Learning how to curate content is an essential task for social media managers. And time is short!Content is an essential part of your social media marketing plan. As a social media marketer, you need to both create original content and curate content from other sources. Time spent reading niche-related blog articles is important to keep up with industry news. Being a part of the conversation by sharing content with thoughtful comments and questions will help your brand be a sought-after source of knowledge as well. Still, feeding the content monster can take over if you let it. To help your content curation become less of a chore, let’s look at nine tactics you can use to maintain control and keep fresh. 1. Find Your Brand
Knowing what to share is the first step in making sure your content is on point. The key aspects of your brand’s content creation should naturally extend to other content that you share to build your content platform.
Your curated content and your originally created content should have the same tone, big ideas and overall fit. Your content platform’s output of original posts, curated content, graphics, Tweets and comments all flow together into what the public sees and judges you on. Yes, it’s important!
2. Stay on Target
I like to call this target the “brand seeds.” Find the three seeds that make up the heart of your social content, and stick to them. For example, if I were working with Sprout Social, my three seeds might be social media, social media management and social customer service.
I would find content that fit these three seeds and add in other content that was related and would be of interest to my followers. Sticking to a narrow focus helps build your area of expertise and knowledge base.
3. Be Organized
Creating systems for your social media consumption is important. If you don’t have something in place for reading content and finding great content, you’ll waste a lot of time. I like to use Feedly to create folders for the different types of content I create. For each folder, I add RSS feeds to fill the needs of different accounts and sometimes clients.
Sources to Find Content
Feedly: Add RSS feeds into folders for different accounts or topics.
Alltop: Create a MyAlltop page to see the blogs that I pull in to review when I curate from this platform. These are some of my go-to sources.
Pinterest: This never lets me down for great content when I search.
BuzzSumo: You can customize alerts in BuzzSumo by keyword, link, author and domain. I get an email for these each morning and check through on the website occasionally.
Planoly:You can find great user generated content by hashtags or keywords. This is perfect for brands or if you’re using a branded hashtag for social media campaigns.
A rookie mistake is sharing all your content at once in a huge bunch and then going long stretches without anything else. Don’t do this. Instead, create a steady stream of content that people won’t be overwhelmed with when they are live on social media.
There are many ways to share your content within Sprout on a schedule that you create:
Set up your Queueto meet your needs. Mine is set to publish four times a day so that I don’t have to think about an exact schedule. This makes it easy to add posts with one click to the Queue.
Use the Compose box to precisely schedule posts at a certain time.
Use the Chrome extension to add to your Queue or schedule at a certain time.
Important social media metricswill be based on your overall social media marketing strategy. This is a bigger conversation that you should have worked into your plan, but the basics are:
Growth in follower count
Number of +1s, Likes or shares
Customer engagement with content
If you notice these things taking a dive, it’s time to rethink your content strategy.
6. Cut What Isn’t Working
Sometimes you hit a sweet spot with your content, and everyone loves it! Then the algorithms change. Again.
If your former best type of content is falling flat, it’s time to remove it from the repertoire. Use your metrics to see what’s working, and do more of that. This is common-sense advice that people fail to implement every day.
7. Ask What People Want
In one of my most difficult-to-manage social media communities (read: low-tech industry with many lurkers), I asked what type of content they liked best and wanted to see on the Facebook Page. It was great to get feedback that reinforced what I was already doing and gave me some ideas for future content.
Now I feel more confident that I’m sharing the content they love, and my Page is doing better than ever. I think many communities want to dictate what they want to share, when the goal should be to give people what they want.
8. Keep Your Sources Fresh
I keep my RSS feeds in Sprout and Feedly full of great blogs to read, but if I find myself skipping over blog articles in my feeds, I reassess whether I want to have them in my daily content to skim and read. Cutting them out here means more efficient curating later.
9. Maximize Your Content
Be there when you share your content. You are the X factor in your social media content curation. Managing the brand online with comments, questions and conversation is what ultimately draws people to your content over and over again. The best-laid social media strategy in the world will fail without people to manage the social media listening and interaction.
I hope these pro tips give you some ideas to tweak your content strategy and create a compelling plan for your future social media marketing efforts.
There are hundreds of social media tactics to choose from.
The thing is, if you've been marketing for a while, you've probably tried most of them already.
Post at the optimal time
Share engaging content
Create a conversation
Share visuals...
The list can go on and on.
Now don't get me wrong, all work to a degree. But if they're that well-known, how are they going to help you stand out?
The good news is that there's still quite a few overlooked, but effective tactics you can add to your strategy.
Below I share 11 of my favorite social media marketing tactics that you should test today.
11 Social Media Tactics That You Should Test Today
1. Providing Customer Service Through Social Media
Did you know that 67% of consumers use social media for customer service?
It gets even better: 66% stopped doing business with a company because they weren’t happy with their social customer service.And it's easy to see why.
