Five Ways to Generate Content for Your Social Pages
Photo Credit: Hannes Treichl
Social media managers have to keep up with the latest news in their client’s genre. While at first this task may seem easy to find statistics, quotes and other news related to their industry, over time information can seem sparse or overdone. Social media fans want to follow brands who will give them unique, entertaining and applicable information. But how do you find that content for them?
If you’ve ever found yourself asking that question, here are five strategies you can implement to get the content you’re looking for. Keep in mind that generating content is like building with Legos. You’ll find different pieces from a variety of places. But in order to have great content you have to use those different pieces to create something altogether different and appealing to your specific audience.
1. Utilize social bookmarking sites, alerts and subscriptions
Websites like Pinterest, Reddit, and StumbleUpon are great ways to explore the web. With StumbleUpon in particular, you can even personalize your search results by signing up and telling the site exactly what interests you.
Use TalkWalker or Google alerts to keep an eye on your client’s industry and surrounding topics. To save time going to several different sites, add various blogs and news sites to your Feedly to easily keep track of industry news.
Having a good understanding of what’s going on in your client’s industry will help you create informative content for fans.
2. Connect with the right crowd on social media
Use Google+ to look for people who post 5-10 pieces of notably engaging and insightful content each day. These people can provide you with inspiration for new blog posts or Pinterest images.
Find influencers within your client’s niche by using Followerwonk or Twellow. While it can be tempting, don’t copy directly the content you find. Instead, create a spin or draw on a certain angle that relates to your client.
3. Be aware of trending topics
If you want to find out what’s hot in regard to certain topics, Topsy gives you the means to do just that. Find what’s being talked about in real-time on twitter, through photos, videos or even by influencers.
You can also access the site Google Trends to get up to the moment feedback on what’s currently trending in the search engine results page, with results ranked in order of popularity.
4. Peruse online libraries
Online libraries offer high quality content in the form of a vast supply of books, journals, and publications that are full of information on almost any subject. Once you know of a topic or idea you want to generate content about on your social pages, go deeper and get a unique piece of information found through online libraries.
Getting access to this information is simple: all you have to do is subscribe. Some great examples of online libraries include: Public Library Online, Internet Public Library, and Questia.
5. Apply the data
Data is essential to measuring effort. If you want to know what’s effective with your audience and what isn’t, you have to rely on data. Use Google Analytics to examine the performance of your site and identify which posts have been the most popular. In addition, you can use a social media analytics platform tool to keep track of which posts accrue the most engagement. Based on what you discover to be effective, you can find and create similar content for future use.
You can also get valuable feedback directly from users by implementing the following tactics:
Conduct polls and surveys
Use Google+ Hangouts to host an online focus group
If you want to reap the maximum benefits from your social pages, finding and generating engaging content is key. It’s the x-factor that’s crucial to taking your site to the next level, and following the suggestions listed above could be just the game-changer you need to score the results you want.
[image error]
