Sharing with Intent

How to break through the online noise to share the right content for your brand.

Let’s face it. With all of the social media chatter, it’s hard to find a way to break through the noise to distinguish your brand. In fact, according to a recent study posted by ACI-every minute:

• Nearly 2.5 million pieces of content is shared and posted on Facebook
• Over 220,000 new photos is posted on Instagram
• Nearly 300,000 tweets are issued on Twitter

With that amount of data being shared be minute, there’s little wonder that many brands are struggling with the issue of content clutter issue. But in a world of viral cat videos and reposts, how do you find and share engaging content that reaches your main audience? I have a few thoughts on how to get started.

The Key to Curating the Right Content

The key to understanding curating content is to know your readers. Understanding what they are passionate about and why your brand’s goods or service is a part of that passion. This means that you have to spend time to listen to your customers in order to fully assess their needs and wants.

Although this idea may seem basic, it really should be an essential part of any marketing strategy. The good news is once you complete this important step-it allows you the ability to identify certain themes that should be part of communicating with your clients through your various social media channels.

The goal should be not to simply aggregate information but to create a dialogue that will lead to building a relationship.

Picking Engaging Content

Once you get a grasp on the focus your content should take, the next step is to identify your source materials. Unfortunately many marketers think of written content when it comes to curation. But limiting yourself to just one type of material would be a grave mistake.

Be sure to include a wide range of content types from infographics to podcasts. Curating different types of materials makes it more interesting for readers to share. Plus, it also helps to sparks conversation with your brand.

Catch and Release

Remember the ultimate goal is to engage and share with consumers in order to sell both yourself and your brand. So the most successful businesses know that readers access content in different ways. Therefore, make sure that you distribute information from a variety of sources on multiple platforms.

The key is to make it personal. Consider allowing your readers to submit a guest post or recommend content that would be important to share with your followers. Perhaps allow readers to select topics to be covered in your next blog posting or email newsletter. Doing so will help keep them interacting with your while becoming invested in your brand’s success.

Customer engagement shouldn’t only include communication between the brand and the consumer. You should also encourage them to interact with each other. For example, if many of your readers are concentrated in one geographic area, offer to help sponsor a meetup event. You can even host a Google Hangout to discuss a topic or share information.

Use the Right Tools

Ready to dive in but afraid of how to sort through the vast assortment of content available? Luckily, there is now a number of great tools available for sharing content markets to choose from. Companies such as Buzzsumo and Buffer offer excellent assistance in finding content relevant to your brand’s message that is both high quality and sharable. You can also use Feedly to organize sites to consistently pull materials form.

Because there are so many specialized applications available, Curata.com has compiled what is known seen as the most comprehensive list of content curation services. The list covers everything from basic content aggregators to sophisticated web analytics.

Key Takeaway

With the vast amount of information shared on social media every minute, it’s important to break through the content clutter to reach your target audience. Therefore, content curation best practices are ones that allows the marketer to understand their customer and generate opportunities for sharing. Utilize the tools available to identify what will resonate with your followers and think outside the box to make it a personal experience for them.