Just imagine: you want to buy a particular pair of shoes, but don’t know how much they cost. You visit that shop’s Facebook page and send a message (or write a comment), asking about the price.
Now let's look at the two possibilities:
1. You get a message with the info you’ve been looking for. Great! If you're happy with the price, you'll probably go ahead and purchase those shoes. In fact, you may even buy the shoes if the price is high - all because you'll feel good about the company.
Now let's consider the opposite situation:
2. You never hear back from the company. Will you still buy those shoes? Probably not! Nobody likes to feel ignored and not valued by a brand.
Unfortunately, many businesses are still missing out on a big opportunity. They don't use their covers to promote regular content, such as blog posts, infographics and videos.
So, consider changing your cover photo for each of your posts or events. It's not that hard, especially with the help of all the free online tools available to marketers.
3. Engaging Employees
Social media platforms offer a great opportunity for organizations to engage their employees in a social media marketing campaign.
Yet, so few businesses are tapping into the huge potential that comes with employee advocacy.
Just imagine what will happen if all of your employees take part in a promotional campaign and share your content with their 100+ friends.
Just look at all the big companies, such as Facebook. They all have employees who are constantly advocating for the brand and promoting their content.
You don’t see promotions about the growth and activities on Facebook only on the main fan page. The team is also sharing news and opinions that multiply the social media reach.
You can do the same.
But never force your employees to advocate for your brand. Find those people who'd love to do it, and give them a chance.
Paying for ads is cool and maintaining Facebook fan pages is necessary. But, that’s not where organizations should stop. Getting team members to promote content is crucial!
4. Surveying the Audience in Real Time
Have you ever wondered why successful organizations are doing surveys? There are many reasons for it:
Surveys let them get info about the audience’s perception of the products or services
It’s really easy for an organization to conduct a survey
The info a survey provides lets the organization make informed decisions
The good news is that surveys and survey requests are no longer limited to email. Companies can now survey their audience in real time via social media.
That means that a business can get instant feedback with a simple poll that asks a critical question.
So, don't be shy: ask away!
It's a great way to get your audience engaged (most people love to vote and answers surveys on social). At the same time, it's a wonderful opportunity to gather valuable information about your audience.
5. Combining Paid and Organic Marketing Strategies
The era of TV commercials and other old-school methods is long gone.
Not only is social media advertising much cheaper than all the old methods, but it's also more targeted, and therefore- more effective.
Reddit, Facebook LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest all have advanced advertising platforms. They enable companies to reach the right target audience.
Paid ads should not to be neglected.
However, you should strive to combine them with organic, free marketing strategies.
Share blog posts, long-form content, unique images, and direct communication with the audience.
When combined with paid ads, these strategies will lead to inevitable success.
6. Publishing Long-Form Content on Social Media
Looking at Twitter, it's easy to assume that social media is all about being brief and cool.
But that is not always so.
LinkedIn, for example, has its own publishing platform that allows users to post long-form content.
Facebook also allows you to write huge status updates. You can tap into these Facebook notes in order to share long-form opinions that the audience will easily find.
Social media platforms give companies unlimited space for sharing news, articles, promotional messages, and opinions.
It’s about time everyone realizes that.
Turning every single of your posts into an essay is not a good idea, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't share long-form content once in a while.
7. Having a Unique Strategy for Each Network
Even if you have profiles on several platforms, it's wrong to assume that your audience is the same on each network.
Still, most organizations decide to neglect the fact that the audience on each network is unique.
You've probably seen Instagram photos posted on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and all other places at once.
Or how about brands that share the same piece of content and text on all platforms? There's so much of that!
But that's a big mistake.
Not only do the formats and dimensions differ for different platforms, but so do audience interests.
According to marketers at Essayontime, each network demands a unique strategy - one that is developed according to the special vibe the audience has.
8. Pinning Webinars and Blog Content on Pinterest
Pinterest is a very powerful promotional platform.
Bloggers, makeup artists, fitness gurus, and chefs are using the full potential of Pinterest to promote their work.
Organizations, however, are lagging behind.
It’s time to stop overlooking Pinterest as a promotional platform.
If you pin images of your blog posts or webinar info pages to Pinterest, you're giving people a chance to repin that content.
By re-pinning they're making that content available to all of their audience and giving themselves a chance to check it out again later.
Who knows - they just might come back to it when they have time and follow the call to action.
9. Messaging Influencers and Followers
Many businesses are finally realizing and tapping into the power of influencer marketing. If yours isn't one of them, it's time to start!
After all, if your build a relationship with an influencer you can ask them to promote your campaign and thus make your content available to their huge audience.
Of course, you can do that by posting high-quality content and waiting for influencers to react to it, but you'll probably have to wait a really long time...
The effects of influencer marketing can be much greater if you contact the influencer directly.
All social media platforms allow you to reach these industry leaders and engaged members of the community.
It’s easy to contact them and negotiate an offer, so give it a shot.
