Social media has become cluttered and saturated. Sadly, the great volume of content and the priority of engagement over quality have fostered the perfect rise of misinformation and toxicity. While social media users are armed with tools such as hashtags, clipping short links and other bookmarking tools, they have the power to use intentional content curation and deletion strategies to build feeds that are relevant, useful and represent their values.
The Problems of Information Overload and Poor Curation
Algorithms on social media platforms are built to surface content that will garner the closest attention and interaction and are based on engagement signals like likes, comments and shares. All of this can lead to an echo chamber effect of polarising voices and emotional outrage. It also buries high-quality content that may not be as flashy but is more substantive. Feeds without curation are noisy places of information, full of dubious accuracy and importance that overwhelm users.
The impacts of information overload include:
- Difficulty focusing attention on what matters most.
- Increased stress and anxiety.
- Spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories.
- Filter bubbles and echo chambers that divide groups.
- Social media addiction and wasted time.
Thoughtful content curation and deletion mitigate these downsides by cutting through the noise to deliver more signal. Users can take control of their digital footprint use TweetDelete to delete Twitter tweets easily, helping maintain a cleaner and more meaningful social media presence.
Principles of Effective Content Curation
Content curation involves intentionally selecting and sharing the best, most meaningful content on a given topic. Curators act as filters, identifying great content that may otherwise get lost in the vast sea of social media.
Effective content curation is guided by principles such as:
- Relevance. Content relates clearly to a topic and themes of interest. Irrelevant content is removed.
- Accuracy. Claims are verified and evidence-based. Misinformation is not amplified.
- Quality. Content comes from trusted sources and offers unique value. Curation elevates the best voices.
- Diversity. A variety of perspectives are included to mitigate bias and groupthink.
- Actionability. Content enables readers to learn or act on a topic. It serves a purpose.
Curators add value by sifting through content and selecting pieces that adhere to principles like these. The result is a feed focused on quality over quantity, signal over noise.
Strategies for Curating Social Media Feeds
By curating a social media feed, it is possible to keep principles like relevance, accuracy, diversity and actionability front and center in the mind. But what are some tactical ways users can curate effectively? Here are some best practices:
Follow Intentionality
Be very selective about who you follow. Only link with accounts that post content that you want to share. Don’t follow accounts that tend to post misinformation, toxicity or clickbait.
Apply Filters
But use tools like Twitter Lists and Facebook Groups to group your following accounts into themed streams. For instance, make lists such as ‘Thought Leaders’ and ‘Industry News’ to remove the noise from the signal.
Limit Timelines
Switch to “Latest Tweets/Posts” over the (algorithmic) feed on platforms like Twitter and Facebook to view content in chronological order. This lets you see more clearly what has been shared recently rather than what an algorithm thinks you should see.
Leverage Bookmarks
Tools allow you to bookmark/save content to curate magazine-style feeds based on your interests and sources. These tools help surface the best content.
Remove, Block, and Mute
Don’t be afraid to be aggressive in pruning your network and feeds. Mute or unfollow accounts that consistently share low-quality or irrelevant content. Block or report toxic accounts. Say goodbye to time-wasting clickbait sites by removing them from your feeds.
Interact Selectively
Be careful what content you actively engage with through likes, comments, and reshares. This signals to algorithms what should be amplified. Thoughtfully interact only with content aligned to curation goals.
When to Remove Content from Social Media Feeds
Removing content is just as important as curating content when it comes to developing meaningful social media feeds. Here are some instances where removal is warranted:
Inaccurate information. Content that makes false or misleading claims should be deleted to avoid spreading misinformation. Fact check suspect claims before amplifying them.
Toxic content. Remove hostile, demeaning, or outrageous content that erodes healthy discourse. 63% of U.S. adults support the removal of hateful content. Don’t feed trolls.
Irrelevant content. Even if it is popular, stay on topic by deleting content that does not align with your overall curation goals and interests.
Outdated content. Old content may no longer be relevant or accurate. Remove stale content to keep feeds fresh.
Over-shared content. Avoid amplifying the same stories, images, or threads ad nauseam. Delete excessively viral content.
Time-wasting content. Remove content that exists solely for entertainment if feeds are meant to focus on more serious news, ideas, or industry topics. Save the memes for other platforms.
Impulsive content. Delete posts shared in the heat of the moment that lack thoughtfulness. Give amplification only to content aligned with principles.
Challenges of Content Curation and Removal
Curating high-quality, meaningful social media feeds through intentional content promotion and pruning takes work. It can be challenging in a few ways:
It is time-consuming. Thoughtfully curating feeds requires dedicating time to research, reading, filtering, and removing content, which can be difficult to sustain in the long term.
Difficult decisions. Determining what constitutes “quality” content can be subjective. Having a clear topic focus and curation principles helps guide consistency.
Fighting algorithms. Platform algorithms constantly push content that may conflict with personal curation goals. Their incentives differ.
Accusations of censorship. Aggressively removing or blocking content, accounts, and groups could draw criticism around free speech and control. Transparency is key.
However, while challenging, the effort put into thoughtful curation pays dividends in the quality of information and conversations feeds generate. And smaller, niche platforms often make curation easier to sustain.
Signs Your Feeds Need Better Curation
If some of these scenarios sound familiar, your social media feeds likely need some curation care:
- You feel overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious when scrolling feeds.
- You struggle to recall anything meaningful from recent feed scrolling sessions.
- It’s impossible to keep up with the rapid content turnover.
- You’ve wasted too much time scrolling without a clear purpose.
- You’ve spread misinformation you later learn is inaccurate.
- Toxic debates are raging across your feeds.
- You see the same stories, images, and threads shared ad nauseam.
- Feeds lack diversity of perspectives on issues.
- The signal-to-noise ratio is completely out of balance.
Careful curation helps transform these fatigue-inducing feeds into high-signal sources of knowledge, enhancing understanding, providing diverse commentary, enabling action-taking, and inspiring innovation.
Curation for Business and Industry Feeds
While the strategies noted above focus mostly on personal social media feed curation, many of the same best practices apply to brands and industry professionals seeking better business feeds.
For example, an executive at a logistics startup could curate highly relevant industry feeds by:
- Following a select group of topical thought leaders from disciplines like operations, supply chain, and manufacturing.
- Creating Twitter lists or Facebook groups focused specifically on industry news, innovations, and trends.
- Leveraging bookmarking apps to collect supply chain-related content from premium publishers.
- Removing clearly irrelevant content as well as older, outdated resources.
- Ignoring and blocking accounts that share industry misinformation or toxicity.
This generates a customized industry news feed, keeping current on pertinent trends, subjects, and ideas.
Curating feeds by subjects like digital strategy, customer experience, and branding lets marketers amplify the greatest stories to enable continuous education and skill development.
Conclusion
Social media feeds can become more purposeful with more intention and effort, informing, inspiring, enlightening and engaging audiences. Content curation and deletion are crucial work. Editors who curate feeds filter knowledge to cut through the noise and deliver signals. Creating meaningful feeds is challenging, but it has huge value for industries, causes, and personal growth.
