We’ve all heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder” but many of us aren’t exactly sure what that means from a practical, strategic standpoint.
It sounds good, but where do we start?
Creating content is a beast. We all know we need to be doing it. We know it is the absolute foundation of our brand, but DANG there’s only so many hours in the week. With customer needs, administrative tasks, team meetings and product development, it’s easy to get inconsistent with posting and let a whole month pass without any content going live.
So let’s maximize the content when we DO create it. Even if you create only one piece of new content a month, you can turn it into 50 assets to use for the next 30 days.
The Long Form Written Piece (1)
In order to make this work, you need a solid “jumping off” piece. This could be a long blog post, an ebook or an online course. It needs to be something with substance so you can really break apart the whole into smaller pieces.
To help make this a more shareable piece, we suggest the content be:
- Packed with resources (links, downloads, references, etc.)
- Written with “pull quotes” in mind
- At least 1000 words long
- Rich subject matter with layered information
Expect this piece to take time, research and effort. It will save you time in the long run, but without a meaty foundational piece, it will be difficult to extract all the others.
Email (4)
Once you have your long form content written, you can start breaking it up. We know business owners frequently struggle with what to send in an email. With your fresh content in hand, you can craft a weekly newsletter that has substance.
Follow this formula for creating offshoot content from the original piece:
Email One: Share the link to your new content with a summary.
Email Two: Address a Frequently Asked Question around your subject matter. (The answer should already be in your content.)
Email Three: Introduce a Call To Action. Encourage your audience to DO something based on your content.
Email Four: Share one of your other pieces of content based on this subject. (I.e. video, podcast, meme, etc. See below.)
So if you’re a home renovator, and you’ve written a blog post on “Everything You Need To Know Before Doing a Kitchen Remodel” then your email subjects might look like this:
- The EVERYTHING list for your kitchen remodel…
- How much does a kitchen remodel actually cost?
- Start budgeting for your kitchen remodel today with this checklist!
- [Video]: I talk about the easiest things to DIY in a kitchen remodel.
In your long form piece, you will have already addressed these questions, you’re just breaking them up and repackaging them for email! You’re already five pieces of content deep and you’ve only gotten started!
Twitter (10)
Tweets are like M&Ms, you can throw down 30 and feel like you’ve barely made a dent. But we’re suggesting just ten for now.
Four can be there just to share the link to your new content. We suggest mixing up the copy and including a link and a different picture each time.
The other six can be little nuggets of wisdom you pull out from the long form piece. Remember how we talked about pull quotes? This is one of the places they can go.
If you’re a nutritionist talking about the benefits of eating grass fed beef, you might have a few gems like this to tweet:
- Grass fed beef has 30 – 40% less fat than store-bought beef.
- Grass fed beef is rich in antioxidant vitamins.
- Grass fed beef is lower in calories.
These tweets can just be little fact bombs that are peppered throughout your long form piece.
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Tweet thread (1)
A nice little bonus piece of content can be used on Twitter is the Tweet Thread. Have a one stop shop of all the resources you present and the research you used in your blog/ebook/course linked up in this neat little package. Discover how to create a thread on Twitter.
Facebook (4)
There is nothing wrong with sharing the same piece of content on your Facebook page multiple times. As long as you mix up the image and the copy, there will be nothing redundant about your feed. Facebook’s algorithm all but guarantees that not everyone in your audience will see every post. So to make sure your link is seen by as many people as possible, it actually serves you well to share it more than once. And the copy can simply be grabbed from the source material. No new creation necessary!
Instagram (8)
You can mix and match how and where you share your posts on social media based on where your audience is most prominently active. That being said, we think a case can be made for doing more diverse posting on Instagram by breaking it up this way:
- 4 designed, text-based posts (Another place for your pull quotes. You can even repeat the ones from Twitter.)
- 2 brand feature images (These can be selfies/branded photoshoot media/product pictures.)
- 2 stock photos (These can be ones you find online or they can be client photos. They should match your brand/subject, but help spare you the need to manufacture 8 of your own photos if that’s a bit of a struggle.)
Using simple software like Canva, you can utilize templates to make the designed posts a seconds-long endeavor. And then the captions on each of the posts can be copy and pasted text from your original piece. Again, no need for writing anything new or spending hours conceptualizing your visual assets. Just an easy, quick, repeatable process.
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Stories (4)
There is really no way to do stories wrong. You can create fresh content specifically for stories (perhaps a live video tour of your most recent project or new products), but you don’t have to. You can hit share on your Instagram posts four times. Or you can use other assets you’ve created (like audio or video clips) as additional assets.
Podcast (1)
A podcast can seem like a daunting task, but when you are starting with strong source material, you basically have a script in hand. There are great podcasts out there who simply read their blog posts and create short, audio versions of the text. With the rising interest in audio, this adds an asset to your platform and accessibility for everyone from the busy mom to the visually impaired.
When you’re writing the first piece, read it aloud to see how it sounds as well as how it reads. Not only is this a great way to create more readable content, but it will help you record your podcast episode more smoothly.
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Audio Clips (4)
Though this will take a little bit of editing skill, it’s not too difficult to extract some poignant clips from your audio recording to share on any of your social media platforms. Either as a way to tease your podcast or simply distribute information!
Video/Live (2)
In the same way your original piece is a script/guide for a podcast, it can be the same for a video. Pull your long form content up on your desktop and start talking to the camera. You don’t need fancy production or cool effects. It can just be you, giving your audience yet another way to digest your content and learn from you. Before you know it, you have a YouTube channel and you’re rocking it on the second largest search engine as well!
Undoubtedly, you will add variations to fit each format. You might divert onto a tangent or just get hyper focused on a single area of interest from your original piece. The point is, creating all these offshoots is going to be WORLD’S easier when you’re working from a wireframe than it would be if you were trying to come up with different topics for each and every one of these pieces.
Now also feels like a good time to remind you that your audience isn’t listening/watching/following you on every platform. Different people digest content differently. So you aren’t overwhelming your fans with the same content. What you are doing is giving more people the chance to see what you have to say!
As for LIVE videos, these can be you walking your audience through something you’ve discussed in your long form piece. If you are a gardening expert, perhaps you do a quick tutorial on how to prune in a way that preserves new growth. It can be just a few minutes long, but still stick very close to the information at hand.
BONUS: You can technically use the audio from your video and make that your podcast!
Pinterest (10)
Pinterest is perhaps one of the most underrated platforms. It’s often regarded as social media, but it’s actually a very powerful (but underutilized) search engine. Competition is way lower there than on Google, your posts have a long lifetime, and you can only benefit from posting a lot!
When you share your content on Pinterest, you can utilize what you’ve already developed:
- A video clip
- Text-based pull quotes
- Branded images
- Designed article images
- A promo for your podcast episode
- Boards/Pins relating to your subject
There is no way to overwhelm your following on this platform. The more you share the more you gain!
Paid Ad (1)
There are really no limits to how many ads you can run, but if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to dive in, you can start simply by putting some paid power behind your original content piece. When you run an ad through the Facebook ad platform you can double down by including it on Instagram as well. This can help you gain followers, exposure and traffic in a more amplified and targeted way. With just a few minutes, you can be up and running doing a paid promotion that leads social media users to a helpful resource and expose them to the very best of your brand.
Too often, businesses get focused on the creation thinking you have to be constantly posting fresh subjects to succeed and branch into other platforms. The truth is, you can relieve some pressure and have a really rounded brand with very little new material. As you spread out the content you may find your audience prefers certain platforms versus others and you’d then be able to start creating more new content in an area YOU KNOW your fans will enjoy. For now, just see how far one piece can take you!