10. Focusing on the LinkedIn Profile
When marketing experts want to promote an organization, they usually use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It’s strange that so many overlook LinkedIn, because they think that it’s purpose is to connect job hunters with employers.
But LinkedIn is a very influential network.
When each employee promotes the organization through their LinkedIn profile, the organization instantly gains more authority.
LinkedIn also has a great publishing platform you can tap into to share your content.
And there are lots of LinkedIn Groups where professions go every day to exchange great content.
Instagram has over 500 million monthly active users, less competition and a more engaged audience than other social media giants like Facebook or Twitter.1 This presents businesses with an opportunity to market their products to a more targeted and interested audience without spending an enormous amount of money on paid advertising. Whether your strategy needs an update or you’re a newcomer to this social media network, you’ll find these tips on how to use Instagram for business useful.
Instagram for business tips
1. Show what you do in a creative way
Focus on the solution you provide, not the products you sell. On Instagram, it’s essential to add value to your customers and look pretty while you do it. Never underestimate the fact that your most important asset (and downfall) on this social media network is visual content.
If your business is service-oriented, focus on showcasing the process behind providing the service. Show your company culture, share your mission with the world, or simply share some tips and how-to’s.
It’s possible to upload photos, short videos (similar to gifs) and videos up to one minute in length. The newest addition, Instagram Stories, is a video collage that consists of images and videos that can be edited with text, colour and the sort. Instagram stories are available exclusively on mobile and are live only for 24-hours (though this can be refreshed, if you choose to keep them for longer.
Are your social media pages performing as well as they can? Download our Social Media Health Check to ensure you’re making the most of your social media.
2. Create a winning profile
As a company, you probably do a whole lot of things and offer even more solutions. Don’t get too caught up in fitting all of that in 150 characters. Focus on your most important USP or your next big thing – be it an event, promotion or product launch.
Great example of an Instagram Bio by Content Marketing Institute.
Since the only clickable link is in your Bio section (right under your name), make a habit of updating it frequently. It’s a shame that most brands use it only to link to their website, but it could do so much more. Think, driving event registrations, app downloads or even purchases.
Instagram has also launched their Instagram Business profiles and paid advertising. The Business profile adds a phone number to your bio and gives access to extensive analytics data.1 This feature is currently only available in USA, New Zealand and Australia – the rest of just have to wait.
3. Take them behind-the-scenes
Customers have a natural curiosity about where their products come from, and you can use Instagram to show them their whole lifecycle. This is especially relevant for companies that sell environmentally friendly or FairTrade products. Source images to demonstrate how products are made – from the base material, production and distribution.
If nothing comes to mind, you can share something that everyone has – sketches, notes and filled white boards or blackboards. Every business has brainstormed ideas, it’s up to you to take a pretty picture and upload it to Instagram.
4. Expand your reach with #hashtags
Use hashtags to expand your reach. These can be campaign specific or general – all that’s important is that they are relevant. Make sure to also set up your main company hashtag (#yourbrandname), and use it sparingly across Instagram (Twitter is good too). This makes it easier for people to find content related to you as well as your main account.
It’s best practice to use between five to ten hashtags, despite the fact that the maximum you can add is 30 per Instagram post. Use your own, campaign specific hashtags as well as the more popular hashtags to increase the discoverability of your content. For example, try adding hashtags like #instagood (used is 300 million posts), or #tbt (Throwback Thursday), and don’t forget about industry specific ones. If you are in IT, the hashtag #IT or #tech will do just fine.
5. Collaborate and @mention others
Instagram is one of the strongest social media channels for highlighting collaborators and sharing customer success stories. Even if you don’t officially partner with a non-profit organisation, you can give to charity or fundraise a couple of times a year. It’s all good as long as the cause aligns with your brand values and mission.
Another technique involves use ‘shout-outs’. An unpaid shout-out is when you partner with another brand that has roughly the same number of followers as you, to promote each other to your audiences and benefit from increased exposure.
The paid shout-out is for those with a bigger budget. This involves paying a brand (or influencer) with a much larger following to promote your product or service. This is a great way to gain a large number of new followers quickly, providing that you create a strong call to action.
6. Build Anticipation
Keeping your customers interested is an essential part of any effective marketing campaign. Reward your loyal followers with exclusive content. Let them be the first to know about new products, services or events. Create teaser photos that satisfy curiosity, build anticipation for your new releases, office openings or stores. This kind of preview makes your Instagram followers feel special and keeps them coming back for more insider information.
7. Analyze your success and build on it
Without taking a step back and analyzing what worked and didn’t, marketing becomes a guessing game. The truth is, you can read all the articles in the world about the best practises and publishing times, but you will only find out what works for your business through testing and measuring results.
Social media management tools can help, though. You can use them not only to schedule your campaigns in advance, but also use social media analytics to measure their success. Make sure to regularly measure your follower count, engagement and clicks, all to refine and improve your Instagram strategy.
