4 Simple Ways Content Curators can Use Facebook to Build an Audience
As a content curator, you want to make sure that you are reaching as many people in your target audience as possible, and there’s a good chance that many of them are spending a significant amount of time on Facebook. There are currently over 800 Million Facebook members and that is expected to surpass 1 Billion in August. Facebook is also very sticky: Visitors spend three times the amount of time on Facebook as they do on Google and that number is rising.
As an effective tool to attract and build an audience for your site, Facebook is number one. Here are four easy ways that content curators can use Facebook to attract an audience:
1. Create a Facebook Page. This is the first, and most important step. Your Facebook name should be distinct from your personal profile (although your personal profile will be linked to your Facebook page as the administrator). Facebook offers some helpful information on setting up your page. Another very useful resource to consult is Mashable’s Facebook Guide Book. Keep in mind that you can switch between using Facebook with your personal ID and your page’s ID, so whenever you're logged in, make sure you check which user icon is displayed in the top right corner of the header before posting.
2. Build a Community. Your Facebook page should not just be about your curation site, rather it should be a hub for you to connect and interact with your target audience. Content curators have an interest and expertise in a particular subject matter for which they curate the best content. This common interest with their end-readers, can serve as the focal point of building a community on Facebook. Make sure to ask questions, answer questions and interact with your audience. By building your credibility as an authority, you’ll draw in more visitors to your curation site. For example, if your website curates the latest news on strikes and protests around the world and how they might affect travel, build a community around frequent international travelers. To attract participants to this community don’t just focus on your content, but use your Facebook page as a way to open a dialogue on a variety of subjects that might interest your target audience. In regard to the example above, you could run a quiz about people’s favorite premium economy airline, or provide 5 quick tips on purifying water in a bind. The more people interact with your brand on Facebook (like, comment, share, etc.), the more their friends and subscribers will see it, and the more likely you are to get some of those people to become readers of your curation site.
3. Cross-promote your site. The next important step is promoting your site. Once you have a community around Facebook, you’ll need to make sure you continue to drive additional people to all the great content you are curating on your Facebook page. How you do this will largely depend on your site and subject matter. As a starting point, you should add commentary and link to pages on your website that are relevant to a particular Facebook discussion. So, in the travel example we gave, if there is a Facebook discussion about safety in Mexico, make sure to comment with a link to the page on your website about Mexico, where visitors can find latest information on strikes and protest in Mexico (as well as other news) that will help them determine whether the country is safe enough to visit at this time. Don’t overdo it, though, just be helpful and make it easy for your Facebook fans to find interesting information on your curation site.
4. Advertise. This is often overlooked because most people think that advertising is expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. Advertising on Facebook can be a very cheap way to get your brand in front of the right people who will serve as hubs to your social sharing. The key to this is the amazingly granular targeting that Facebook offers. Let’s say, for example, that you have created a site with news on Indo-Asian Commodities. Via Facebook, you can find the users who are particularly active in trading these commodities and advertise solely to them. Offer them a strong incentive to come to your site. Your goal is to get these active users to share your site with others, and, since they are hubs of knowledge in the community, to attract even more traffic to your site.
A Facebook page is a remarkable opportunity for content curators to reach a sizable, yet precisely targeted, audience, and the four steps above should have you on your way to attracting new visitors to your site.
