I apologize but this post is no longer relevant and/or out of date. Flipboard has acquired Zite. It is kept online for archival reasons and may or may not be updated one day. I invite you to our Home Page for the most recent and best articles we offer. Thank you, Brian
I’m going to show you how to stay engaged with your social media followers, build your influence as an expert and stay on top of your niche – all by sharing quality content with a free little phone app called Zite. I’m going to offer a couple of tips on content sharing and expand on a post last week that helped with a little social share automation.
Anyone else love Pandora Radio? Pandora is amazing. Why is it so amazing? I’d have to say the number one reason I love Pandora is that it’s smart. Seriously, the thing actually learns. Based on MY input, Pandora learns what I like and knows what my tastes in music are. So over the three years of listening to Pandora, I now have the perfect radio stations, no matter what my mood. For a guy that actually had an 8-track in his first car, I am truly amazed.
Is This Post About Music And Pandora?
Of course not, this blog is about blogging and social media. 🙂 But you can see the power in serving the perfect content based on your personal feedback, right? So what about other forms of media; such as news and information? That’s exactly what I’m using to keep up with my interests, in the form of a smart phone app. I’m using this cool tool to stay informed, increase my reach, and solidify my influence as an expert in my niche. That’s a lot from one free phone app, isn’t it? Read on…
So, What Is Zite?
The app is called Zite. Zite is just the perfect news aggregator/magazine that, by taking a page from the Pandora book, learning what you want to see and delivering the perfect content to your smartphone. You tell Zite if the content meets your approval and it uses that feedback to “learn” exactly what type of news content you want to see. The longer you use it, the smarter it gets. Spooky, right? Zite works on both iOS and Android.
What Was That About Influence And Reach?
Fine, Zite gives you news you love, but where’s that influence you were talking about? I’m glad you asked. 🙂 First, where do you find the content you share on Twitter, Facebook or Google Plus? You are sharing important news within your niche, right? I certainly hope so, that’s social media 101. So most people reshare/repost content from those they follow or from other blogs and news they find on the net. That’s perfect, because that helps others see that you know your stuff and you are a student within your own expertise; if that makes sense.
The problem is sorting through the endless data we are bombarded with each and every day.
I know you’ve run across those impressive people you follow within your field and were impressed with something they shared that turned out to be pure gold when you checked it out. I know you have; because if you haven’t, you might need to follow smarter people. You thought, “How in the World did he/she run across this”? Well, there’s a good chance that they we’re using something along the line of Zite.
How Does Zite Work?
So you choose your categories (Your interests) when setting up your Zite account. You can also use the search feature to narrow your interests. For example, I searched for and added “blogging” and “WordPress”. When you find something you want news on, click the “heart” and add it to your Quicklist. As Zite serves your news, you click the thumbs-up or thumbs-down button to build the perfect news source for your niche.
Sharing That Quality Content
Now that you’re staying on top of your niche, share it with your followers. Take the best stories and share it on Facebook, Twitter of Google Plus right from your phone. This is especially handy for those that travel a lot with a little downtime throughout the day.
A Little Social Share Automation
If you missed my Friends+Me post last week, I show you how to post to Google Plus and semi-automate that content to your other networks. So, for example, I share a great news story I found on Zite on Google Plus. That story is then sent, by my default setting, to my Facebook Page, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I can also send it to my personal Facebook account and/or Tumblr if I choose.
Action Steps
So, to get the most from this post (yeah, I rhymed), go read my Friends+Me post if you haven’t already, and decide if Friends+Me automation is right for you. Then install Zite on your smartphone. Set it up and teach that app what you need. Share only the best content with your followers. Don’t forget to check in with your social media account and actually interact there. Sharing is just a small part of our social media strategy; it’s mostly about interaction. Just a quick note should you decide to use Friends+Me; don’t allow your social media accounts to become a clone of your G+ page. We still need to share unique content exclusively on each network – in my opinion.
