Social Media B2B

One of the continuing trends in B2B social media is curating content from other sources and presenting it to your followers and subscribers. Depending on the medium you use to present it, this may include your own comments about the curated articles. While it is important to create your own original content for your company’s social media outlets, one way to broaden the amount of content your provide to your network is to share content of others.

Curation is all about compiling and reviewing content and only sharing the best of it. Another way to curate content is to present content that is all about a single theme. Again, this would only be the best content about the theme, or maybe the most interesting or thought-provoking. The following are six ways you can use content curation in your B2B social media.

1. Create a Blog Post of Favorite Articles from the Week
This is the easiest and most obvious form of content curation. Keep track of popular posts during the week, or at the end of the week look for posts in your industry to post to your blog. An RSS reader or Twitter search streams are good ways to find sources for this post. We publish a post with five recent posts from other sources every Friday as a wrap-up to the week. I have also seen people publish this kind of post on Monday as a way to kick off the new week.
Tip: Use a compelling headline instead of 5 Recent Posts from This Week.

2. Create a Twitter Feed of Relevant Links
A big part of Twitter is sharing articles that you have found interesting. Since Twitter has become a news and content discovery engine for many people, it is worth seeking out information sources in your industry so you can share those with your network. It is considered a good practice to source your information on Twitter through re-tweets, but if you are sharing links, when readers click on a link, they are taken to the original source. Old style re-tweets (manual RTs) allow for commenting, while the newer style, inline re-tweets do not.
Tip: Use automated tools like Twitterfeed only for fully trusted sources.

3. Share Articles Regularly in a LinkedIn Group
As a participant in relevant LinkedIn Groups, you can share recent articles as a way to start discussions. Be mindful of posting too many articles in a Group, as you don’t want to overwhelm the discussions. Don’t always share your own content as a way to start discussions, but consider adding it to existing discussions if appropriate.
Tip: Look at LinkedIn Today as a source for content that is already being shared on LinkedIn.

4. Create a Regular Email of the Best Posts
Depending on your organization, you might want to consider sending a regular email to your customers or prospects with recent posts in your industry that are interesting. Make sure you include some content from your company in the email, but review every piece of content before sharing it to ensure it provides value. The important part about this is its regularity, so decide on a schedule that works for you at the start of the process and stick to it. If you have never sent regular emails before, start with a monthly approach, and include only the best content.
Tip: Pick a day and time for delivery so customers begin to expect it.

5. Share Articles with Your Sales Team
As you discover great reference posts or articles about your industry to share with customers and prospects, you should also share those internally with the sales team. These can be shared via a weekly email, internal blog or even an internal wiki. Provide these in a way that team members receive notification and they are not overwhelmed by all this content. This is an opportunity to comment how certain posts may relate to particular prospects.
Tip: Encourage the sales team to reach out to customers and prospects with content to help move them through the sales process.

6. Create a Weekly Audio or Video Podcast
Pick one or two important issues in your industry and create a weekly podcast where you discuss these issues. This can establish you and your company as people who are thinking about the industry as a whole, and shows your place in it. Five minutes or less should be your target length. Don’t start this unless you can commit to it.
Audio Tip: Use a microphone.
Video Tip: Shoot in a well-lighted room, so even if you use a webcam it doesn’t look blue from the light of the screen.

What are some other ways you have curated content and shared it with your network?

Jeffrey L. Cohen is the Managing Editor of SocialMediaB2B.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter at @jeffreylcohen or on Google+.