A Beginner’s Guide to Repurposing Content for Social Media

We get a lot of questions about populating social media channels. Regularly posting fresh material across several channels can seem like a daunting task. Even with a good social media strategy in place, content creation takes time that a lot of markets don’t have.

That’s why we need to make sure we get the most out of everything we produce for social media. Enter the Beginner’s Guide to Repurposing Cotent. Repurposing content should be a part of any good social media strategy. Using minimal resources, you can turn one good piece of content into a handful of tangibles posted over a long period of time. Click the infographic to see larger.

Author: Tyler Norris [Google+]

3 Realizations about Digital Marketing During a Blackout

Last Monday night’s storm and ensuing blackout gave me an excuse to disconnect from the digital world we’re all hard-lined into. I was forced to think about a few things when I plugged back in the next morning.

I spend most of my days connecting people with messages and getting people to react to those messages. In my case, the exchange usually occurs on a digital device. So, when all those devices simultaneously went blank Monday night, I came to a few realizations.

1. It’s scary how little attention we give digital content

When I spend an evening on the couch, I’m tethered to a few devices. I have the TV on, computer on my lap and cellphone on the arm of the couch so any new notifications can be seen immediately through my peripherals. Not to mention my Web browser has two social networks, a handful of news sites and a jubilee of miscellaneous webpages open.

How is anyone supposed to pay attention to anything in that mess? When I send messages into the wild, what am I doing to make sure they hack through plush thickets of distractions on a quest for some eyeball time.

2. Calls to action have to be memorable – really memorable

Once I adjusted to the eerie silence and low, jittering candlelight, the blackout wasn’t so bad. I read a few magazines and did some crosswords. Based on those activities, there were a lot of things I meant to research. One problem – even with my full attention, I don’t remember any of those things.

If your audience doesn’t convert right away, you better have a good plan for bringing them back later. There’s a lot of noise that stands in between you and the next point of contact – noise that goes beyond media. Whether it’s screaming kids, a phone call or even a blackout, there are a lot of ways you can be forgotten.

3. Influencers can be a lot of things

When it comes to influencers, I would normally mention industry bloggers, people with a lot of followers on Twitter and trade journalists. But when the sun set on my digital landscape, I had but one person to influence my decision – my girlfriend sitting on the couch next to me. Whether my dilemma involved the breakfast cereal or a new car purchase, no one else could influence the decision.

Now, I’m not saying you can create a vacuum when delivering a message, but you can think more about how – and WHICH – influencers are affecting a decision. Where are people when they see your content? Who is around? Just because it’s not in your social media report doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

None of this is really new. You already know we have short attention spans, forget things easily and ask other people to help make decisions. But a light bulb turned on when the power went out. If you can anticipate and understand distractions, memory loss, and outside influence, you’re more prepared for the fight. There’s no simple recipe for getting messages read, just think of these revelations as guiding lights.

Facebook is Changing – Why isn’t your Social Strategy Changing too?

Some marketers will tell you, “You’re only as good as your content.” While this is true in many cases, it seems Mark Zuckerberg overlooked the memo. I don’t know; maybe it posted on his Super Wall.

A Social Sea Change

With Facebook focusing on profit, it’s becoming more difficult for brands to connect with current fans. The focus on brand reinforcement is shifting toward brand awareness. Statistics form EdgeRanker show that engaged users of Facebook pages dropped from August to September. An in-depth look at the pages we manage confirmed their belief. Fewer people are seeing posts from brand pages.

Over time, social media managers can see patterns in a post’s engagement versus its reach. The higher a post’s engagement, the more people see. This is because Facebook displays posts in newsfeeds based on the level of interest in the post. For example, let’s say you and three of your friends like the same page. If those three friends like a status from the page, it’s more likely to display in your newsfeed. At least that’s how it used to be. Now, regardless of engagement, posts are displaying to roughly the same percentage of users who like a page (roughly 15 percent).

A Necessary Evil

I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that reach dropped shortly after the advent of the promoted post. With the promoted post, you can pay $5 to $15 to have posts displayed to a much larger audience of fans and friends of fans – much larger than any organic post could possibly deliver. The fee won’t guarantee engagement – just create the opportunity.

So your choices are simple. Show your post to a small group of people for free or show your post to the world for $15.

A company that has always put experience first is being forced to focus on profit, and marketers are an easy target. We all want access to the Facebook population and $15 isn’t an unreasonable price tag.

Marketers understand Facebook as a tool for brand reinforcement; you find people who like your brand and you interact with them – easy. But with pressure from shareholders, the stakes are raised for the social giant.

And make no mistake- the stakes are raised for marketers as well. What if you went to a CMO 10 years ago and said, “I want to allocate a significant portion of our resources to a free service that we have little to no control over?” But that’s what we do with Facebook everyday. We are at its mercy because it has six billion things we want.

