How do you find posts and topics for your online community? Curating posts to share with your online community keeps people interested in your community and the surrounding subjects.
What do I share today?
If you haven’t scheduled something, you need to decide what to post. What will you post today? How will you share information?
It’s great to write your own posts and publish articles. But the community can’t be all about your brand. It’s like being that guy at the party who won’t shut up about himself. “Enough about me. What do you think of me?”
Think about your members. What are their interests? Are there tangent topics that can provide value to your online community?
First: Decide What Your Tangents Are
The first thing you need to do, in order to broaden your postings, is to come up with two or three tangents. What else is your online community interested in?
If your community is around your brand, curate articles in similar veins. For example, if your community revolves around learning CSS, then tangential topics would be productivity and personal growth. If you are building a community around a church, curate music videos and devotionals to post. You get the idea, right?
Second: Curate The Best Sources
This is why I love Twitter so much. I use lists as my curation tool. When I’m looking for something to post on a client’s Facebook page, then I go to the list for that tangent.
You can also subscribe to blogs or newspapers you like and post there. Another trick is to use Pocket or Medium as curation tools based upon topics. Look for the sources that are hidden gems. Everyone shares from Entrepreneur Magazine. It’s not bad, it’s just overused.
Third: Read The Articles You Post
It’s a big mistake to automate an RSS feed. Firstly, it’s lazy. Secondly, you won’t post the part of the article that shares why you think your community would gain value. Thirdly, it could contradict your online community values.
Your online community is an extension of your brand. It’s up to you and your community managers to protect it. Blindly posting articles is a great way to cause people to lose interest. It’s worse than not curating at all. Do it with care.
Post Insightful Content
Thoughtful and intentional curation makes a difference. You want your online community to provide value. This facilitates a way for people to engage with each other and your organization. Curation takes time but makes for a more relevant online community. What will you curate and post today?
