One of the most challenging things about managing a Facebook Page is consistently posting content that engages your Fans. You may have started your Page with what you believed was a long list of great ideas for page posts, only to find that you’ve run out of things to say after the first few months.
This is where an effective content curation system comes in to play. “Content Curation” in this article refers to the process of finding, sorting through, and sharing other people’s content that your Fans will find helpful or interesting.
So in addition to creating your own content, you’ll want to share other people’s content on your Facebook Page. A good guideline is the 80/20 rule: 80% of the content on your Page should be non-promotional, helpful, useful and/or other people’s content, and only 20% of the content should be promotional.
But finding good content from external sources can be a very time-consuming process, and unless you outsource your Page management, or have the staff dedicated to content curation, you can find yourself back where you started.
So here are five ways to use Facebook’s built-in features to find content for your Page and save time in the process.
An important note: before you start curating content, you’ll want to have a basic list of topics in mind that will guide your selection. Choose a minimum of 3-4 topics to regularly share on your Page to make it easier to search for and post content.
1. Use Facebook’s Graph Search
Graph Search will help you find other Pages with content your Fans like, which you can then share on your Page. You can also get ideas from other Pages for your own content strategy.
Simply type phrases or keywords into the Facebook Search Bar:
Search for Groups your Fans belong to
Type “Groups joined by Fans of [your Facebook Page name]” or “Groups joined by Fans of [a competitor/industry influencer’s Page name]”
See the example below, where I’ve found some Groups that our LCS Fans belong to.
Consider joining a few groups where you can make a worthwhile contribution or find content for your Page.
Search for Pages your Fans like
Type : “Pages liked by Fans of [your Facebook Page]” or “Pages liked by Fans of [a competitor/industry influencer’s Page name]” in the Facebook Search Bar to find other Pages your Fans visit.
See the example below, where I’ve found some Pages that our LCS Fans visit:
Get content ideas by noticing what posts get high engagement rates on these other Pages. You can either Like the Page(s) or add them to an Interest List (see below) so you can keep up with their posts.
The new Pages to Watch feature will let you choose up to 5 other Pages to keep an eye on right in your Page’s admin panel. Note that the other Page will be notified that someone has added them to a Pages to Watch list, but Facebook doesn’t tell who added them.
Use Page Notifications
Once you’ve Liked a Page, you can click on the Get Notifications option (as a drop-down when you hover on a Page’s Like button), and you’ll be notified every time the Page posts a new update. See image below:
Click on Get Notifications to keep up with favorite Pages. Add a Page to an Interest List with (or without) Liking it.
You may find this a very useful way to monitor your favorite Pages including industry influencers, topic-based pages, news and current events, local pages and organizations, etc.
2. Organize Pages/People with Facebook’s Interest Lists
Create a few Interest Lists to organize the Pages you Like (note that you do not have to Like a Page to add it to an Interest List).
If you’ve never created an Interest List, just go to https://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/interests to get started. Or read more in this blog post.
Then just follow these steps to create your List:
- Add an Interest List and give it a name that makes sense to you (you can keep your List private or make it public and other users can subscribe to it).
- Add Pages that you’ve Liked to the Interest List or go to a Page and hover on the Like button. You can Add it to an Interest List without actually liking it.
- Once you’ve created the List, it will appear on your left navigation menu (you may want to add it to your Favorites section).
- Check your Interest List on a regular basis, to see all posts from Pages on the List (there is no algorithm here; you see every post made by Pages on the List).
Now you can easily share content your Fans would find helpful or interesting – and with Facebook’s tagging feature, you can type @PageName to “tag” the Page. This tagging strategy may get more eyes on your Page, especially when tagging industry influencers or local pages, since their Fans may take note of your Page.
3. Ask and Include your Fans
One easy way to find out what Fans want to see on your Page is to ask them. Make it a routine part of your content calendar to ask your fans: “What would you like to see more of on this Page?” or give them a few choices (topics) to select as their favorite.
You can open your Page’s Timeline to Fan content – ask them to submit a photo, motivational quote, etc. related to one of your topics.
Integrate your Facebook Page with Instagram – set up an Instagram account and start taking photos of your clients, or ask Fans to submit their photos (with a unique hashtag) and share the best ones on your Facebook Page.
You can turn these crowd-sourcing ideas into contests, or set them up as a regular “theme” day on your Page so Fans know when they can share their content with you.
4. Search for Topics Using Facebook Hashtags
Use Facebook’s Search Bar, type in the hashtag, and you’ll get a new feed of posts containing that hashtag. In my example below, I’m searching for #TwitterTips. Once the hashtag appears in the drop-down box, I can click on it to view the new feed.
Each hashtag has a unique url in Facebook, so you can also type the following URL into your browser, replacing TwitterTips with the hashtag you are searching for:
https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/TwitterTips
Hashtag searches may give you some good content to share, as well as several Pages to add to your Interest Lists, or Pages to Watch list. You may also get a few ideas on how to better optimize hashtags on your own posts.
5. Check Facebook’s Trending Topics
Use this relatively new feature to keep up with current events, and find posts that may be of interest to your Fans.
A word of caution: with Facebook’s latest Newsfeed update and the crackdown on “frequently circulated content”, you want to be careful of how many times a popular photo/post/video has been shared. You don’t want to be penalized for sharing too much viral content.
So use these five features within Facebook to set up a content curation system that will ensure you always have good content to share with your Fans.
[Update] – Now that Facebook has a “Save” feature (learn more here), you can use it to save content you find on your Timeline for later sharing on your Page.
Ready to Pin:
Top photo credit: andyarthur via photopin cc
About Terry League