Tag: curated content

Curated content: 12 tools to help you discover, share more on social media

Curated content helps you save time, diversity your mix of social media content, serve your audience and appear to be an expert.

Just in case you’re unfamiliar, curated content is “content gathered from trusted sources relevant to your industry,” according to Hootsuite.

See our five reasons why you should incorporate curated content into your social media strategy.

Plus, we share four tips about how you can find more curated content.

And while curated content is a time-saver, you can save even more time by using the right tool.

Below are 12 tools that you can use to discover and share more curated content on social media, some free and some not.

Twitter Lists

 Twitter can be a messy place, but the platform features a Lists feature that can help you organize (and monitor) accounts and content you care about.

It’s a free tool since use of the Twitter platform is free

For more guidance on how to use Twitter Lists, check out these tips from Twitter itself.

Buzzsumo

Ranging in cost from $79 to $559 per month, Buzzsumo helps you find the most shared content for specific topics, as well as the top influencers for a topic as well.

Buzzsumo is a very powerful and popular tool. Features include real-time trend identification and viral post prediction, among others.

Email newsletters

It sounds simple, but signing up for email newsletters is a great way to discover and find new content

There is a bit of investment of time in finding the types of newsletters that are relevant to your brand and, by extension, your audience. But once you do, new content is as available and easy to find as checking your email inbox.

Of course, newsletters are free as well.

Hint: LetterList curates great newsletters that you may want to check out. It’s also free.

Pocket

If you ever find yourself browsing the internet and wish you had a way to save great content easily and in one place (without emailing it to yourself), you should try Pocket.

This tool enables you to save articles, videos and more from any publication, page or app on any device.

The cost ranges between free and $4.99 per month.

Instapaper

Similar to Pocket, Instapaper enables you to save content in one place to read later.

Ideal use is with a bookmarklet in your browser, where you can save the page you’re on in a folder within the tool.

Plus, Instapaper is free.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite does a lot more than just help you discover curated content that you can share. It’s a social media management tool, where you can manage all your social media accounts in one place (sharing, scheduling, analysis, and more).

The tool has a feature called Streams, and with that, you can set up different ways to discover new content.

Hootsuite has free and paid levels of use.

Feedly

Remember Google Reader? This tool helps you keep up with your favorite feeds and articles in once place. You also can see when your business is mentioned online.

The price for Feedly ranges from free to $18 per month.

Scoop.it

If you like Pinterest, you’ll like Scoop.it.

You can use it to organize topics in a hub page, and then publish outside of Scoop.it, like your blog.

The price ranges from free to $67 per month.

Curata

Curata is a powerful tool that discovers and automatically recommends content for your audience. 

You have the power to review and fine tune the suggestions, of course, but the only way to use Curata is to start by getting a quote.

PublishThis

This tool features a content monitoring dashboard with complex search capabilities. It prides itself on pulling content from hundreds of thousands of sources.

The pricing for PublishThis ranges from free to $399 per month.

Nuzzel

Nuzzel is a free tool that searches the feeds of your friends on Facebook and Twitter to find the content that they’re sharing. It then emails you once a day with the top-ranked content.

Goodbits

This free tool doesn’t just help you collect great content, it enables you to create and send an email with that content to your audience. You can also use RSS feeds with Goodbits so that you don’t have to always hunt down content.

No matter what tool you experiment to streamline your curated-content discovery process, it’s important that you keep an eye on how that content performs for you so that you can pivot accordingly (and do more of what’s working and less of what’s not).

Not sure what social media platform is right for your company? Check out our guide.

And if improving your digital marketing process is on your mind, consider DailyStory, which features automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Curated content: 4 tips on finding what to share on social media

Curated content is like the “get out of jail free” card that helps you grow and engage your social media audience.

Unlike the constant hamster wheel of creating organic content, curated content saves you time while also positioning you as an expert and serving your audience what they want.

It’s a win-win.

Curated content is “content gathered from trusted sources relevant to your industry,” according to Hootsuite.

See our five reasons why you should include curated content in your social media strategy.

But how is (good, relevant) curated content found? 

Here are four tips to help you find the best curated content for your social media publishing.

Determine your ratio

Before anything else, it’s important to decide exactly how much curated content you want to mix in with your organic, unique content. How much is created by you, and how much is created by someone else?

A good mix to start with, according to Hootsuite, is 40 percent organic and 60 percent curated content. 

Of course, always keep an eye on the performance of your posts and adjust as necessary. But this mix is a good place to start.

