I want to answer this question today because it’s so important, and it’s really a question I get a lot, especially when I’m talking to my BAM folks. If you don’t know BAM, is the Backstage Amplifier Mastermind. We’re going to break down today how I decide what content goes where. Now, we talk a lot about repurposing, we talk a lot about creating content specific to the network. How do I decide how those changes happen? How do I decide what starts where? How do I decide what gets repurposed in what ways? Those are the questions we’re answering today because this is foundational strategy stuff that has to be in play guys. It has to, has to, has to, has to be something you think about as you’re working through your overall, overarching, big-picture strategy.
Because, that way when you’re in the day to day, when you’re in the creation space, or distribution space of your content, there’s no decision to make, because guess what guys? It’s already done. I’m all about reducing decision fatigue. Man oh man, it’s real, and it’s a struggle. The struggle is real, right guys? That’s what we’re going to break down today. Again, this is something that I really encourage you to take some time to listen to. This may be one of those episodes that you listen to when you’re on your run, or on the bike, or in your car, or whatever. And, then maybe make some voice memos, or listen to it again later with a pen and a paper so you can implement. That’s the key, take action, do what you need to do to apply these things to your own strategy.
If you have questions at any time, the best place to go is Hit The Mic Backstage. Here’s the deal guys, that’s where we’re showing you the how’s. That’s where our community is talking about implementation, and doing the work. It’s also where you can get feedback, and support, and your questions answered any time.
Just do it, just join us, all right? Okay.
We’re also going to be very soon, releasing something brand new so stay tuned for that. I’m, even just talking about it right now, my heart rate increases. I’m so freaking excited to share this with you guys. It’s going to be amazing, and it’s going to be somewhat limited. I’m anxious to see who grabs the spots before they’re gone to be honest with you, all right? All right, let’s jump in.
What type of content should I create?
Let’s start with how I decide what content, like this podcast, the Facebook Lives, go where. Like you, I hope, know, we do this show every Tuesday. By we I mean you and me. We do this show every Tuesday. Then on Thursday’s we do a live show, which we just launched officially in, I want to say March, but it might have been April. Actually, it might have been May. It was totally May, ’cause it was when we did the 400th episode of this show. We had tried out the whole live thing for several months before that. Getting my feel for timing, and frequency, and length, and all of those pieces. But, we officially … Again, you and me. Officially launched Hit The Mic TV Live in May with the 400th episode of this show.
One of the big questions I’ve gotten since I launched that, and it was something that came up years ago when I did Hit The Mic TV Prerecorded for YouTube, is how I decided what happens on the podcast, and what happens on the video show. Here’s the deal, a lot of times it’s really quite simple. The video show is, which is again now live and used to be recorded, is essentially stuff that is really difficult for me to explain via audio. When there’s a visual aid necessary, or I’m talking about the how’s of doing something, that’s where the video show comes in. I also tend to be a little more long form there. The video show goes 30 to 45 minutes. This show goes maybe 15 to 20 minutes. So, when I’m going to be a little wordier we did the live show.
Also, when I want it to be a really, especially now with a live show, when I want it to be a conversation. I want there to be that give and take, I really want it to be a real time conversation. Not, you leave me comments on Instagram, or respond to a story, or post on the Facebook page, or whatever. That’s when I’m 100% making sure that I’m showing up on live to have that conversation, and to make space for you guys to share your thoughts with me. That’s, I think … It really is that simple. It’s really, that’s where we do the interviews, there’s not any sort of magical formula. It really comes down to what’s going to be the best place to express that particular thought.
I know you want sort of like magic formula, like A plus B equals podcast. But, it’s not that complicated. Some of it’s also repurposed. I will tie in a topic from the live show into what we talked about on the podcast, to push you guys back to this podcast, or vise versa. For example, we did some interviews. I could say, “Hey guys, if you want to listen to some great interviews, go check out Hit The Mic TV Live. The recordings are up on YouTube, and Facebook, and whatever, the site.”
