You know you need content. You know you need to blanket the internet with your amazingness. You probably have so many ideas and opinions (as the expert that you are!) that you don’t even know where to start!
You’re SO passionate, yet you can’t think of what to say.
(Ironic, huh?)
Well, there are a multitude of ways to batch out your content. If you have a strong WHY for why you’re still voluntarily on this emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurship, then you’re going to want to get your voice out there.
You’re likely also worried that you’re going to sound just like every other coach out there — but with time, you’ll see that it’s impossible for you to sound exactly like anyone else. And unless you’re blatantly copying and plagiarizing someone else’s content (and I know you’re not, because you’re a good person), then you don’t have to worry about that.
Step 1: Let it out! Your Passion Piece
- Deliverable: 3 Passion Pieces
Start with your “oooo don't get me started” content piece. I call it your PASSION PIECE because it's the mode of communication where you just let ‘er rip.
For me, it's email. I send looooong emails and I've even had people complain that they’re too long. But I figure, my ideal client is miserable in a day job and looking for a distraction at her ergonomic (read: uncomfortable) desk so she'd welcome a long email to make her chuckle and fire her up.
So think about YOUR ideal client. When does she need you, most? When could she use your encouragement and awesome tips?
For you, your ideal format for your initial passion piece might be audio.
Can you get on a voice recorder and rant about a topic?
Can you get on video and start talking about your passion, and not even realize you've been talking for 20 minutes and there’s a line of 10 comments waiting to read?
That’s your passion piece and the mode of communication you should use to produce it. It doesn’t have to be perfect the first time around. It just needs to come out of you, so it exists in the real, physical world (albeit, in digital form, on the internet) and not just in your thoughts where it can be forgotten (and you can conveniently sit on your pity stool and claim you “don’t have anything to say.”)
Where to store your passion piece topics
(until you can sit down and slice it up into multiple pieces of content for the interwebs)
I wish I had a nice, clean answer for you, but to be honest, most of my content comes out of me in bits and spurts. So I try to put most of it on Google Keep (using the app, on my phone, which, at this point, should just be surgically attached to me for how little I ever exist without it). If it’s not on Google keep, it’s probably scribbled on a notepad or sticky note until I have time to sit down and transfer everything online. I’ve also invested in shower crayons, because hot water and steam seems to bring some interesting ideas out of me.
Whatever your method — Compile your topics.
Start ranting.
Again — don’t try to be all perfect about this. If you’re just starting to build your content library (whether it’s Instagram posts or blog posts or whatever), it’s not a matter of following the scientific method so you earn an A+ on your next report card. Let go of the perfectionism. Please.
Rant (or passionately educate, if that feels better) via your passion piece. Get it out.
And now the fun stuff — the slicing and dicing!
Step 2: Slice & Dice
First, turn your passion piece into a blog post, if it isn’t one, already. I like to write my long-ass emails in Google Docs, just because I’ve had the unfortunate experience of writing in Evernote or Google Keep and having my shoddy internet cut out mid-rant, only to lose all of it. Not cool, AT&T. So I’ve learned my lesson and write in Google Docs directly, where it saves automatically to my best friend, the internet.
If your passion piece is a video or audio, you’ll need to transcribe it. You can use Rev.com if you’ve got the resources (or hire a personal transcriber) or you can upload to Youtube and grab the .srt file to generate a (sometimes amusing) caption file for your spoken words.
Now, do it again.
I’m sure you have a couple more topics you can rant about, right? Now that you’ve gotten THIS topic out of your system, think about something else you feel very passionately about. Make a passion piece out of that, and then do it again.
Now that you’ve got 3 passion pieces, pick ONE and let’s work on repurposing it.
Step 3: Post your passion piece as a blog post on your website.
- Deliverable: 1 blog post
Ideally… you’d hand your passion piece off to a VA to do this. But let’s assume you’re going to do it yourself, get SO good at it that you know you’re wasting your $500/hour CEO time, and then you’ll eventually hand it off to a VA for them to take over.
For now… here’s what you can do while you’re getting used to the process.
Take your transcribed passion piece and start a Google Doc (or you can put it straight into your website as a new post, and just keep saving the draft as you edit).
Go through your text and break it up into paragraphs.
