How to Repurpose Blog Posts and Find Social Media Opportunities | Content Creation
CONTENT CREATION
An effective strategy to utilize social media begins with content creation. One way to tackle this sometimes daunting task is to find a newsworthy story or topic and see how many ways you can repurpose it.
I like to begin with the “long form” content first. That is usually an article or a blog post. This can be an article for a newsletter, magazine, or an organization newsletter. But usually it will be a blog post.
For search engine optimization (SEO) purposes the latest information indicates that blog post should be upwards of 500 words and some say 1,000 or more is even better. The more information you provide on a given topic the more authority you garner.
For reference this post is 1,000+ words and is about two typewritten pages in Word.
Be careful not to “keyword stuff.” The number one rule is to write as naturally as possible and do your best to stay on topic. There is no need to intentionally repeat the same words or terms over and over again. Especially if your topic is clear.
So start with your core story. This can be an experience you had, a case history, or some useful information you want to share.
My inspiration for this blog post began with a theater review that I wrote for a play called “Five Guys Named Moe.” This was a routine assignment I received to review this play being performed at the Court Theatre in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. The review is straight forward enough and can be found in its entirety at Chicago Theater & Arts.
REPURPOSE YOUR BLOG POST AND ADD SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
After any of my reviews are published I routinely post a link with a photo and some short description on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Twitter. You might want to add other platforms such as Instagram and Pintrest. At this point I only use the latter infrequently. By posting to my favorite platforms I already have published four links to my review post.
The next thing I do is look at the experience I had and see if there is another hook or another angle that I can write about.
In this example I had attended the play with a musician friend of mine, Stann Champion, who has a blog of his own so I asked if I could write a guest blog about my experience of attending the play with him. The result was a post called Stann, Me, and Five Guys Named Moe. After publishing that on his blog I again posted a link to the new post on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn. Now I have 8 social media posts and two blog posts from this one experience.
Looking at the program for the play I happened to notice that the piano tuner for this production, Kent Busse was the same guy who just tuned our piano at home and also tunes the five or six acoustic pianos at The Lake Shore Music Studio where my wife is the founder and director. So I wrote another guest blog post for her blog called “Piano Tuner Plays Important Role in Five Guys Named Moe.”
Of course I then posted that on the same social media sites. So far I have created 13 social media posts linked to various blogs which each contain links back to my original review. This process has created a presence for me with original content on three different blogs. But I am not finished.
After musing about this concept as a discussion topic at a recent networking event it occurred to me that I should write this blog article and post it on my own company blog; which is presumably what you are reading. I will also write a short post about the networking event and mention that we spoke about this topic and link it back to this article. Of course I will then post it out to the same social media platforms bringing my total to 20 social media posts, four blogs and the original review.
But wait there is more!
It occurs to me that this is a potentially good topic for Midwest Writers Association. I am Vice-President and Outreach Chairman. So I will write one more blog post for them about the importance of finding multiple hooks within one story. This will bring me up to a minimum of 24 social media posts and six blogs counting the original review.
The trick is to write fresh new content for each blog. I am not talking about simply copy and pasting the same story over again. This will have little effect and can potentially work against you, particularly as it pertains to SEO. But if you are a good writer, writing new content should not be difficult once you identify the fresh “hook.”
PROMOTE OTHERS TO PROMOTE YOURSELF
Be generous. Promote your objective by promoting others. This is what I did with Stann the musician, and with Kent the piano tuner. By mentioning others, you create the potential to make new SEO hooks.
For instance someone searching for information about Stann Champion or Kent Busse might be led to this page. If so there are links that ultimately lead back to them but the new reader might find this article interesting and be led to other information about me or my related topics. So your related subjects are bait for your hook.
If you take the time to read all of the blog posts I have mentioned you will see a kind of circular motion where each of them relates back to one or more of the others.
Ultimately my review of “Five Guys…” is the glue that binds these all together and is the link that has the most to gain from the process. But through this process I am also finding opportunities to connect with my own audience or fan base in multiple ways while reaching new contacts and potential fans on the sites where I am a guest.
Because each blog post is unique my audience is learning something different about me each time. Obviously not all of them will read every post so these multiple approaches to the same event gives me various ways to reach out to my audience. They may not have been intrigued by the review but they may find the blog title about the piano tuner or musician something that sounds interesting. Also most of your audience will not see every social media announcement, so this gives you an opportunity to be repetitious without repeating yourself.
Once a reader is captured into one of the blog articles it is very likely that he or she will follow one or more of your links thus deepening the interaction and relationship with you.
Look at your own situation. If you do not have access to multiple blogs of your own, then reach out to others and be a guest blogger. Most sites love that because like you they need fresh content all of the time.
Write about others and include yourself in their story. This can be a client, a case history or employee recognition. How about new product reviews? Trade shows and other events are great opportunities to talk about multiple individuals and entities with the potential of using their platforms to help further your message while creating an opportunity for them as well.
If you are not comfortable writing or just don’t have the time, consider hiring a free-lance social media manager or professional business writer.
Remember to take pictures and even short videos to embellish your story and amplify your message, or find a royalty free photo.
Finally, get busy doing it. Don’t wring your hands thinking you have nothing newsworthy or noteworthy. There are stories all around you and most of them have numerous hooks. Start fishing
UPDATE: Since I first wrote this blog post I have begun recording podcasts of my theater reviews which add yet another element of repurposing and even more opportunities to create social media posts.
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Reno Lovison is a Marketing Professional Specializing in Content Creation. Video – Written – Graphic.
He is the author of “Turn Your Business Card Into Business” and writes Chicago Theater Reviews.
