One of the best ways to offer value to your clients, followers and readers is to curate content by sharing relevant articles from a number of sources.

This is for the reason that modern marketing involves helping your client make informed decisions instead of blindly promoting what you offer.

So, finding content that your clients will benefit from, is the best way to not only be recognized as an expert in your field but also offer answers and solutions that will get them to buy your product or service.

That said, here are 3 ways to speed up your content curation process:

#1: Using the Feedly to search articles

Feedly is one of the best tools to find articles that belong to your niche. The best part about Feedly is the fact that it can be used for the aforementioned task but also organize them into categories. All you need to do is set up an account using your Gmail address. Based on your search, the site will return a number of blogs or websites that will give you the articles you’re looking for.

#2: Use the IFTTT method to collect articles

If you want to save a number of hours, then the If This Then That (IFTTT) tool will help you do so. Since this process helps you automate a number of tasks, all you have to do is create a recipe after opening an IFTTT account. All the articles that you want will be populated in a Google spreadsheet.

#3: Choose and curate content

Once you find the articles from the spreadsheet, you can go through them after which you can decide which ones are suitable for sharing. What you can do is write a status update as to when you will post these articles on Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn. As for Facebook, you can use the Scheduling tool so as to post them regularly.

2013 was no stranger to changes. Not only was visual marketing a big part of the change that took place in social media but also monetization.

Now we are in 2014, and there are another sweeping set of changes that are bound to occur.

Here are 3 social media predictions for 2014:

#1: Pay to play

Facebook has recently changed its News Feed strategy in order to switch from organic reach to paid search. Google+, in turn, has introduced ads while Twitter is now a public company that will have to find a way to drive revenues. So, it’s clear that a number of companies will feel the pressure to pay in order to get more visibility for their content.

#2: Strategic Refocus caused by Facebook

With the way Facebook has changed the algorithm to suit paid search, small businesses as well as not-for-profit will have to incorporate other ways so as to market their content. This include opening a blog, using email marketing while creating content that is useful.

#3: Developing A/B Testing Tools by Social Networks

The launch of A/B testing tools for social networks which will be not only for big brands but also small ones will ensure the distribution of quality content across these social networks. for the ones that do manage to successfully manage these tools, an increase in a number of statistics such as impressions, website visits and engagement will leads to more conversions and sales.

If you aren’t able to create a social media strategy for your business, thanks to the lack of data or for any other reason, all you have to do is spy on your competitors.

In all probability, they have already done most of the hard work, and all you need to do is do some research on their social media plan in order to come up with yours.

So, here are 3 ways by which you create a social media strategy of your own:

#1: Compare audience size

First, find out which social networks your competitors are on and one can easily do this by checking the links to social media profiles at their website.

#2: Measure engagement

Of course, it’s not about the number of fans or followers your competitors have but how they engage with these people. There are a number of reports that help you to do so namely such as Simply Measured, Facebook Competitive Analysis Report, Twitter Customer Service Analysis Report, Google+ Page Report and Instagram User Report.

You can get an in-depth analysis of the engagement they enjoy in the form of graphs and numbers and so on and so forth.

#3: Check profile setups

The final step to analyzing the competition is by looking at how they’ve set their profile up while also looking at how they make up of components such as cover photos, descriptions, Links as well as the posts they make and the responses they get.

Social media has changed everything – for the better, presumably. Marketing, in particular, costs a fraction of what one would require to launch a product or service. It’s probably also the reason why a number of small businesses have come up as well.

Think about it: there’s no reason why this shouldn’t apply to you as well. So, here are 4 ways to use social media for a product launch:

#1: A Teaser Campaign on Facebook

Every product launch begins with a thought. However, with marketing an integral part to its success, it’s always a good idea to brainstorm constantly as to how you can use social media to tease people into knowing as to what you intend to launch. One way to do this is to add Facebook posts with or without images long before you intend to launch the product itself.

#2: Create a Personal Video

Creating a personal video which you can share with both an offline and online audience is an excellent way to launch your product. Your best approach would be to talk about the need while only hinting slightly about the solution that you intend to launch in some time.

