Whenever I post tips, insights or other links on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or even on my own blog, I hear from followers: “Thanks so much for sharing. This is really helpful!”
This feedback is gratifying. After all, the reason I’m spending time finding and sharing this stuff is to cultivate relationships with colleagues, clients and prospects.
So how can you find great stuff as part of your content marketing efforts? Even better, how can you become a curator known for generously sharing the best of relevant content? Here are some tips for you. Of course this is not an exhaustive list, but instead shows simple steps you can start today.
First, you need to find great content.
- Subscribe to blogs and newsletters in your field; use Feedly, now that Google Reader is fading away, to keep those subscriptions up to date and in order.
- Check mainstream news sources daily (New York Times, Guardian, Mashable, etc.)
- Read LinkedIn Today for ideas.
- Sign up for updates from News.me, which gleans what it determines to be top stories from your Facebook and Twitter feeds, and delivers them to you as daily emails.
- Set up persistent searches in Twitter for keywords you’re interested in (for me, it’s podcasting, storytelling, curation and so on).
- Follow smart people on Twitter and subscribe to Twitter lists of thought leaders in your areas of interest.
- Subscribe to newspapers on Paper.li; look for papers that focus on subject matter that’s meaningful to you.
- Flip through Flipboard on your mobile device to find interesting stuff. You can share items directly to your social media accounts via Flipboard too.
- Sign up for Scoop.it, a publishing-by-curation platform, designed around your favorite keywords.
Next, you have to organize this wonderful content you’ve found.
My favorite tool for organizing my content is Mix, a social bookmarking service. Some of my colleagues prefer Diigo or Pearltrees. Whichever social bookmarking tool you choose, be sure it allows you to add as many tags as you want, to make it easier to find content later. Do not rely on your browser bookmarks. Trust me on this!
Finally, you want to publish your great content.
Certainly there are a zillion ways to do this, but here are a few suggestions:
- Write blog posts, using the information you’re found as a jumping off point, while adding your own experience, insights and opinions.
- Tweet interesting blog posts, news items, etc., to your followers; share the content on Facebook, and LinkedIn.
- If the content is visual, consider sharing it on Pinterest.
- Publish your own “newspapers” on Scoop.it or Paper.li and share them via social media.
- Create a curated newsletter using email automation tools.
- Use Storify to gather up tweets around a particular hashtag (great for events!) and share them on social media or embed them in your blog.
- For an organization, consider using such paid services as Curata or Curation Station to curate content.
You’ll become a true curator when you consistently find, organize, annotate and share the best of relevant content.
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay