Guide to Curating Content for Your Social Media

Guide to Curating Content for Your Social Media

When it comes to creating content for your social media, the options are endless. Seriously. There are so many fun, creative and educational ways to interact with your following on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or any other platform you choose.

Today we will explore how to curate content for your socials, unfortunately [and fortunately] every business is so different, and because we are all so unique we have to stick with the basics! 

 

Make It Your Own:

When it comes to social media we have seen too many accounts just repost other people’s content. While this content may get high interactions, you will fail to get your brand across, and what’s the point of being on social media if you get no brand recognition?

Our rule is: 

“At least 50% of what you post on social media should be the content you create.​”

Now that doesn’t mean you HAVE to be original all the time, it just means repurposing content to suit or show off your business and your business values. 

For example, we love to share quotes that resonate with our audience. We could easily reuse content from the internet, but it wouldn’t have our brand flare, so we recreate the quote to suit our style. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While you may not have the resources or experience with programs like InDesign or Photoshop, as we do, there are loads of great, free or low-cost sites such as Canva that you can use to create fun repurposed content that’s “on-brand”. 

Another example of how we make content ‘our own’ is when repurposing newspaper or blog content. Instead of just posting a link and a brief caption we love to make it more unique and interactive. We summarise the article, ask for opinions and create an image that promotes interaction. 

 

Make Your Content Go the Distance

Don’t just use your content once. When you put hours of effort into creating content [like to blog] it would be a shame and frankly a waste of time and resources to just post it once on your Facebook and be done with it. 

Make sure to [if it’s relevant] to post your valuable content across all your social media platforms. 

Just keep in mind every social media site has different sizing and best practices, so make sure to resize and change the look of the content to suit the platform. It may take extra time but it’s so worth it!

Don’t be afraid to repost the same content again either. It’s highly likely that the same people who were your first post won’t see or notice that you have reposted the same idea again. BUT don’t continuously repost the same post and copy time and time again. That is a sure way to lose followers. So refresh that copy and maybe even change the image and use again at a later time. For example, you can do a throwback post!

Don’t Reinvent The Wheel

As we said before, we suggest having at least 50% of your own content on your socials. But this doesn’t mean you have to recreate the wheel! Feel free to repost other people’s content and articles, just give them credit or make it your own. Don’t feel you absolutely have to have different content from your competitors, if it works it works, just listen to your audience and make sure you’re adding value. 

For example, we found this great blog article/ infographic from PostBeyond called ‘ The history of Social Media’. We loved it so much and thought you guys would love it too so we decided to repost the infographic [with credit] across all our platforms from our blog, to Pinterest to Twitter!

What’s Your Audience Posting About You?

We have said this before in our blog Customer Reviews – Your Secret Marketing Fuel, but what your customers are saying and posting about you is so IMPORTANT and is an absolute goldmine when it comes to curating content.  

This is what we call user-generated content. Testimonials, reviews, images and a whole lot of ideas can come from interacting, listening and reusing your audience’s content.  

So don’t be afraid to ask to post their content on your socials, most people are just flattered!

Here’s what we often say when asking to repost peoples content:

“Love your photo [say what you like about it]. We would love to repost this on our socials, with credit of course! We want to show off our [products, customers, town, local shops]”

And here’s the even better thing… You can even repost content that your business isn’t tagged in – just show off your town or the talents in your area! For many businesses who are not ‘insta’ worthy or product-centric this is a great option! 

 

The Little Details

It’s the little and often personal details that work so well on social media, which make sense because there is social in the name, right? 

Learn to feel comfortable sharing moments in the day [behind the scenes shots]. Share a post of the team’s coffee catch up, let your audience know what each team member’s day at work looks like, how your business works, share your workplace inside jokes, share your struggles, highlight a team member and why not let your audience decide on some details too! 

People love to be in the know and create relationships with brands, and with so many people in the same market, being personal can set you apart. 

I’m absolutely guilty of watching 10-minute videos about how a chair was repurposed or watching someone on Photoshop. And apparently I’m not the only one. Why do you think Shaaanox literally gets 100,000 plus views on people watching her declutter makeup. Seriously.

You might think your everyday workday is boring and that no one would want to see it, but you would be surprised, so just try it!

If you’re scared that sharing your inner details or showing people the full process will mean they won’t buy your product and instead do it themselves. DON’T BE. Hey, some might, but most of us are L.A.Z.Y and would rather purchase it than do it ourselves… 

 

Creating A Plan

 

We highly suggest creating a calendar filling in the important dates – holidays, birthdays, promotions – and then filling your content plan out from there!  And if you are still looking for ideas, save the image above so you can always have something to post about!

As we said at the start of the blog every business is different. So if you want some more information on how to curate content for your business specifically, book in a FREE no-obligation consultation with Lainey here today!