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Repurpose your blog posts – BPE 0.7.3 Metholz has arrived

August 24, 2010 By

(Reading time: 6 – 9 minutes)

Blogging is a pastime of passion and perserverance. Here’s Bob Hayles take on the matter:

July 26, I wish…

…tomorrow, and BPE, would hurry and arrive.

July 27…ITS HERE…YIPPEE!!!

July 28…damn, there is a LOT of sh1t here to pick up on…I’ll deal with tags, keywords, catagories, and SEO descriptions on the first run through posts…

July 29…SH1T!?!??!? I’ve written this much?

July 30…f*ckin’ Doolin…someone should tell him ignorance is bliss…

Aug 1 (2 am)…I’m flyin’ to CA and kill that SOB…sleep? What the hell is sleep?

Aug 1 (1pm)…all…ALL…posts tagged, keyworded, described, excerpted, catagorized, linked, etc…HEY DOOLIN!!! Yer alright, man! un-SEO is gonna be GREAT! Thanks!

My goodness! Such emotion… and engineering ALL your blog posts in 3 days. If that’s not perserverance, I don’t know what is.

Now, I wouldn’t want to disappoint Mr Hayles, so I spent a couple of weeks this August writing a brand new chapter for Blog Post Engineering: Repurposing.

Let’s talk about repurposing for a bit.

Repurposing blog posts

You already know about building outposts with tools such as Amplify and Posterous.

With outposts, you want to try and use your blog post, or snippets from your blog post more or less as is.

Repurposing goes one step further: your blog post is the raw material for new content.

Once you have been blogging for a year or two, you will see that there isn’t a lot of truly original or novel content out there. But neither originality nor novelty are your goals here, your goal is uniqueness. Thus, repurpose existing material into new, unique content.

Why repurpose?

Two great reasons for repurposing include:

  1. Finding new audiences for your message. You may be a blogger first and foremost, but you may find that some of what you write has an audience on Docstoc.com. Many other such sites exist.
  2. Reaching people who prefer different forms of content delivery. Perhaps you learn from reading and writing (i.e., blogging). Other people learn listening or watching. Remember that person in college who just went to class and never did the homework… and aced the exams? She learns by listening. Talk to her with podcasts.

What to repurpose

You can repurpose any blog post you want. With popular posts, repurposing may make them even more popular.

But you can get even more satisfaction repurposing good articles that never took off on your blog. For example, compare the traction between an article on blog success on Website In A Weekend (1 comment) versus the same article repurposed as a guest post about blog success on Free Blog Help (47 comments).

In this case, the article was only lightly rewritten.

(By the way, if Google decides to “penalize” me and return the article on Free Blog Help, I really don’t care. I’m backlinked, and Gabe is a good guy. It’s a win/win for both of us.)

Here’s some guidelines for more extensive changes:

  • Change the article title, page (SEO) title, post slug, and so on.
  • Change the sectioning in the article. If your article has no sections, add sections. If it has sections, and you can improve them, do so.
  • Massively improve the article. If you can extend it’s length, do so, then split it again. Now you have two totally legitimate articles.

I’m sure you can add to this list (and please feel free to do so in the comments).

Repurposing as blog post engineering

This latest version of Blog Post Engineering (0.7.3 Metholz) contains an entire chapter on repurposing. Much of the material will be familiar… but not all of it. For example:

  • Each document sharing website has a distinctly different audience, and you need to know the audience before you pitch your wares.
  • Some sites encourage monetization, others, not so much. You’ll find out more in this newest edition of BPE.
  • Repurposing may require rewriting and reformatting your material for different media. Are you writing your blog posts with reformatting in mind? More information in BPE.
  • There’s two really fast ways to incorporate audio, things you could do right now. You get example of each way using articles from Website In A Weekend.
  • Three methods for doing video are explained; two of them you should be doing right now… with free software.

There’s quite a bit more. Existing readers of BPE will attest to my addiction to over-delivering.

Get your copy now

It’s true: when you purchase Blog Post Engineering, you’re really getting a “lifetime subscription.”

Blog Post Engineering

Blog Post Engineering

See, blogging is evolving very rapidly, and you want to both keep up with those changes. Some of these changes are good, some not so good. If Google Buzz was part of your promotion strategy, you’re probably rethinking that about right now (because the verdict is still out… which is not good).

Likewise, you’re probably on the lookout for new services. I am too.