With great power, comes great responsibility
Remember, the idea here is to establish yourself as a well informed superhero in your niche and become the most influential resource for everyone smart enough to follow you. It’s important to share only the best and don’t overwhelm your followers by overdoing it. By the way, you can start sharing the best content with THIS post. 🙂 You’ll find social share buttons above and below.
Over To You
Anything here resonate with you? I hope so. Let me know in the comments below. What are you using to keep up with your niche? Do you share great content with your social media contacts? On your blog?
About Brian D. Hawkins
Believe it or not. I found stumbleupon to be really helpful when finding relative content to share and/or comment on by using their category filter. But of course as you mentioned before a lot of it’s old content. By the way I see your using tags on your WordPress…I had no idea those were even used anymore. – Scott Craighead
Hi Scott, I have a love/hate thing with stumbleupon. It can be a great place to network with other bloggers that will share each other’s content but it can take a lot of work getting that group together. I really do find their “discovery engine” so outdated I’m just amazed they’re not working on it night and day to bring up-to-date content for members. I am glad it’s working for you though. 🙂
I do use tags but it really has nothing to do with SEO, Google ignores tags. I use a very limited number of categories and the tags help readers find related articles.
I’ll have to check Zite out Brian – Mobile is definitely the way to go – and if it makes it easier for people to share – I’m all for it! 🙂 Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for stopping by knikkolette 🙂
Hi Brian
I have been using Zite for over a year now and it is my preferred content discovery method (aside from RSS and Twitter, which are both in different leagues). I gave up on StumbleUpon way before that – as you mentioned the discovery engine is terrible, and no amount of work on their website and mobile app is going to change that.
I must admit I made the mistake of selecting too many topics on Zite in the beginning, which affects the experience terribly, as could be imagined.
I did the same thing Chris but I do love the way you can really narrow the focus too. It takes a little tweaking but I’m even a bigger fan now than I was when I wrote this piece. 🙂
Great information as always. I am going to try both of these. Thanks. Xx
Thank you Carmen, it’s great to see you here. 🙂
Great tips, looking forward to checking this app out =)
Thanks Heather, you’re awesome. 🙂
Thanks for the tip, Brian!
I usually use Flipboard to share things with my niche, but Flipboard doesn’t have a “learning” feature as far as I’m aware. If Zite could help me find something faster, that would be a great time-saver! Time is money after all.
Especially with all of Google’s new updates, the more you share the better. It’ll keep your blog relevant in the search results and defend you from any negative things circulating about you and your business. Just food for thought. (That’s what I do after all – defend people’s online reputations!)
Thanks again for the tip!
I tried Flipboard for a while James. I know it’s a very popular app but I just was’t using it much. At some point I ended up uninstalling it.
The thumbs-up thumbs-down function to teach Zite what you like and don’t like means a little effort of your part, but it guarantees that it truly understands your preferences. Well worth it!
Yep, just link Pandora Sharon, I love the learning aspect.
Nice review Brian! My problem with apps is that I already have ~50 (maybe 60) and only really use maybe 10. I’m interested in how well Zite’s learning algorithm operates so I’ll have to make a commitment to this haha.
Since others are sharing how they find cool content to share, here’s my method: Google Trends and Google News for timely content, Medium and Reddit for awesome/interesting/ “seductive” content.
Only 50 Jesse? I have almost that many in just photo apps. lol Seriously though, there’s far more apps than anyone could ever use and it’s best to stick with only the ones that will help us daily. I uninstall some of the apps I try as fast as I installed them.
haha holyyyy….
I’ve decided to boycott all game apps…they’re too addictive.
I really just use Alien Blue (the reddit 3rd party app) and the rest of the default apps. Oh, and the flashlight app haha, that thing is super powerful.
I just downloaded Zite and it looks like it’s going to prove a very usefull tool. I just found about content curation recently and am looking forward to using it to enable a win-win for both myself and the plethora of great content providers on the net.
I also took the advice of Chris Meier and avoided going over board.
Great article