In 2013, almost 2 billion people worldwide were using social media networks. That number is expected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2017. Even so, most small businesses still haven’t jumped in, and those which have are doing so less than enthusiastically: through the middle of 2013, less than one in four small businesses had developed a comprehensive social media strategy.
So, why haven’t more companies fully engaged this tsunami of online activity?
The simple answer: They don’t have the time or the money.
When Ragan/NASDAQ polled 2,700 social media managers, 65 percent reported that social media is just one of the things on their to-do lists, 78 percent said their companies had no plans for new hires, and 50 percent complained they’re “barely keeping their heads above water.”
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Content Discovery Tools
Winning at social media marketing is all about sharing great content.
Unfortunately, content discovery is the most time-consuming of social media responsibilities. You scour the internet, jump from this blog to that white paper, then try to organize all that material into some semblance of order.
The good news is that you don’t have to.
If you use great content discovery tools you can make the content you post stronger without investing as much time in the search. Here are six content discovery tools which can help you discover and share the best content.
1. Klout
The quality of the content you post depends in part on how much influence and reach the creator of it has online. Klout will tell you that. Collecting data from places like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, Klout measures things like how many followers you have and assigns each a “Klout score” ranging from 1 to 100.
The higher the score, the more influential and authoritative the source. Klout is a quick and easy way to determine if the content you discover is from an expert source.
Klout “Create” is a fantastic tool to create and share great content, based on your social networks. It is one of the most efficient social discovery tools, as it allows you to find great content quickly. Since it is based on analysis of your social networks, your followers will usually engage with your shared content.
2. Spundge
Spundge will help you create, curate and deliver great content, but it also goes one step further, letting you collaborate with experts to add authority to your content. You pick relevant topics, keywords and people, and Spundge creates “Notebooks” and “Stories” around them.
Spundge features an efficient content discovery tool in its notebooks and across the web, powered by blogs, news websites and other web resources.
3. Feedly
Relevant content comes from many sources. Feedly, sometimes referred to as a “news aggregator”, will let you gather, organize and personalize relevant content from all over the web in a single location for easy access and sharing. Content discovery tools such as Feedly monitor the web for relevant content, based on websites you like and sorted by date and relevance.
4. Buffer
Juggling multiple social media accounts takes a lot of time. Buffer will let you post to all of your social media sites simultaneously and even schedule when you want them to go out. If you’re really busy, you can even let Buffer time your posts for you.
The Buffer Content “Suggestions” tab suggests shareable content based on Buffer picks, marketing inspiration and more. It is the most intuitive solution among other content discovery tools.
5.Swayy
Swayy is a content sharing platform that reviews and organizes some 50,000 pieces of content daily. You indicate what topics you’re interested in, and Swayy makes recommendations for content that’s relevant for your audience, helps you share that content (either immediately or down the road) and provides robust analytics to tell you what’s working. Swayy is the easiest among all other content discovery tools, as it was designed to do exactly that.
6. Scoop.it
The web is crowded with content, only a small amount of which is relevant to your needs. “Content curation” is the process of navigating all that content, organizing it and publishing it in a way that relates well to your topic.
That’s what Scoop.it does for you. Scoop.it helps you create webpages, called “topics,” which include relevant articles, or “scoops.” You create “scoops” by entering relevant keywords.
Scoop.it also makes it easy to share your topic with widgets, RSS feeds and social media tools. Among content discovery tools, Scoop.it provides the most efficient sharing platform, as it allow you to share content over numerous social networks.
Summary
The days with no content discovery tools, when time and resource constraints forced small business to drag its feet on social media are over. Smart content discovery tools have leveled the playing field so that every business has an equal opportunity to win the social media race.
Ron Sela is an Inbound Marketing Manager at PageWiz. Named one of the Top 50 Influencers in B2B Marketing (#14) by Onalytica and a Top 50 Influence Marketing Blogger by InkyBee, Ron is a digital marketer and conversion optimizer, focusing on maximizing ROI with content marketing campaigns.