And I keep my eye on what existing services are doing. Are they getting better? Worse? Here’s two examples:

  1. Digg is getting a rewrite, a new CEO and new services. Did you know that? Do you know how these are going to affect your promotion strategy? If Digg succeeds, I’ll be updating BPE with what you need to know. (Find me on Digg.)
  2. Plurk, one of those “WTH is that?” social media applications is moving a chunk of their backend to node.js, an exciting new Javascript server side technology. I’ve been keeping my eye on Plurk because it 1. I like the interface, and 2. it has a large English speaking user base in East Asia. While you don’t need to know how node.js works, Plurk’s adoption indicates they’re still in the game. And that’s something you might want to know. (Find me on Plurk.)

What a deal! I keep track of this stuff so you don’t have to.

And yes, the price went up. And the price will increase again when the upcoming “Tools” chapter is finished.

Satisfaction guaranteed. If – for any reason – you don’t like Blog Post Engineering, 100% refund, no questions asked.

Questions? Please, ask in the comments!

Filed Under: Creating Content Tagged With:

5 Tips for Social Media Efficiency

August 22, 2010 By

(Reading time: 4 – 7 minutes)

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In 2010, I, along with my colleague, Denise Wakeman, ran a survey to help define what people most wanted to know about social media. We received more than 300 responses. (You can get the results of the survey here: Get the Social Media Use Survey Results)

The results were interesting, and one of the biggest complaints was related to how much time social media takes. People were feeling like they were spending a lot of time being social, but not necessarily seeing huge results. The second issue that stood out was that people were wondering how to best monetize their social media efforts.

When business owners are spending a lot of time, but not seeing any results as far as monetization, this told me that there was some kind of disconnect going on.

And that got me thinking.

What appears to be happening is that people are investing lots of time on the social networks, but not enough time using social media as a content sharing and distribution mechanism.

This means, they are using Facebook and Twitter to engage with their audience, but not using the 10 other kinds of social sites to efficiently share and syndicate their content.

What people are asking for, I think, is a system that  enables them to use social media fully and efficiently, with better results.

So in the interest of saving you some time and effort from having to create your system yourself, let me offer these five tips for increasing your social media efficiency.

1. Schedule regular time for social media.

I’m fond of saying that social media is a time suck. This means that, without boundaries on your time, chatting on Facebook or tweeting on Twitter can take up your entire day. This will have negative impact on your business.

So, instead, schedule time to attend to social media each day, and resist the urge to network all day long, especially if you don’t have a clear and definite business outcome in mind.

I tend to schedule an hour in the morning to connect with my social networks, and I have one of my assistants handle all the daily friending back, following back, processes, reducing my time commitment and letting me focus on conversations and connections.

2. Let technology do the heavy lifting.

You can be more social media efficient if you use technology to help you.

One example would be to set up content distribution and syndication processes. Another way is to use software programs to help streamline your efforts. I like and use Tweetdeck, for example, which lets me monitor Twitter, Facebook, and now, recently, LinkedIn. No matter what you need, there is probably a piece of software that can help you do it faster or better.

3. Reduce the noise.

There are just three main things you need to focus on in social media.

The first is gaining attention. The second is making connections. And the third is being consistent.

You can do this without any technology at all. It’s fine to be interested in new gadgets and new advances in technology (and I confess, I’m a girl geek at times)- but don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed and forget the basics of marketing. You must be noticed, make connections, and show up regularly.

4. Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose.

The better you are at repurposing your content, the easier your social media marketing will be. Aim to get at least 10 uses out of every blog post, every interview, every video you make. Stay in touch with what your target audience needs, and provide it for them faster, and easier, and quicker than anyone else.

Seek to create dialogues and conversations around your content.

You’ll learn what people most want to know, and you’ll always have good ideas for new content to create.

5. Tie your social media efforts to your business goals and optimize for them.

What this means is that you need to have an idea of what you want social media to DO for you.

Do you want to become the household name in XYZ industry? Do you want to get 10000 people on your email database? Do you want to be picked up by major media as an authority or expert? Like any other business arena, you have to know what you want to achieve and lay out a strategy to achieve it.

And then you need to do the work.

If you’re spending a lot of time in social media, but not feeling like you’re getting enough return, I would suggest that maybe you want to step back and reassess your goals. Don’t take part in social media waiting to see what will happen. Have an idea of what you want to create, and use the social media tools to create it. The clearer your objectives, the faster you’ll reach them, helping balance out your time and return on investment.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees

Social networking is not the only facet of social media you should be paying attention to. Use the social media sites to build your platform, drive your brand, and send visitors to your website. These kinds of results are trackable and monetizable. And just good business.

How do you stay efficient with social media? Please share your thoughts here.

If you’d like access my 21 lesson e-course on building influence in social media, get that here: Build Influence eCourse

Rachna Jain is the amazingly energetic entrepreneur driving Social Media Marketing Strategies, where you will find in-depth discussion of the latest technology and techniques in social media marketing.
Filed Under: Building community Tagged With: ,
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