To successfully engage your audience on social media, you need a constant stream of great content. This is content that’s useful, valuable, and fun for your audience. One challenge businesses face is how to keep that stream flowing.

Creating vs. Curating Content

Businesses don’t create all their own original content on social media. In addition to creating content, they also curate content. This means finding articles, videos, and other types of content and sharing it with your audience, adding your own original comments or spin to it.

You can strike a balance between content creation and curation. Create a detailed schedule that includes both.

Be a Good Follower

A great way to find content to share is to follow good media sources. You can follow them on the same social media platform or other places such as other social media platforms, blog subscriptions, email newsletters, websites, and so on.

Find media sources that consistently publish great stuff. Identify “influencers” in your niche or industry and follow them. These are individuals who are thought leaders or experts. They’re usually the first to hit upon new ideas. Follow a number of influencers and include their work in your content sharing.

Other good media sources include those that present up-to-date and high-quality material. You can also seek out obscure news sources that your audience may not be acquainted with, such as a website that appeals to a highly targeted niche. If your business deals in products for parents, you might follow media sources in other countries and bring this information to your readers.

You can also follow media sources that are not completely related to your niche. An automotive blogger, for instance, might report on economics or renewable energy technology. The key is to demonstrate how this is relevant to your readers; for example, changes in the Chinese market mean more Japanese cars sold there.

Managing Your Content

Be organized about your content. Create an “ideas list.” Brainstorm ideas for pieces you can create. You can also add ideas when you think of them. Keeping a list like this makes it easy to sit down and write. You’ll have ideas ready to go.

Finally, pay attention to how your content performs. This will reveal to you the particular tastes of your audience and help you find and create more content they will love.