Consider the topics you want to cover

This depends on your brand. Do you want to be hyper-focused on the topics you’ll share with your audience, or should you be broader?

A custom closet company, for example, could focus on closet organization as a topic. Or, it can expand into the broader topic of interior design.

Take a moment to brainstorm the topics that are relevant to both your brand and your audience. What helps make you appear to be an expert in your industry?

Identify your sources of curated content

It’s time to make a list! The key to finding great curated content is to have your go-to trusted sources.

This can be as simple as taking your list of topics and begin Googling.

But you should feel confident that your selected sources are both trustworthy and in sync with your brand.

When you find a source, look through the entire website to see if the totality of the content produced is in line with your company’s goals and purpose. Also, examine the About section of the website to confirm the mission behind that publisher. 

Remember that while content can be shared to your social media directly from a website, you can also share from another brand’s account on any social media platform. 

So, while you want to compile a list of trusted websites, be sure to perform similar searches on the social media platforms you plan on sharing curated content. Your main list from Google might differ from who you find specifically on Twitter or Facebook, for example.

Consider yourself in a constant state of discovery

Now that you have your list of topics and sources, it’s time to commit to monitoring your channels so that you can find and share the specific pieces of curated content for your audience. 

While curated content is a time-saver, you cannot slack on discovering what would work best. However, you can set a scheduled amount of time daily or weekly to stay on top of it.

Curated content is an excellent way to diversify your social media offerings, and it will naturally evolve over time. Keep an eye on how what you’re sharing is performing and pivot accordingly.

Need help finding the best tool to make curated content discovery easier? Check out our list.

And if improving your digital marketing process is on your mind, consider DailyStory, which features automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.

Curated content: 5 reasons why social media shouldn’t be all about you

It’s easy to assume that any social media presence you build for your brand has to be all about you: your company, your product, your voice.

This just isn’t true.

Curated content plays a huge role in many brands’ social media strategy.

What is curated content? It’s content that’s gathered from a variety of sources that you publish and share with your following. Of course, the key is that this content is relevant to both your brand and your audience.

This can include links to blogs, user photos (with the right attribution), native shares of other posts, and so on.

View several examples of curated content compiled by Brafton (scroll towards the bottom).

Here are five reasons why you should consider incorporating curated content into your marketing strategy.

Curated content is a time-saver (and easier, too)

The best path forward does not have to be the hardest path. 

Because curated content already exists, you don’t have to create it. Huge time-saver!

Original content (like blogs, videos, photos, infographics, you name it) requires both time and resources. When you have the ability to create content, definitely do so, but curated content can help fill in the gaps and keep your creation workload more manageable.

It’s engaging

When you’re sharing content that’s relevant to your audience, you’re seizing that opportunity to have conversations with your followers about topics that are relevant to them.

Plus, it mixes up your content on any social media platform that is more appealing to followers.

Be viewed as an expert

Done right, curated content backs you up and shows your relevancy as a brand.

Whether you’re sharing relevant resources or a thought-provoking blog that sparks a discussion, your brand appears that much more tuned in to what is happening. 

You slowly become the go-to over time.

Curated content grows your network

Sharing others’ content gives them more of a reason to consider sharing your content.

Of course, this doesn’t usually just happen.

The best way to turn the use of curated content into a network booster is to go beyond just sharing. 

You can tag the creator in your post, of course. But why not take it one step further?

Contact the creator (whether on social media or via email) and let them know how you appreciate the content they’ve been creating. If you’re already sharing it and getting great engagement, you should mention that, too.

Content creation online can very easily feel like an echo chamber. Getting that sort of feedback as a creator is a great way to start a collaboration or a simple reciprocal relationship.

Stay informed

This is less about your audience and more about you. 

Yes, the point of curated content is to inform and engage your audience without having to do the heavy lifting of creating the content yourself.

However, by making curated content a regular piece of your social publishing strategy, you’re staying in the mix on topics that are relevant to your brand. You get out of any self-imposed bubbles.

You won’t just look like the expert. You’ll actually be the expert.

If you’re not already using curated content, it can play a beneficial role in any larger marketing strategy. Just be sure to not lean too heavily on it. A healthy mix of original and curated is always best.

Dive deeper with our four tips for finding curated content.

Plus, see our list of 12 tools that can help you discover and share more on social media.

And if improving your digital marketing process is on your mind, consider DailyStory, which features automation, dynamic audience segmentation and more. Schedule your free demo with us today.