Becoming the source: How to engage social media followers

For the inexperienced entrepreneur, garnering active followers and being popular on social media can be a confusing concept to fathom. From their point of view, they post just as much content as other big-name Facebook or Twitter users, but they don’t get half the response from their followers.

As Social Media Today notes, the key is picking engaging and interesting content to share. Social media is the text book example of quality over quantity – people are always looking for content that will interest them. If entrepreneurs are simply publishing the same content as other thought leaders, they will struggle to generate any sort of response – and every company head knows that response is key to driving traffic to small business websites.

“[Firms need to publish] things that are interesting, important, entertaining or otherwise valuable to their audiences but that somehow were missed by the others in your market,” the source notes. “In order to get this sort of edge in social curation, you have to find things you weren’t even looking for … Sometimes you just don’t know what you’re looking for and it’s not going to be in the feeds you subscribe to.”

Finding engaging content

Finding engaging content is all about knowing precisely where to look. The more specific a business owner can get, the better quality the content the find will be. Moreover, if they turn to unique sources, they can also ensure they are publishing content that few others are.

Using search engines or social media is a decent way to start, but these aren’t necessarily the best sources. Everyone uses these sources to find information, and if entrepreneurs are hoping to find engaging content this may not be the best route to take. Instead, small business owners should aim to find news and content not covered anywhere else.

“Suffice it to say that there are tons of interesting tools [for sourcing news] popping up all the time that give you an entirely different view of a trend with sources of content you’ve never heard of before,” Social Media Today explains. “That’s when you know you’ve struck gold. You’re looking for sites and stories that the mainstream misses because they only use the most obvious sources.”

Where to start

Finding these unique sources can be difficult and the thought leaders that produce truly engaging content will strive to keep them secret. One strategy that Social Media Today recommends is trying to follow the links posted by these individuals until entrepreneurs can get to the root of their source.

Frequently, the popular publications are simply breaking the news another company produced – it often isn’t original to them. By following the trail to the original source, entrepreneurs can bypass the middle man and get a jump on other industry thought leaders.

If small businesses want to be the source everyone else is retweeting or “Liking,” they need to be the first person to publish content. Otherwise, they’ll simply be sharing the same content everyone else has already read.

Publishing unique content can be a tremendously effective way of generating a following on social networks. If small businesses are having trouble sourcing engaging and content, they may want to consider creating their own. Depending on the company, entrepreneurs should look to launch whitepapers, surveys, reports or other content if possible.

How does your company use content to engage social media followers? Have you noticed any benefits after launching a social sharing campaign?

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