Finding great content to share on social media or other platforms can be challenging. However, with some effort and know-how, you can discover quality content that will resonate with your audience. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore proven tactics and tools to help you easily locate share-worthy content.
Define Your Goals
Before diving into content discovery, take a step back to define your goals. Ask yourself:
- Who is my target audience?
- What topics and formats resonate most with them?
- What is my purpose for sharing content (educate, entertain, etc.)?
- What platforms will I be sharing to?
- How much time can I devote to content discovery each day or week?
Having clear goals will focus your efforts and help streamline the discovery process. For instance, if you know your audience loves visuals, make images and videos a priority in your search. Understanding your goals gives you direction.
Leverage Social Media
One of the best places to uncover share-worthy content is on social media. Monitor relevant hashtags and keywords on each platform to see what your audience is viewing, liking, and sharing. Here are some tips for finding great content on key platforms:
- Join engaged Facebook Groups where people share ideas and content
- Follow influencers and brands that align with your goals
- Check Facebook Watch for trending videos
- Use Graph Search to search for public posts with specific keywords
- Track hashtags and keywords related to your topics
- Follow thought leaders in your industry
- Leverage Twitter Lists to organize accounts by topic
- Use Twitter Advanced Search to find tweets and accounts
- Discover content in Instagram Explore
- See what your competitors are sharing
- Find user-generated content with relevant hashtags
- Use apps like Gramhunt to search by keyword
YouTube
- Search YouTube for playlists around your topics
- Find videos trending in your niche
- Check out related videos from creators you like
- Use YouTube search filters like duration to refine results
Reposting or retweeting content from influencers and brands allows you to share high-quality, relevant content with your followers. The key is finding accounts that align with your audience and goals.
Leverage Blogs and Websites
Blogs and websites focused on your niche are another prime place to uncover share-worthy content. Here are some strategies for mining relevant articles, images, videos, and more:
- Search Google for “[your topic] blog” to find niche sites
- Search your keywords on platforms like Medium
- Check blog/resource sections of relevant brands
- Subscribe to email newsletters to receive alerts
- Repurpose listicles and infographics if licenses allow
- Use Buzzsumo to find trending articles by topic
Look for in-depth articles, how-tos, trending topics, and unique analysis not covered elsewhere. Subscribe to site updates so you never miss valuable content.
Turn to Content Aggregators
Content aggregators gather posts, videos, podcasts, and other media into one place. Monitoring these sites makes discovering content efficient. Some top aggregators include:
Aggregator | Details |
---|---|
Feedly | Follow RSS feeds from blogs and sites for updates |
Join subreddits related to your topics to see shared links | |
Inoreader | Powerful RSS reader to subscribe to website feeds |
ContentGems | Discover and curate visual content from multiple sources |
Nuzzle | Get content recommendations based on your keywords |
Subscribe to relevant subreddits, hashtags, keywords, and feeds so compelling content consistently lands in your lap.
Partner with Influencers
For a steady stream of share-worthy content, consider partnering with influencers in your industry. Reach out to influencers to share content that would benefit your audience. Make sure it’s a win-win by sharing their content as well. Types of influencer content ideal for sharing includes:
- Exclusive interviews
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Curated playlists or product roundups
- Co-created content like guides and webinars
The right influencer partnerships keep your pipeline stocked with excellent material for sharing. Offer to collaborate on content creation and cross-promote their channels.
Curate Your Own Content
While it’s great to share others’ content, creating your own original material is also important. Consistently generating unique content makes you a thought leader people want to follow. Types of content to produce include:
- Industry analysis and commentary
- Q&As and interviews with experts
- Roundups and listicles related to your niche
- Behind-the-scenes of your business/life
- Reports, guides, and ebooks
Blogging and vlogging regularly will provide new content to promote across your channels. Don’t just aggregate, generate.
Manage Content Discovery
With numerous sources to leverage, you might be wondering how to manage the discovery process efficiently. Here are some tips:
- Curate content in a Trello board or spreadsheet by topic
- Use Pocket to save articles to read later
- Create an editorial calendar to schedule discovery time
- Use tools like DrumUp to find and manage content
- Schedule time for discovering, reading, and sharing content
Get organized so you can efficiently integrate content discovery within your regular routines. Test different approaches to see what system works best.
Evaluate Content Quality
Not all content out there is great content worth sharing. As you discover pieces, evaluate them against the following quality criteria:
- Relevant – Aligns closely with your niche and audience interests
- Interesting – Provides novel information and perspectives
- Credible – Comes from a trusted, authoritative source
- Engaging – Well-written/produced and draws you in
- Visual – Contains images, video, or graphics
- Shareable – Easy to digest quickly and promote
Vet pieces thoroughly and only share ones that are genuinely valuable for your audience. Quality over quantity.
Optimize Content for Sharing
After discovering great content, take steps to optimize it for better visibility and engagement. Useful optimizations include:
- Craft a compelling custom headline and description
- Add relevant hashtags connected to your niche
- Tag any influencers or brands featured
- Share on platforms where your audience is most active
- Post at optimal times based on audience habits
- Use relevant graphics like quotes or stats from the content
Fine-tuning shared content boosts its appeal and gives it the best chance of resonating with your followers.
Analyze Performance and Trends
Pay close attention to the engagement generated by the content you share. This provides valuable data to inform future discovery efforts. Take time to analyze:
- Which types of content get the most engagement?
- Which topics and themes perform best?
- When are your audience most active online?
- Which headlines and descriptions work well?
- Who are the influencers your audience loves?
Let data guide you toward the kind of content your audience truly craves. Continually refine and improve over time.
Automate Where Possible
Content discovery doesn’t have to be manual. Look into platforms that use artificial intelligence to recommend relevant articles, videos, and social content tailored to your niche. For instance:
Tool | Key Benefits |
---|---|
BuzzSumo | Analyze trending content by topic |
Luminate | AI-powered content recommendations |
NewsAPI.org | Search global news sources |
NinjaOutreach | Find and manage influencer content |
AI tools complement manual discovery efforts by surfacing relevant content automatically for you to approve.
Conclusion
Discovering content your audience will appreciate does take time and work. However, utilizing the right social channels, websites, influencers, tools, and analytics makes it much more manageable. Focus on quality over quantity and adapt based on what resonates best with your followers. With the tactics explored in this guide, you’ll be able to build a constant pipeline of compelling content worth sharing.