So, figuring out kind of where you best communicate a message is going to be the core thing. Where you best communicate the message when you’re considering that, it’s also going to be where is that message best received by your ideal client, by your ideal viewer, listener, reader, whatever. Factoring that in is going to really make the decision for you, and this is where we come back to this conversation that we have over and over again. You’re very potentially sick of me saying, but I’m going to say it at least a bazillion more times minimum is, knowing who you’re talking. Knowing your ideal client. It answers all the questions. All of them, every single one, every time without fail. So, figure that out guys. All right, my love?
How do I repurpose content?
All right, so that’s the first thing is when we’re figuring that out. Now, how do I figure out how I’m going to repurpose those things? A lot of it is, where does it make sense? For some of our clients, we actually repurpose the video show into their podcast, into their blog content, because they only want to create one type of content. I have a slightly different approach, because again, I’m using this to support each other, versus repurpose across the board. There’s not a right way or a wrong way. I’m all for as much repurposing as you can do, it’s just not how I’ve done it. Figuring out what works for you is going to be key. But, if you want to start with a video and build everything from there, awesome. Especially if you’re currently in a place where you do not have a ton of time to be creating content. This is something that Denise Duffield Thomas does exceptionally well. She batches an epic ton of content, video content, and she actually pulls that into an audio, and a blog post via transcript.
When you go to her site and you look at everything, you can watch it by video, you can listen to it, you can download it, whatever. Or, you can read it. It totally depends on your preference. This is something that my friend Brandy Lawson over at FieryFX does with her live video. She’ll record a live video on Facebook, so she gets that Facebook love. Then she will take the transcript from that video and create a blog post, where she also embeds that video. Again, we’re able to get maximum juice. She’s also putting that over on YouTube. She’s taking advantage of that number two search engine in the world, and getting that love on YouTube to again, drive traffic back to her website. It’s slightly different than Denise’s model, ’cause there’s no audio. Also, it’s a live versus prerecorded. But, they’re both great ways to do it. It’s just a matter of what works for you.
I record this podcast, and a transcript comes to blog post. I do a live video, which then goes to YouTube. We don’t do a transcript for that show as of right now. Mostly because it tends to be a bit long. Actually, we’re currently on the search for somebody to actually listen to it, and turn it into a blog post that’s not a straight transcript. Because again, it’s just a lot to read. I mean, a 45 minute transcript is a lot of freaking words. That’s different, that’s shifting. That’s kind of how our structure is, my structure is. Figuring out what works for you in there is great. If it’s live video so that you get that Facebook love, and then that transcript becomes your blog post, and you pull the audio for a podcast, and you imbed that video via YouTube. Now you’ve covered all of your sort of bases that you want to be covering. Again, that’s not all the available bases, but it’s all the bases you want to be covering. Great.
Figure out what your rhythm is, but also figure out where that content makes sense. When you’re thinking about that repurpose, not all of your video content is going to make sense as a podcast, because maybe there’s a visual element. Maybe it makes sense to skip that audio part, and just do the blog post. Maybe it becomes two blog posts. You have one for your website, and one that’s a guest for another site. Maybe you’re a regular contributor somewhere, and you take a version of that, and you share it there.
That’s what you’re thinking about, is how can we maximize this content from a repurpose perspective? Because, that’s going to be the critical thought. That’s going to be the most important thing to consider. That’s what I want you to look at when you figure out what your next steps are.
How do I turn content into social media updates?
The next thing, and the final thing I want to talk about is from a social media perspective. How do we know where this stuff goes, so that we’re making sense, and we’re customizing for each network? But, we’re also not spending a ton of time creating social content. Again, it’s going to come down to knowing that two primary networks that you are focused on, and what your secondary networks are.
If your primary networks are Instagram and Facebook, then how does a clip of that video become a story? Or, how do you create a graphic that the call to action is to check out the story? One of my favorite things that I’ve seen done a lot, but I haven’t done for my own stuff, we’re going to test out in the next couple of weeks is, actually finding a question or something that we can turn into a poll in a story. So, we’re actually getting them to engage with the topic. As well as, actually do something. And so, figuring out where that works. Also, creating a graphic for your profile, because here’s the deal guys. Those are still relevant to you, not just stories.
