The content you create on your social media platforms is what sets you apart from your competitors. And it’s what consumers use to determine if your brand is right for them.
So, what if you could combine all your and your customer’s content in one place? And use it on your website where you can reach even more people?
Well, you can! And in this article, we’ll discuss the first steps you’ll need to take to maximize your content’s usage and reach - for free.
What is a social media source?
A social media source is a social media or content platform that you’ll pull content from. The type of content you can use varies depending on the platform. For example, from Facebook, you can source content from a Facebook page. And you can also use content that visitors post only.
How do you add a new social media source to curate?
Adding a source is the most important task you can do in Curator because sources help to power the solution.
In the video, we dive into how you can add a new social media source to curate. If interested, click on the above link to learn more about how to do this yourself.
Step 1: Create a feed
Before you can add a new source, create a feed. And feeds are essentially a collection of sources based on your goal, platform, campaign, etc. Also, ensure that when you’re choosing your feed’s name that it’s something easy to understand.
Also, you’ll need to decide on how content will be approved. Here are your options:
- Approved: All posts that you source will be automatically added to your feed and website. And if needed, you can also log into Curator and delete any posts that you don’t want to show.
- Needs approval: You’ll need to manually log in and approve posts for them to be added to your website.
It’s more comfortable for some brands and more time-efficient to add content first and delete later. And for others, they prefer to maintain control over what’s added to their website. You’ll find that each option is subjective to your brand and the type of content you want to share.
Step 2: Select a network
The first step you’ll need to take when adding a new social media source is to determine your goal. And what network will help you reach that goal.
For example, if you’re looking to gather unsolicited reviews, you’ll consider using hashtags from platforms like Instagram. Once you’ve established this and have chosen a network, now you need to choose a source type.
As mentioned previously, source types are dependant on the network.
For example, Instagram has four source types:
- Instagram business account
- Instagram business hashtag
- Instagram business mention
- Instagram private account
After you’ve decided what source you’ll utilize, then you need to connect your account. For this example, we’ll look at how to add a source from an Instagram business hashtag. Get a more in-depth look at how to embed your Instagram feed on your website here.
Step 3: Enter source details
When you’ve finished connecting and verifying your Instagram account, you can choose the hashtag you want to use.
Quick note
Before you can add hashtags curated from Instagram, you must have an Instagram business account. And that business account must be connected to a Facebook page. You’ll then have to verify via a Facebook connection per the platform’s guidelines.
Step 4: Select feed(s)
You can choose to add your source to more than one feed if necessary. How many feeds you want to add your source to is dependent on the purpose of each source. And how broad or narrow your feed is.
Let’s say you create a feed for “testimonials” and one for “testimonials from Instagram.” If you’re sourcing testimonials from Instagram, it’ll fit into both of these feeds.
It’s up to you to determine what you want out of each feed, just make sure that it’s clear to understand.
Step 5: Adding posts
After you’ve decided on a feed, then Curator will start pulling posts from the last 24 hours. While the solution can’t historically go back past 24 hours, often, that’s all you need. Also, the maximum number of posts that it can pull at once is 25.
What are the most popular social media sources to curate?
With Curator, you can source content from multiple platforms. And some of the most popular ones are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
The main reason for this is that there are over 3.8 billion active social media users in combination. This makes it easy to curate social media sources, specifically user-generated, with this number of active users.
Why do brands repurpose their social media sources?
Social media sources allow brands to utilize and benefit from content that they’ve previously published elsewhere. Because why not showcase some of the highlights of your brand everywhere you can, instead of one place?
Here are other benefits that brands receive from repurposing their sources:
- Increases brand awareness
- Boost rankings on Google
- Saves time when creating new content
- Increases durations that visitors are on your website
- Increases your content reach
And these aren’t even all the benefits that you can receive. By repurposing your social media sources, you can scale your brand’s success and save time.
Examples of adding social media to a website
You know what you want to add. Now you know how to source content. But what does this actually look like?
Glad you asked, here are some examples of what it looks like to add social media to a website.
Cruise Whitsundays is a marine tourism company that uses user-generated Instagram content to show visitors potential adventures they can experience themselves.
X-yachts is a yacht company that manufactures yachts for cruising and racing. And they source their content from multiple platforms to help visitors see the potential of each of their models.
In another example, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tires showcase their tires’ performance in different settings.
Need more inspiration? We have it!
Sourcing your social media content has proven to generate results ranging from increased brand awareness to boosted rankings in Google. And with the right tool, you can achieve those results, effortlessly.