Creating your own unique, high-quality Facebook content can be a very time-consuming job. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be, as Facebook isn’t just about your content. It’s also about sharing other people’s content. After all, a community is formed by sharing of ideas and messages, not just people and organizations talking at each other.
Many managers of high performing Facebook pages share content from other Pages every day—and see big results. Because curated content helps fill in the holes in your content calendar, it should map to your strategy, be high-quality and fit your page (message, type of content, etc.) While each audience is different and you need to know what will resonate with yours, these five simple and easy ways to find content will work for any page manager looking to successfully repurpose content for maximum effect.
Streamline content curation
It can be just as time consuming to find great content as it is to create it if the process is not automated in some way. Luckily, this is made easier than it seems with the help of several tools on the market such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Crowdtangle and ActionSprout (of which, in full disclosure, I am co-founder) that will show you those posts that are taking off on their Pages—which often is a good sign that they’ll work well on your page, too. Share the content or use these success cases as a way to brainstorm ideas for creative posts of your own.
Boost supporter engagement
The Facebook News Feed does not slow down. There’s a lot going on, making it easy to miss something important. Imagine how your supporters would react if you could find the best content related to your mission on Facebook, and consistently deliver it to them, helping them not miss out on important news, events or memes? Everyone wants to be the first of their friends to like, comment and share the hottest content on Facebook, and your supporters are no different.
Doing so will help transform your Facebook page into a source of solid and relevant information, which will boost engagement and reach. It enhances trust with your audience and your credibility, turning you into an expert in your nonprofit niche. Take for example this top trending image:
Or this article:
Illustrate your value
It’s all about becoming a valuable resource. When you can dig up great articles that your audience is interested in—regardless of the source—you’ll earn abundant respect. Building trust and credibility doesn’t happen overnight. You’ll have to post great content for a while to gain a reputation of quality with your audience.
Add your two cents!
When sharing a piece of content, add value to the conversation:
• What did you like about the piece?
• What was most important?
• What did you learn?
• What do you hope others will learn?
• Or pose a question.
Adding your own thoughts can be a great springboard to start a conversation and encourage followers to become more engaged. Be sure to respond to folks in the comments and encourage them to contribute.
Build digital karma
Online, what goes around often comes around. Want to get noticed by a powerhouse in your ecosystem? Share their stuff with your audience over the next few months and always add your two cents. While it’s not a sure thing that they’ll notice your efforts and repay them, without a doubt it works more often than not.
How Often Should You Share Other People’s Content?
While your audience really determines the ideal original content to curated content ratio, as demonstrated to you through analytics and tracking, a popular formula that works well is Give, Give, Give, Ask (as popularized by bestselling author, Gary Vaynerchuk).
Let’s break down that perspective:
• Give (Others): Share a great blog article full of information that enriches the community from a heavy-hitting website and generates support for your organization. Don’t ask for anything in sharing this. Just add to the conversation.
• Give (Yours): Post/repost a native video created by one of your followers. It’s funny, inspirational and/or makes a point. Again, don’t ask for anything, just share.
• Give (Others): Share a high-quality image taken by an independent photographer supporting the greater community. Just share with your perspective.
• Ask (Yours): Create an original post with an ask, or curated call-to-action, to generate a pre-determined response – such as e-mail address for a newsletter.
The formula above creates a sense of sharing, contribution and helpfulness that will take you a long way in growing engagement. And that usually means 60% to 80% of your posts will be sharing other people’s content rather than posting your own.
While not every organization has the bandwidth to create 100% of their content 100% of the time, luckily the very nature of social media is about sharing and participating in a greater ecosystem. Pair these tips and tactics with analytics to better understand what types of content engage your audience, and then create a cycle of content curation that you consistently fine-tune to maximize audience engagement.
