Social Media Managers, the voice behind a company or brands’ social media accounts, are the new gatekeepers of content. They decide if, when and how content gets shared. Luckily, there are many ways that you or your organization can become a go-to resource for them.

First and foremost, you should be reaching out to social media managers who you feel would benefit from sharing your content if they aren’t already. As you know, the Internet is vast and some great pieces get overlooked. If you or your organization produces content that makes sense for a social media manager and their audience or industry, reach out. Relationships, like in every other industry, are extremely important. Reciprocity is a huge factor. Just because you don’t speak or meet with them face-to-face, it doesn’t make a relationship with them unimportant.

I am very surprised by how often content isn’t shareable to social networking sites. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but when they are in the zone of sourcing and sharing, ff they have to create their own tweet, headline and find a way to attribute it to you- they may bypass your piece. It may sound lazy, but time is of the essence when you are a social media manager. You work hard on your content and it’s great so make sure we can share it on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and yes, Google+. There are many other options to include, but ensuring you cover the big four is essential to making your content easy to share. I do realize some people or organizations have their own preferences or ideas about their audiences’ preferences for networks, but including a Facebook as opposed to a Twitter button on a post for example is a missed opportunity to expose your content to a much broader audience. Don’t assume any network is useless.

Ensuring an image is used in your non-visual content is essential to increased shareability. Pinterest’s success is no coincidence- photos and videos are shared at a much higher rate than updates or just plain links (77% more on Facebook for example). Much like print, burying the lead is a big mistake. I can’t tell you how often a better headline, tweet or post is pulled from content you already wrote. This isn’t something you can necessarily control, but you can always take a second look to make sure you’re highlighting what is important or better yet, share-worthy from your content.

Help them, help you! Way too often, there is no attribution information when you share or tweet, most often with Twitter. Sometimes, it takes a significant amount of time to find the person or organizations Twitter handle or profile. Sometimes it takes way too long or there isn’t one to be found and sometimes a social media manager gives up. This isn’t a big deal if you’re Mashable, but if you’re up-and-coming or a smaller organization, make sure you or your organization gets the credit that is due.

With today’s 24-hour news cycle, there is absolutely no shortage of content to choose from. A big part of a social media manager’s job is to constantly decide if content is right for their audience and in which channel- now you can help them, help you by being more mindful of their role and its challenges.