content

By Jessica Davis

In 2013, more than two billion people used social media networks- from social media evangelists, companies, governments, non-governmental organizations, professionals, normal people and even terrorists. By 2017, the number of users is expected to rise to 2.5 billion. Even then, it is found that a small company is unlikely to use social media for marketing and public relations and those that have made the plunge are not so enthusiastic about it. In the middle of 2013, not even one in four small companies had a social media strategy. Why is this happening? The simplest answer is, they do not have the time or the money to invest in social media.

It is a given that you have to offer value to your customers on a regular basis. One aspect of this can be finding good content your customers can read and learn from. Content that is of high quality and provides a lot of interesting information can be used to build deeper connections with consumers. The good thing is, there is a lot of good content on the internet, just waiting to be found. The bad part is, you will have to sift through piles of junk to find it.

Why content discovery tools?

It is not easy to deliver epic (not good) content regularly. We say it is difficult because not only the content has to be relevant, well written and engaging, it also needs a lot of research to find and write. One social media professional says that he used to spend hours going through his bookmarks until he found content that he wanted to write on. It is hard work, but worth the effort. But you do not have to work so hard anymore. Now content discovery tools do all the work.

Whether you want content for yourself (to update your knowledge and remain informed) or you are looking for topics to write on, or are searching for content to share on your social media page, these tools can help you. Here are some of the best content discovery tools on the internet. You have to pay to use some of them, others are free and one of them is in beta stage.

Buffer

An effective social media strategy should use two or more social media tools to communicate with customers. But juggling two or more social media accounts takes a lot of time. With Buffer, you can post content to multiple social media sites at once. You can schedule those posts to go out at certain times. If you are too busy, you can automate Buffer to publish posts for you.

DrumUp

DrumUp is a great tool that can help reduce the amount of time that is spent on social media management. It discovers relevant content based on a set of keywords that users provide when setting up their account. It schedules the content for posting on both Facebook and Twitter pages. It also lets the user review and edit the content before it is posted. DrumUp is currently available free of charge.

HootSuite

HootSuite, a popular tool for marketing professionals, can be used for scheduling posts on various social media accounts from a single platform. Registering is easy, and the tool can be used for free if the number of social media profiles you add is less than five.

Sprout Social

Sprout Social lets you post on four of the most popular social media networks – Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+. The tool also lets you measure and analyze the effectiveness of your social media campaign. You can begin using the tool through the 30 day free trial after which you can choose from the three paid plans on offer. In case the tool doesn’t work too well for your business, you can cancel your subscription at the end of the 30-day trial.

SocialBro

SocialBro is a comprehensive Twitter management tool for businesses that want to establish a presence on the micro blogging site. It basically analyzes your twitter following and presents data through it’s user-friendly interface. The free version of the tool is called SocialBro Desktop and is available as an app on Chrome. The mobile version of the app requires a paid subscription.

If there is one thing that all social media managers agree on it is this – you have to share epic content to effectively market your goods or services on social media. But content discovery is time consuming. You have to scrape the internet, keep jumping from blogs to white papers and finally organize the material, so that you can make some sense of it. But those days are over now. Content discovery tools can do the hard work, freeing up your time for other important activities.

Jessica Davis is a Content Strategy expert at Godot Media, a leading content services company. She works with other writers to create engaging and effective web content for businesses and individuals. She is also interested in technology, social media and fashion. @godotmedia