How to shake up your social media with created and curated content
If you’re a small business, managing your social media channels can be time-consuming. And let’s be honest, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but you don’t have to create all of your content yourself. It’s actually good to have a mix of created and curated content, but you need to be clear how you want to use both.
Get creative with created content
If you had a shop you wouldn’t expect people to come through the door if you didn’t at least have an appealing shop window. Developing content yourself gives you the opportunity to post a consistent, fully branded impression to your clients. It’s your ‘social shop window’ and will help your social selling.
Pro: You get to choose where you’re driving traffic – it’s helpful for that to be your website!
Con: It can be time consuming, and just planning and creating content can make your head hurt.
If you’re a small business there are plenty of tools available like Canva that will help you design great looking social posts. If you’re a larger business you may have the luxury of a internal designer. The most important thing to remember is to stick to your brand guidelines, tone of voice and to be consistent.
Let others take some of the strain with curated content
Curated content has been created by someone else. It saves you time, and also gives you the opportunity to share content that fits your brand values. This is your chance to show the things that your business believes in. Don’t waste it by sharing old content that has no link to your business or industry.
Pro: Cheap and shows you’re knowledgeable about the issues, news and trends in your industry
Con: Drives traffic to where the content owner wants it to go. That’s not your website!
It’s important to have strict standards when deciding what to share. We’ve all seen examples of people sharing content that they obviously haven’t read properly. So, you need to do your research and know what you’re sharing. The last thing you want to do is share mis-information that only serves to damage your brand. Twitter has its own standards for the content it brings together into its ‘moments’. These show that the decisions it makes about what to share are well thought through.
There are tools like Feedly that can bring content together in handy streams for you. However, there is nothing quite like building relationships with others in your industry and sharing content from your own community. That’s where you’ll find content that fits your values.
Never lose site of your strategy
When striking the right balance between created and curated content you should always be clear of your social media goals. Is it awareness you want? More sales? Or do you want to boost your thought leader credentials?
To plan your strategy, focus on your key customer groups and then get into their heads. You need to ask ‘What are they interested in?’ What do they want from me?’ Then you can start to map out ‘content buckets’ that meet their needs, address their pain points and most importantly add value.
Next, be clear about where you are directing traffic to and what action you want your audience to take. This will help you shake up your social media without straying from your strategy.
