Part of building your online presence, whether you're an author, business owner, consultant, speaker or even an astronaut, is to keep it flowing with interesting content.
It's all well and good to set up your profiles on each of the hot social networks out there, but then what do you do with them?
This topic came up recently in a Facebook group I'm part of, so I thought I'd share with my readers some of the tools and techniques I use to keep content flowing smoothly, even when my schedule is choppy.
Keep in mind that every social network has a different posting etiquette. Twitter, with its speed, requires more posts in a day to remain visible and relevant than, say, Facebook (although there are some studies that show that's beginning to change to combat Facebook's reticence to share page posts).
So, the tools I use are configured in such a way to ensure that I'm posting to the appropriate network at a pace and on a schedule that suits that social network.
That said, here are 5 tools and techniques I use for maintaining a flow of content for my followers.
BufferApp
I tend to spend time on the weekend catching up on articles I'd wanted to read during the week, but didn't necessarily have time for. I use BufferApp to schedule sharing the best of those with my followers.
BufferApp is a Google Chrome extension that allows you to add an article to a "buffer" that will trickle content to your connected social networks, based on a schedule you define.
For each article you send to the buffer, you can add your own commentary or, if you select some text from the article prior to adding it to the buffer, you can use a quotation from the article to start your commentary.
This makes it quick and easy to share other people's content when it's relevant or informative for your readers.
Whenever possible, I try to find enough interesting content (after awhile it starts to all say the same stuff!) to buffer enough content for the week.
The nice thing is, while I may share the same article to all of my social networks, the individual schedules for those networks mean that it's going out at completely different times. Therefore, if someone is following me in more than one place, they're not going to see the same content hitting everywhere at the same time. And that's pretty cool!
An additional feature of BufferApp is that it also suggests potential content for you. Unfortunately, it doesn't learn from what you typically share, so the suggestions can sometimes be rabbit trails: interesting content, but not relevant to my brand or message.
However, it does offer analytics for you, so that you can go back and look at the content you've been sharing to see what kind of interest it sparked. Did anyone click on the link or favorite the post? What kind of reach did it have?
Over time, this kind of information can give you valuable insights into what your readers appreciate the most so that you can tailor your posting strategy to increase the likelihood of engagement.
Hootsuite
Since I'm already using BufferApp for scheduling content, it might seem redundant to have another post scheduler in the mix. But it's not! I assure you. While I use BufferApp for sharing other people's articles, I use Hootsuite to schedule my own content.
Most often, I use it to schedule posts regarding upcoming events, share quotations, link to evergreen content, etc.
Whenever I book a speaking engagement, I go straight to Hootsuite to schedule at least 3 posts in the week leading up to the event to promote it. It doesn't matter if the event is next week or 6 months from now. It's scheduled and ready to go so I don't have to think about it again later.
When I create new content (a blog post, for example), it's already synced to my social networks so that it's shared there. However, that only happens automatically once. So, I use Hootsuite to share that new content again a day or two later, and then a week or two later. I've invested my time to create content that I believe is beneficial to you. So, why would I just announce it once and hope you hear about it? It's a disservice to those who value my content if I don't make an effort to ensure they get the information they want and need.
The same with my courses. If people don't know they're available, they can't purchase them. So, I'll schedule periodic posts so remind them.
Like BufferApp, Hootsuite offers analytics regarding how your content is consumed, and it's worthwhile to spend some time with these regularly, to make sure you're providing your followers (whether they engage with your or not) with the content they value most.
Paper.li
I can't tell you how many different ways I use Paper.li. It's one of my Go To resources for finding new, popular content, as well as a means of connecting with new readers and followers.
This tool allows you to define up to 5 daily newspapers. You set the parameters of what the paper should contain. It can look for keywords, hashtags, lists, users and more.
Whatever you tell it to look for, it searches Twitter for relevant content that contains a link. Then it assesses the link for how much traffic it's getting (an indication of how useful people are finding it).
From all of the best content, it creates an aggregated newspaper. Every day.
Yes, that's right! You set it all up, and then it repeatedly refreshes itself, every day, all the while branding you as the editor of all that great content.
Oh, and by the way, it thanks the top contributors to the paper each day too. And, in so doing, it initiates connections with people you can engage with.
And the newspaper you put out makes it quick and easy to share an interesting article, retweet the person who originally shared it, share it on Facebook, add it to BufferApp, e-mail it to a friend, and more.
Not bad for taking a little time to define what you and your readers are looking for.
IFTTT
While BufferApp and Hootsuite represent the core of my content scheduling strategy, there are other tools I use to supplement that content as well. These run more on autopilot, but help ensure my readers are receiving relevant, interesting content from me.
I use IFTTT for other things in my business life. This tool allows you to define recipes that, when triggered, cause other events to happen. It's named after the old programming code If This Then That.
I have a recipe defined that randomly shares an inspirational quotation to Twitter from Goodreads once a day. (The trigger is the time of day. The action is to post a random tweet from an RSS feed.)
But this tool's usefulness extends well beyond posting to social media. It supports my customer service efforts (one recipe sends me a text message when an e-mail arrives from a VIP customer or business partner so that I can respond as quickly as possible), it sends me weather alerts, clips things to Evernote for me to read later, and more. Very handy tool, and there are plenty of recipes out there already to model for your own uses.
TwitterFeed
I don't use this next tool much anymore, simply because (as I said earlier), people are starting to repeat themselves. What? Yes. There. I said it! I find myself reading the same thing over and over again, from one blog to the next. Finding original ideas and content is getting more difficult each day.
But when there is a high-quality website or YouTube channel whose content I simply want to share without waiting to review it first, I use Twitterfeed to permit an RSS feed to tweet or post to Facebook for me.
While these tools put content out for my followers, I also make sure I'm on social media every day so that I can engage with people. Scheduling allows me to "set and forget" the content. But the most important part of social marketing is being social (not marketing!).
In case you're wondering, I tend to use Hootsuite to monitor my Twitter streams, and the native apps to participate on an ad hoc basis on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, G+ and Pinterest.
The post 5 Tools to Manage Your Social Media Content appeared first on Aleweb Social Marketing.