Providing value to your audience with a combination of owned and third party content, is no easy task. It takes time to evaluate, curate, create and publish blog posts, videos and photos that resonate and support your brand’s positioning.
This week at #SproutChat, we asked Sprout All Star Mandy Edwards to join us and share her knowledge around best practices for curating content. Mandy is the founder of ME Marketing Services, a social marketing & website design company. She has a thorough marketing background with over fourteen years in sales, event planning, local store marketing, advertising and social media.
RSS Feeds Are Your Friend
To source great content, utilize RSS feeds, Twitter lists and websites like Feedly. Build these resources out by researching industry-related blogs and websites and monitoring what influencers in your field are posting. Take the time out to thoroughly organize the sources you identify as having consistent, well-written and helpful articles. This will help save you time and allow you to avoid a headache later.
A1: I use Twitter lists religiously!! LOVE them. I read several other websites as well (SMT, SME, Scott Monty, @jaybaer, etc.) #sproutchat
— Mandy Edwards (@memktgservices) March 30, 2016
A1: I mainly find content from newsletters I subscribe to! I also like to search by hashtag on Twitter to find similar content #SproutChat
— Melissa Meyer (@_MelissaMeyer) March 30, 2016
@SproutSocial A1 Pocket, Alltop, Upworthy, Flipboard are pretty good options if you want to check them out. #sproutchat
— Nancy Casanova (@nancycasanova) March 30, 2016
A1. big fan of @feedly and @buzzsumo #sproutchat
— Katherine Gear (@Katgear) March 30, 2016
A1. Medium, my Facebook newsfeed, email newsletters all give me good tips. #sproutchat
— Reva Minkoff (@revaminkoff) March 30, 2016
Curate Like a Champ
Sharing third-party content from brands, influencers, bloggers, and journalists helps build relationships and can help put your brand on their radar. Find sources with similar ideals and complementary audiences. Make sure that these sources have content that your audience would find appealing and helpful.
Social media can be a friendly place. Always remember to pay it forward and have patience. If you’re kind and put in the work you’ll see your community grow organically through @mentioning and giving kudos to others.
A2: It exposes your followers to content they may have missed or you haven't written about, & they may find new sources too. #sproutchat
— Mandy Edwards (@memktgservices) March 30, 2016
A2b) By providing a mix of original and curated content that fits your community you demonstrate investment into your community. #sproutchat
— Jose Watson (@Josewats) March 30, 2016
A2: Reciprocal access to each others' audiences. #SproutChat
— Brad Lovett (@Brad_Lovett) March 30, 2016
A2: I think it shows thought leadership in that you have your pulse on the industry and do the heavy lifting for you audience #sproutchat
— Aaron Lumnah (@aaronlumnah) March 30, 2016
A2: Because if it's great in one format, odds are it'll be great in another, plus reach more audience #sproutchat https://t.co/w61uX9dy5u
— ThinkSEM (@ThinkSEM) March 30, 2016
A2: You always want your content to be original so it can stand out. Good content is vital. #sproutchat
— Hannah Wyatt (@hcwyatt93) March 30, 2016
A2) Curated content perfectly complements what you're actively creating. It adds layers to the story you're trying to tell #SproutChat
— Gary Taylor (@garytaylorceo) March 30, 2016
A2b: Curating is also an easy way to get noticed by influencers, aka ego trapping #sproutchat
— Aaron Lumnah (@aaronlumnah) March 30, 2016
Read & Then Reread Content Before Sharing
Though it’s time consuming, it’s key to closely examine and consider each piece of content prior to sharing or publishing it. Remember that, when you share or publish on social under your brand’s name, you’re essentially promoting it as a something you condone. Ensure there aren’t any competitor mentions and that the writer’s style is similar to your brand voice.
In today’s content saturated environment, it’s easy to curate posts quickly. It’s a good practice to always ask yourself, “As a standalone piece of content, does this represent my brand?” One blog post or video may be a reader’s first and only encounter with your organization, so make sure it’s a positive one.
A3: Read titles, subheaders, bullet points, etc. Check out the graphics & sources as well. Make sure it's all legit. #sproutchat
— Mandy Edwards (@memktgservices) March 30, 2016
A3: First, you need to know your audience and what they're interested in to know if certain content will add value for them. #sproutchat
— Express Writers (@ExpWriters) March 30, 2016
A3 In order – Hashtags, Source, Author, Nature of topic, Title. Makes it easier to figure out which is which. #sproutchat
— Terry Lo (@calgarydreamer) March 30, 2016
A3 Scan it to make sure it isn't a veiled marketing pitch but then read it to make sure it's valuable. #SproutChat https://t.co/HCyQILYsLN
— Erika Heald (@SFerika) March 30, 2016
A3 As #socialmedia #contentmarketing etc people we consider ourselves "pros" are skim-reading But read carefully before posting! #sproutchat
— Troy Sandidge (@Troy_Sandidge) March 30, 2016
Determine a Content Strategy that Works for Your Brand
The #SproutChat community seemed to agree that the standard split of content distribution should fall between roughly 10-30% third party and 70-90% owned content. Still, each social media or community manager should take their resources, company size and industry into consideration when coming up with a content strategy.
If you work for a smaller company without an internal creative team, it might be necessary to rely more heavily on third party content. Monitor how your audience interacts and engages with different forms of content and strategize from there.
A5: 1 curated for every 2 created. Keeps a nice balance but sometimes the curated is really good and there's more
#sproutchat
— Mandy Edwards (@memktgservices) March 30, 2016
A5: Our strategy is 10% curation, 90% original content. Preferably original content on other people's sites. =D #sproutchat
— Maureen Jann (@MaureenOnPoint) March 30, 2016
A5) 70% original, 30% curated seems to be a winning strategy. To be a thought leader you'll need to share mostly original ideas. #SproutChat
— Gary Taylor (@garytaylorceo) March 30, 2016
A5: I stick to 80/20 with curated content being more. #sproutchat
— Mary Mallard (@MaryMallard) March 30, 2016
A5 Creative & orig. content might always be the goal, but there's no shame in a smaller company using curated to start #sproutchat
— Hanna Steinker (@Hann_bananz) March 30, 2016
A5: I'd say 60/40 or 70/30 is a good ratio to aim for (original v. curated content). #SproutChat
— Melissa Meyer (@_MelissaMeyer) March 30, 2016
A5 Try to be original as possible, if not try to heavily credit your peers as possible. Both establishes your authenticity #sproutchat
— Troy Sandidge (@Troy_Sandidge) March 30, 2016
Join our Facebook community to stay up-to-date on weekly chat topics and to connect with industry colleagues. See you for the next #SproutChat on Wednesday, April 6 at 2 p.m. CT!
This post #SproutChat Recap: Curating Content With Sprout All Star Mandy Edwards originally appeared on Sprout Social.
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