“Sharing is caring.” While this phrase may seem trite and elicit a shake of the head and a roll of the eyes, its message is true and could not be more valuable when it comes to the social networking realm. Sharing shows me, your audience, your network, your friend and your client, that you care. Yes, sharing is caring but it’s sharing interesting and relevant information that gets you noticed, remembered and valued.
In the online world, sharing is a way to build your social currency (social currency = audience + relevance + trust + influence). It’s how you remain relevant, it’s how you engage and it’s how you show your network that you’re on top of things.
Now if you’re sitting there thinking that every piece of information you share needs to be ground-breaking, stop. Immediately. The only thing you need to be sure of is that the information you share adds value to your audience. And remember, value comes in all shapes, sizes and sentences (I’ll touch on that in a follow-up post).
So that brings me to the question that I hear most often when it comes to content:
“How do I share the right content?”
Be it an individual or a large-scale company, knowing what information is the right information to share can often lead to roadblocks and hesitations. “Are people going to find this interesting?” “No one’s going to care.” “Do I have to create all the content myself?” All of these thoughts are those that can stop us dead in our tracks and prevent us from forging ahead. So to help you side-step these hesitations and roadblocks, here are a few ways to share great content:
Read the News
Seems simple and kind of “duh” worthy doesn’t it? That’s because it is. We are a community obsessed with knowing what’s happening. How many times have you found yourself sparking up conversation by talking about something you read, heard or saw on the news? So, if it works that well in real life think about what it could do online. Even if it doesn’t revolve around your business, it will spark conversation.
Subscribe to Blogs
There are more than 100 million blogs on the internet that focus on a myriad of topics…so use them. If you have your own personal blog it should be a no brainer to share that content with your networks. But if you’re not the writing type, and not all of us are, then there is no rule out there saying you can’t share what others have already created. I am thankful to my network for opening my eyes to blogs out there that I would never have known existed.
Create Google Alerts
One of my favorites, I’m somewhat amazed at the amount of people out there that don’t capitalize on the usefulness of Google Alerts. Google Alerts allow you to keep up to date on topics that you are interested in (say for instance, foreclosures, remodeling, new home owner). The services sends an update right to your email when new web pages are published that are relevant to the search you enter for the alert. Pretty nifty right? It’s also a huge time-saver as I for one can’t afford to spend hours surfing the web for relevant and interesting articles.
Use Yourself
Dr. Suess said it best when he said, “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” While it may be nice to show people how resourceful you are by sharing content you’ve found, it’s also good to remind them from time-to-time of who you are and what you do and why they should engage with you. What you see (take photos), where you’ve been (events, restaurant reviews), what you do for a living … these are all pieces of content that can be shared with the your audience.
If you remember anything, remember that you must add value with your content. What are some of your best content curation strategies?
By Genevieve Jooste
