a blog.
Our social media goal is to share engaging content with our followers, and maybe we’re biased, but we think our most engaging content are the articles on our blog. Sharing content that your followers can benefit from is a great service to provide. But in the end, the best thing you can do for your business is to give them a reason to visit your website. Having a blog where you regularly update content is a results-oriented way to do that. If you don’t have a blog on your business website right now, make one. Write on it weekly. Share that content on your social media. Need inspiration? Look at the blog we designed and developed for Microsoft Office Blogs.
BONUS TIP
But how do you share content, especially your own website content, on Instagram? After all, the app doesn’t allow you to include a hyperlink within your post. Here’s our solution: we use InstaGo. I like using Instagram to promote our blog posts, which I normally do by creating an image that includes the title of the blog post I want our followers to read. Then, I just make sure the InstaGo redirect is set to that blog post and instruct our followers to use the ‘GO’ link in our profile. Super easy. Check out our Instagram feed to see what I mean.
Social media is not a fad or a trend. It is an important part of your digital marketing efforts (with an emphasis on the word ‘efforts’). Curating content to share doesn’t have to be a daunting experience. Use our tips to simplify your strategy, and sure enough, you’ll find yourself with all kinds of articles to share with your followers.
If you like this blog post, you’ll probably like the social media content we share, too. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Like us on Twitter. Connect with us on LinkedIn.
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