Maybe it’s doing a quick Instagram live highlighting, moving over to Facebook. Again, one of the things we’re testing is doing what the folks over at Live Streaming Pros call, “Life streaming.” L-I-F-E streaming. Where it’s, what they call level one, which is just your own device. Where can I … Again, if you’ve been seeing the last couple of weeks, we’ve actually been testing this out. Where can I go in to hop on, have a quick conversation around the topic that we’re talking about on the podcast, and then the call to action is the podcast? I’m not just sharing a link and saying, “Check this out.” I’m actually having a bit of a conversation, getting that organic juice from an engaging post, and a live video post to drive traffic to my link organically. So, finding out how that works for you.
Maybe you have Pinterest. Well great, then are we creating a graphic that really highlights the value of that post? Are we sharing … If you’ve done a video and it’s up on YouTube, pin the YouTube video, ’cause you can watch them on Pinterest. I mean, it’s really that simple. Figure out what it is that works for you. If it’s on Twitter, maybe it’s a series of tweets that aren’t just the title of the episode, or the blog post, or the video. But, are a snippet, or a quote, or a takeaway. Where’s the graphic support? Because remember, we’re taking up a lot more time and real estate when we include a graphic. Do we have something like Twitter Cards set up, so that we make sure that when we do include just a link, an image is still showing up?
Figuring that stuff out is going to be really critical, because that’s where you’re going to be creating stuff that actually drives traffic to your content. Remember, it may be that the one engaging quote is your quote graphic, your tweet at the center of your topic for your Facebook Live, and is also a quote graphic that you pin. That was one piece of content, we just reformatted it. When we’re talking about creating quote graphics that are good for Pinterest, and Twitter, and Facebook, and Instagram, use Canva. If you’re using Canva for work, which is I think like 12 bucks a month, or I think it goes down to 10 bucks a month if you pay by the year. Whatever it is, I don’t know. It just comes out, and I don’t handle that anymore.
But, it’s not crazy. Just create one graphic at size one, and then magic resize it, move your font around so it looks great. It took no time at all. This is a great thing to have your VA do. This is a great thing for you to outsource early. This gets really easy if you have taken the first step, that initial step of having someone create Canva templates for you, which you notice my stuff all looks the same? That’s ’cause we had a great graphic designer create those Canva templates for us, and now my team just goes in and customizes each one so that it is ready to go. This is again, this does not have to be complicated. But, it takes that thought upfront of knowing what that system is.
Because now it’s, “Okay, so what are we going to do for this episode?” No. It’s, “I recorded it, here’s the pull quote, here’s the title,” and it’s sending it to the team. Or, it’s implementing those steps for yourself if you’re still DIY’ing. That’s totally cool too. Don’t feel like this has to be done by a team. Because, if you’re in a spot where you’re still DIY’ing, that’s where figuring out these choices that we just talked about is even more important. Because, you don’t have the time to be trying to figure this stuff out as you go. You need to be able to execute. Sit down, do the work, and be done. Not go, “Maybe I’ll do this, maybe I’ll do that.” All right? All right.
That’s it. That’s the whole show, that’s the whole kit and caboodle for today. Remembering, that it comes down to most frequently, who are our ideal clients? The person who’s reading, watching, listening, what do they want? That’s what we want to be paying attention to most. Cool? All right. I’m super stoked. I’m so excited. I really encourage you, if you’ve not yet checked out Hit The Mic TV Live, it happens every Thursday at 2:00 PM. If you go to the Facebook page, you can see all the latest episodes. If you go to the YouTube channel, you see that consistency guys? Take that as a note, that’s good too. You’ll find the episodes there. Check them out, we have had some fantastic guests already. We’ve had some really powerful conversations around time sucks, and relationships, and working with your partner, and talking to my team about repurposing, all sorts of fun stuff. Check those out.
I will talk to you very soon, I will see you next week, or listen to you next week, hear you next week? Really, talk at you next week. All right, have a great rest of your day, see you soon. Bye.
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