Curation Best Practices

Copyright is not usually a problem when it comes to social media. Technically, your profiles don’t belong to your business. They are the property of the social media platforms themselves.

Nonetheless, there are a few reasons why it is worth respecting the best practice when posting content that does not belong to you.

These best practices mainly revolve around the concept of growing and maintaining the reputation of respectful users of the platforms. On top of this, you need to use curation as an opportunity to connect with the creator of the content – by mentioning them or tagging their account in your post.

Show that you credit good content when you find and share it, and think about ways to start a discussion around curated content that brings in its creator from the start. Social media is a community, and you need to use its nature to your advantage, by fostering a sense of reciprocal generosity in your curated output.

Scheduling

Whether original or curated, it’s usually most efficient to schedule your content, even during office hours, to ensure that posts go out exactly when planned whether or not your social media manager is available.

Additionally, out of hours and weekends can be some of the most engaged times for social media. Weekday prime-time evening hours are the most active hours of the week. In recent years, it has spread the so-called ‘second screen’ practice, whereby people watch television whilst browsing (often related) content on their mobile device.

Think about which type of posts best go with this behaviour. While it might not be the best time to post a link to your in-depth 3,000-word article, it might instead be a great time to post an image that relates to the TV show a large proportion of your audience is watching that particular evening.

If you’d like to read more, visit the Harvard Business Review’s article on what is the best time to post on social media via the link at the bottom of this step.

Take into consideration other factors which determine who you are reaching, when and how. For example:

• When will your followers living in other parts of the world be most active?
• What kind of content will your audience want to consume on their commute vs their Sunday afternoon downtime? Schedule your social media activity accordingly. You can use a variety of tools to support you. These include:

Buffer

When scheduling your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest activities, you can manage a large number of accounts through Buffer. This tool focuses on simplicity and ease of use. Installing the browser extension, you can share content found in the web through your social accounts in a matter of seconds, as well as being able to craft your own original posts using the tool’s dashboard.

The basic premise is that whilst you can schedule for specific times, you can keep adding content to your queue, and it will go out at regular preset intervals. Such tools are great for content-heavy brands which can fill up the content queue in the morning, to then see their posts going out throughout the day. If you’d like to learn more about Buffer, follow the link to an introductory video at the bottom of this step.

Hootsuite

Offering more complex functionality than Buffer, Hootsuite acts more like a social content calendar dashboard. It connects to a higher number of social media platforms and has a wealth of features for enterprises. The platform allows team collaboration and provides analytics. It can also facilitate paid promotion of your content thanks to its boost tool. If you’d like to learn more about Hootsuite, then watch their “How to Use” video at the bottom of this step.

Tweetdeck

Whilst the paid tools mentioned above provide a wide array of features, you can still schedule posts for free. When it comes to Twitter, you can easily do this with the support of Tweetdeck. Owned by Twitter itself, Tweetdeck is both a website and an app. Alongside scheduling, it allows management of multiple accounts as well as live dynamic columns displaying any search, trend or account. If you’d like to learn more about how to use Tweetdeck, follow the link at the bottom of this step.