A Plausible Solution

Great content and interaction are no longer the key drivers of success. Content still plays an important role, but the entirely organic nature of Facebook is gone. A really great post will no longer maximize your reach. Now, it takes a really great post and $15.

Some brands are trying creative ways to outsmart the system. One page posted an update that propositioned users to favorite their page so they wouldn’t have to “advertise.”

Instead of jamming a square peg in a round hole, our social media strategies have to evolve with the service. You must develop strategies that target the new audience available through promoted posts or find ways to mobilize the people who are still interacting with your page. There’s no simple solution. The technology will continue to change. The best advice: Stay agile. Watch your Insights and be ready to adapt your strategy accordingly.

How Pinterest Planned My Wedding

Dresses, bouquets, shoes, decorations, signage and vows.

This is just a glimpse into my brain over the past year as I’ve planned my October 6 wedding. With the “big day” less than three days away, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with all-things weddings. (Special thanks to my co-workers for putting up with me!)

After hours upon hours of planning everything down to the smallest of details (thank you type-A personality), I have come to realize the major role Pinterest played in planning my dream wedding. You may be asking yourself, “How can Pinterest plan a wedding?” Here are the top 3 ways it helped me:

1. Inspiration Boards: The millions of pictures in wedding boards provide great ideas, no matter what style of wedding you want. From vintage to rustic and classic to traditional, the variety of designs that can be found on Pinterest will fit every brides’ unique style. I’ve come to think of my wedding as a glimpse of my personal brand. Check out my wedding board!

2. Wedding meetings=no hassle: As I met with several vendors throughout this planning process, I always had my laptop by my side. When asked if I had any ideas for decorations and flowers, I simply showed the women my wedding board on Pinterest. Instead of going back and forth between the daunting wedding books placed before me, I simply said, “I want this.” Both vendors told me that showing them my Pinterest photos took the guesswork away because they knew exactly what I wanted. They even said it was the easiest meeting they’d ever had. (No bridezilla here!)

3. Organization: For those who don’t know me, I love organization. (I think I’m the only person at True that color codes emails by client.) That said, Pinterest allowed me to organize all of my wedding thoughts in one place, while storing wedding photo ideas in another. Having the freedom to organize as I choose makes for one happy bride-to-be.

Another great website for wedding inspiration is lover.ly. This site lets brides-to-be take a quiz that points you towards your personalized style picks.

So whether you’re planning a wedding, birthday party or an event for a client, these sites can be a great place to start. I could probably go on forever, but as you know, I have a wedding to attend!

Sports Social Media Goes for the Gold

Who could forget the Giants’ 9-play, 88-yard drive late in the fourth quarter to seal the deal in Super Bowl XLVI?

Who could forget, dare I say, the NCAA’s announcement of penalties against Penn State?

And, who could forget Michael Phelps’ historic, record-book Olympic performance just days ago?

If you’re an active sports social media user and were on social media during any of those times, the answer: no one.

Digital platforms give us quick, real-time updates to games and announcements. To be frank, they are ultimately changing the way we consume news.

What used to be a sitting-duck process of waiting to find out scores or learning MJ was taking his talents to the baseball diamond is now, like magic, an instant poof of info on your favorite social media outlet.

Here’s why social media will only grow with sports:

It’s a team sport— When it comes to sports media in the digital world, it’s all about a team effort. For athletes, coaches, journalists and broadcasters, social media serves as a way to expand their brand, build a community and stay connected with fans. Pros have even ditched the traditional press conference and used social media to make big announcements like Shaq did when he declared his retirement via Twitter. On the flip side, reporters now use outlets, such as Twitter, to obtain athletes’ statements to use in articles or other news pieces.
It’s a no-huddle offense approach— Just like Ricky Bobby said, “If you ain’t first, you’re last.” Social media is speedy, and if you’re not in the game, you’re going to be benched. We have become accustomed to this “I-want-it-now” lifestyle where it’s not about what just happened; it’s about what is happening now. Social media gives us that instant fix. This is why we are seeing shows like Mike & Mike in the Morning and publications such as Sports Illustrated post questions, share photos, give updates and break news via social media—everyone on both sides of the ball wants the latest and greatest news.
It’s a powerful halftime speech—Good or bad, everyone is a critic in the sports world. Blogs, microblogs and statuses give individuals the option to voice their opinion, respond to a question or give an update to a game. The various social media platforms give others the chance to channel their inner Erin Andrews and provide their own commentary to what’s going on under the lights.

Let’s face the music; social media is not fading anytime soon. It has become an essential “need” like food—to some, without it, we couldn’t survive. No matter the platform, day or time, digital media is a way individuals can feel like contributors and part of the game, carrying on the conversation before, during and after a slam dunk event in the sports world.