Do you draw a blank some days when thinking about what social media content to post?
Sometimes it can feel like you've thought of it all and are tapped out for ideas when posting to Twitter, Facebook or any other social network. Whether you're curating content or coming up with something original, there's more than a few ways to keep things easy for you and fresh for your audience.
1. Search Relevant Keywords via Facebook Graph Search
Declining organic reach doesn't just affect businesses on Facebook, it also affects the people who follow those pages and want to receive that content. The good news is that a simple Facebook Graph Search can show you posts from people and pages you follow, even if they didn't show up in your News Feed.
2. Google News Search
Google search is great but I love the News search specifically for finding killer content that's relevant and current.
- Search with basic keywords relevant to your business (i.e. A cosmetic surgeon could search terms like "botox").
- Local businesses that rely solely on customers in their immediate area can benefit by searching for content that's relevant to that area (i.e. An article titled "Toronto Named World's Greatest City To Live In").
3. Search Relevant Keywords via Twitter Search
Similar to doing a Google keyword search, you can repeat the process on Twitter and sometimes the results can be even better (as long as you're willing to dig for them).
4. Use Twitter Lists
As a huge proponent of Twitter lists, I rely on them heavily to curate content. If you aren't using Twitter lists yet, the benefit of them is they give you a snapshot at the most recent tweets from a group of people that you handpick.
Your Home feed becomes a mess once you get to the point where you're following thousands of people. How do you stay in touch with more specific groups of people/companies or influencers that matter most to you? Twitter lists is the answer!
Here's three ways I use Twitter lists to curate content:
- Keep track of influencers in your industry & share their content.
- Keep track of people that are sharing your content and go back into your list regularly to return the favor by sharing some of their content (as long as it's relevant to your audience and quality content).
- Keep track of accounts for major news sources in your industry & share their content.
5. Keyword Search With Feedly
Buffer Feeds is great to quickly load posts from your favorite RSS feeds but what I like about Feedly is the fact you can search with keywords. Sometimes you don't want to comb through every post in a RSS feed to find what you're looking for.
For example, if you want to find all articles matching a specific keyword search from a handful of blogs you follow, Feedly makes this super easy. The major downside here is you have to pay for the premium version to get access to this feature - an annoying catch for those of us that remember the days of Google Reader.
6. Let Swayy Suggest Great Content To You
Have you ever wished that someone could look at your posts, analyze your followers and give you suggestions on great content to share? That time has arrived and the solution is called Swayy.
Swayy is a unique app that analyzes content, user behavior and social signals to better understand what drives engagement around the web and then makes suggestions. I find that it works incredibly well for me and rarely suggests a bad article - if ever.
7. Buffer Suggestions
If you didn't already have enough reasons to love Buffer, they have a very helpful suggested posts section that displays handpicked articles (refreshed daily) in multiple categories including business, marketing, inspiration and more.
It's worth taking a peek once a day to see if any posts tickle your fancy via the Buffer "Daily" app for iPhone. You can always rely on it for quality content to supplement your other posts.
8. Buffer Feeds
Another great feature of Buffer is allowing you to input your own RSS feeds in the "Feeds" section for easy posting of new content from those sources. It automatically creates a tweet for you by pulling the headline from the RSS feeds you've entered.
If you're like me, you have a few highly trusted sources that always provide great content (here's looking at you, Social Media Examiner) - Buffer Feeds makes the process of sharing their content stupid simple.
PRO TIP: You can also grab the RSS feed for any YouTube channel to easily share video content. Click the video below to see how it's done!
9. Google Keyword Search
It's pretty difficult to write an article about finding stuff on the Internet without mentioning Google. It's simple and effective but there is a downside; the good stuff tends to be on the first two pages before it starts to turn into a goose chase.
Here's a couple queries that will work for anyone:
- Search "INDUSTRYNAME stats" or "INDUSTRYNAME statistics" to find interesting and relevant stats for your industry. Sometimes it's necessary to include the current year at the end of your search term if the results are outdated.
- Search "INDUSTRYNAME interesting facts" to find some unique tidbits about your industry that might be intriguing to your audience.
10. Share Your Evergreen Content
I don't know about you but I start to forget about my great articles after 6 months to a year passes and they fall too many pages back on my blog archive. Depending on your business and industry, certain topics can be shared for years and years.
For example, if you're a mechanic shop, an article or video on "How To Fix a Flat Tire In Under 10 Minutes" will never get old. If you don't have any great evergreen content already, here's a helpful guide on how to create some.
11. "Spin" Titles For Blogs To Attract Different Audiences
Instead of sharing your blogs with the same title, consider re-sharing them but "spinning" the title to attract a different audience. Sometimes I do this if I feel my original title was a bit weak but the content was good.
Example:
- Original title: How To Save Time On Your Commute To Work
- "Spinned" title: 6 Ways To Save 60 Minutes or More On Your Commute
- "Spinned" title: One Trick That Saves Me 1 Hour Travel Time Every Day
12. Share The Best Quotes From Great Articles
Have you read a killer blog post that makes a ton of great points? Share one of them in a tweet or Facebook post if it's relevant to your audience. For example, you could share one of the points made in this article as a simple social media tip!
13. On This Day In History
What's happened on this same day in the history of your industry? I've tried this with a variety of clients and it always tends to work well (as long as you don't overdo it).
14. Chase Calendar of Events
The Chase Calendar of Events will show you all important holidays, famous birthdays and special anniversaries for major world events. Although I don't recommend posting about every single one all the time, it's a nice way to supplement your other content.
I recommend checking it out each month when creating your content calendar so you can make notes of anything worthy of a mention.
15. Parallel An Industry Lesson With Current News
What business lessons can you extract from what's happening in major media and pop culture?
SocialBro released an article called "50 Tweetable Twitter Tips" with a subtle nod to 50 Shades of Grey in the image. I like this trick because you're tapping into your audiences' awareness with something that's highly relevant and interesting to them.
The Last Missing Element: Emotion
I'm happy with the 15 points mentioned above but I want to give you one more element of social media posting that most people forget about. My biggest posts have always been ones that show some sort of emotion or where I took a bit of a risk by wearing my heart on my sleeve.
Although it's not always appropriate for a business page, personal posts that are relatable to others can strongly resonate with the Facebook audience, specifically when posting from your personal profile.
You may question the business value of this for many reasons...I totally understand that. I used to be the same way but I've started to open up in a more public manner and the results are truly amazing from a personal and business perspective. I'm closer than ever with the people I love and my business connections get to see who I really am as a person.
Social media is about being social, aka doing what makes us all human! Do you agree or disagree? Let's discuss it in the comments below.
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