#3: Make Your Launch Educational

If you already use various social media platforms, one way to get more attention is to make your launch educational. For example, teach the audience on how to launch by using your launch as the example itself. Make sure you under-emphasize your launch and prepare tips and techniques that are valuable.

Measuring social media effectiveness is probably the most difficult thing to do. Yet measuring it is not only possible but important to understanding the success of your overall marketing strategy.

So, here are 3 ways by which you can measure the success of using social media in your marketing plan:

#1: Brand Exposure

If you use social media marketing, then measuring ‘brand exposure’ is paramount to knowing how recognized your brand has become. Of course, this isn’t going to happen overnight. But once you commit to a well-thought out social strategy, you can do this is by keeping track of site, page and video views, the number of fans, followers, blog and email subscribers as well as looking for data for branded keywords.

#2: Influence

By definition, influence measures how much of what you do causes others to take action. For example, when thoughts leaders or influencers express themselves, the chances of engagement as well as the all-important lead conversion takes place. Some of the ways by which you can measure influence are: the extent up to which your content is endorsed or shared, the number of likes, comments and shares of your Facebook posts, the amount of inbound and quality links to your content and finally, the number of Retweets, Google +1s and Twitter comments,

#3: Engagement

Simply put, engagement refers to the amount of interaction that takes place with your content by means of the various mediums of social media. When you have high levels of interaction, this is proof that people are interested in what your business has to offer. Some of the ways to do this is by the number of new Facebook likes for your posts or pages as well as the frequency of shares as well. Comments, ratings, retweets and mentions of any type should also be taken into consideration.

With 161 million members, there’s no doubt that there no dearth of untapped potential on LinkedIn especially if you are selling to businesses.

If you are looking for leads, then there’s no better place to begin than on LinkedIn since even most executives in the Fortune 500 are present on LinkedIn.

So here are 3 ways by which you can use LinkedIn to find prospects:

#1: Develop both connection and get in touch second-degree connections

Your first-degree connections are people who you are directly connected to on LinkedIn while your second-degree connections are those people that the latter are connected. So, a thumb of rule for anyone who wants to exploit these types of connections, the warmer your relationship is with your first-degree connections, the easier it will be to get in touch with second degree connections.

#2: Watch the Newsfeed

When you click “Home” on LinkedIn, you’ll find updates from your connections, and almost always there is someone who they are connected to that you will like to be introduced to. Often, this part of LinkedIn is ignored for others but the truth is that you can not only make new connections this way (that leads to getting business) but you can also use it for competitive advantage since viewing their updates regularly will keep you in touch – and you can use InMail to get in touch with the prospect.

#3: Search for new business on LinkedIn Groups and Answers

One of the best places to start looking for prospects is LinkedIn Groups and Answers where you can answer questions (by offering your expertise) for those who are potential prospects and then start building relationships with them. Just remember to be helpful (no pitching immediately please!) at the beginning.

With the number of social media networks that are popping up every other week, it becomes difficult for small business owners to know which social media site is the best for them as people keep moving from one site to the other.

Rather than moving along with them, it’s best to begin with the notion that not every site will suit you. So, the best thing for you to do is to find out what these social media sites are used for and whether it will work for your business.

So here is a list of social media networks that you read up on to decide from:

#1: Facebook

The biggest advantage of using Facebook is that the conversation is all in one place, and customers get the chance to feel that way. This social media site is very visual, unlike Twitter, so making use of that would work well.

#2: Twitter

In short, Twitter is about projecting what you company is doing to a large audience, much like being given a megaphone. You can not only communicate with customers but also create a brand with consistent updates.

#3: Pinterest

This social network is not ideal for self-promotion but might be useful to small businesses for the ability to create pinboards that might win the plaudits of customers if you are able to able to build visuals for the purposes of branding.

#4: FourSquare

Location-based social media services might not work for every small business as it requires people to physically visit your store or an event. This social media network is actually good for restaurants, retail stores and venues. Of course, as for online businesses, this site will be useful only if you are hosting an event.