Beyond the Blog

Writing a blog can be a huge relief when you’ve done it. You close the browser window after you hit publish and grab a coffee and think you’re done.

Sorry but you’re not.

No point in producing a blog if it’s not going to be seen. You need to share it around your social media, email list, and anywhere else you can think of, and don’t just share once – here’s some ways I share my blog to maximise its reach.

When to share. I love CoSchedule for automating this.

• Twitter moves fast, share a few times especially within the first week.
• Facebook page share immediately and then a few days later.
• LinkedIn is similar to Facebook.
• Google+ again, like Facebook.

Note : when you’re sharing the same content make sure there’s other (different) content being shared in between

• Use a system like IFTTT or Buffer (or both) to automate your sharing.
• Use different wording in your posts.
• Use images.

Re-purposing

Note that last bullet point – use images – that’s because images are more eye-catching than simply words. Using images is only one way of repurposing your content in order to maximise its impact and value.

Take your original blog post and let’s think of the ways you can re-purpose it to share your message more effectively.

Note : this article is based on the premise that your blog post is written but you can definitely adapt it for vlogs etc

• Quoteable quotes – share the link with the quotes as the body of the post

For example, create post with a phrase “emails are made to be sent, so send them” and then add a little more information and a link to read more in the original post. Whet their appetite

• Make those quoteable quotes into a text image (use Canva for example) and share those with your link
• Record yourself reading the post and upload to SoundCloud or similar. Use an image with the link and share everywhere.
• Make a slideshow of the important points and upload to Slideshare.
• Convert the slideshow to an mp4 add music or yourself narrating and upload to YouTube then share everywhere.
• Check out Lumen5 for a great way to create videos from blog posts.
• You can re-publish your posts on Medium or LinkedIn Pulse
• Create an infographic of the main points (use Canva) and share that as a pdf or image (think Pinterest too).
• Create a pdf of your post with images and links and use it as an optin.

So many ways you can take one post and re-purpose it to reach a wider audience. Remember, people take in information in different ways depending on their learning styles, so creating all these different ways to access is very important and increases your reach.

ALSO! Don’t forget to resurrect older posts. Either rewrite them if there’s new information or simply repost if it’s all up to date and still relevant. You’ll have a new audience that won’t have seen it before.

Newsletters

You can (at least with MailChimp & WordPress) automate your newsletter to post your blog posts out to your list. Make sure the format is done right and it means that your subscribers get a fresh newsletter whenever you post.

Can I overshare?

Yes and no. If you share strategically and across different platforms with different content in between then it usually isn’t a problem. Check your social media feeds periodically to make sure that the same thing isn’t posted one after the other.

Remember – feeds fly by so fast, not everyone sees your first or even second post.

I see successful people I follow share the same piece to their social media and their newsletter all at once so I see the same info several times if I’m following them in different places. Yet sometimes I will read it in their newsletter, sometimes in their Facebook page because it depends what I am doing at the time. I might even miss it on their social media but will find it in my inbox.

Sharon Jackson http://www.path42.ninja

If you would love to share your blog the way Sharon tells you to, but don’t have any blog content, Wendy Jennings Creative can help you get great ideas and get it written.

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