Earlier this week, a potential client asked me how I know what’s relevant when I’m curating content for clients.
The short answer is I know what is relevant through 10 years of experience managing dozens of accounts across multiple industries. I currently manage accounts totalling a combined followership of over 120,000. :)
For example, let’s take a company that manages running races. Just off the top of my head relevant content would include runner health, race prep, race recovery, race strategy, etc. A home construction company, as another example. might include landscaping, home maintenance, and interior decorating tips.
The hardest part of curating content isn’t knowing what type of content to share; the hardest part is locating the sources. Luckily, once you have some dependable sources, finding content will be a snap, and the hardest part becomes finding time to go through it all to choose the best content to share.
Here are 4 sources I check regularly both for the content I share on my company accounts and for content I share on client accounts:
1. Newsletters
Some people think with the popularity of social media that email newsletters are dying. It’s not true. They’re a popular tool for driving traffic to one’s website. There are still a lot of people out there who find value in email newsletters. I comb through my newsletters daily to see what social media and writing content is out there.
2. RSS
When Google shut down Google Reader, people predicted the fall of RSS. It’s still as useful as ever though, and many websites still publish an RSS feed. I replaced Google Reader with Digg Reader; I found it had a lot of the same functionality, so it was pretty easy to transfer over. When you find a website whose content you like, add it to your RSS reader. Once you’ve subscribed to a few feeds, check your reader every day for great content to share.
3. Hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to find valuable content. Find popular hashtags for your industry and check them regularly on your favourite social media account (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest all use hashtags) to see what others are sharing.
4. Your followers
The popular social media websites provide you with ways to see what your followers are sharing. Pinterest has a general feed when you log in. Google+ does as well, but you can filter it by circles, too. Twitter’s timeline can be overwhelming, so Twitter lists can be useful. For your company Facebook account, check your Pages Feed, a News Feed for your company page.
By increasing your curation pool, you’ll have a greater selection of content to choose from to share on your page.
A general rule is 20% content that’s specific to your company and 80% content from others that’s related to your company. People don’t want to hear “Sell! Sell!” from you all the time. Sometimes? Sure, but there’s very little value in it for them.
Curate content from others that’s related to your industry and share it with your followers to become a content expert in your field.