Highlight main, summarizing points as headers. Use both H2 and H3 in your formatting tools. (Your title of the blog is usually already in H1 format)
Put major opinions or “hey, LISTEN, you can skim everything but THIS is important” statements in bold. I’m notorious for using poor formatting etiquette and putting lots of things in italics, bold italics, and caps, but hey — you do you!
Skim through your article to make sure it makes sense if someone only reads the bold lines.
Find a non-corny stock photo to use as your featured image on your blog post, and then hit PUBLISH! You don’t have to go on Facebook and make a big hullabaloo about your one blog post. We’ve got more work to do!
Congrats! You just made your first “monthly” blog post! You’re all set!
*pat on the back*
Step 4: Repurpose for Instagram
- Deliverable: 3 Instagram quote images (or more) + 3 Non-quote Instagram images (with paragraph descriptions)
Pull 3 short quotes out of the content. Use Canva to make your quotes in square format, following the theme of or using your featured stock photo. Note: I like to keep at least 5 generic “quote” designs (you can just ONE brand color as the background, no need to get fancy if you’re not a graphic designer) so you can rotate through them and quickly use the same backgrounds for future posts.
Keep your brand colors in mind! Add those graphics into your blog post, where appropriate (usually right above or below where the quote was pulled out of the body of the post).
Voila. Instagram Post 1, 2, and 3!
Choose 3 more stock photos or headshots that can be used on Instagram and look good when they’re cropped to a square format.
Instagram Post 4:
Tell your Instagram followers that there's a new blog post by posting a stock photo (or a headshot) and briefly describe what the blog post is about. You can tell them “New blog post! Check out the link in my bio: @{insert your username}. You can search for {keyword} to pull it up!” Post one immediately when the blog goes live, so that they’re literally being alerted that there’s a new blog post up.
Instagram Posts 5 & 6:
Pull a full paragraph out of your blog post and edit it so it can stand on its own. Do this 2 more times, with other paragraphs. Add a CTA to the bottom for them to check out the FULL blog post. For example, “I talk about this in length in the blog post, ‘How to Cut Sugar Without Being a Crazy Fanatic’ — go check it out! Link in bio >> @rochellesanch” (but use your own username, obvs)
Step 5: Schedule to Twitter
Deliverable: 10 tweets (to use over and over again)
Tweets 1-5:
Pull 5 nuggets that can stand alone as short pieces of inspiration. Schedule them into twitter and add your blog link at the end, with “Read more over at ____.”
Tweets 6-8:
Remember those 3 Instagram Graphic quotes you made? If they’re short enough, you can make them into tweets!
Tweets 9-10:
Now go out and grab 5 quotes by famous people, related to your topic. Write it in the tweet, then drive it toward your blog post.
Example: Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Read about how to find a niche that lights you up and sets you apart from the crowd >> {insert link}
If you have a queue-style scheduler like Postplanner or Meet Edgar, keep your blog posts and tweets in the line-up so they recycle and keep getting pushed out to your social media followers.
Step 6: Batch those Facebook Group Value Posts
- Deliverable: 4 Value Posts for your group (or other groups)
Disclaimer: Don’t be THAT person who drops links in Facebook groups and runs. That’s like running into a networking meeting, splattering your stack of business cards on the table, and then leaving right away, expecting them to cheer for you and discuss your work after you’ve left.
That being said — you need a mix of replying to existing posts in Facebook groups and posting your own stuff, if you want to establish yourself as the go-to specialist in your niche.
Grab a segment of no more than 200 words (copy and paste into a Google Doc or Word Processor to count! It's shorter than you think!) and add an intro sentence and a call to action at the end. Your intro sentence can be “Hey {ideal client characteristic} people — if you've been struggling with {problem your blog addresses} then here's a tip!” And then your CTA can be a link to your blog post (if the admin allows that — read the group rules!) or a request to “Comment below with ___.” Make it specific, and something they'd be willing to share. The more light hearted, the better! Make sure you relate it to the on-topic in the group, because people in that group probably came there to learn about THAT than to learn about you.
Do it again, two more times. Now you’ve got 4 relevant value posts to share in Facebook groups! Rotate one value post among your groups for every week of the month and you’re set. 🙂
Step 7: Go LIVE and talk about each point
- Deliverable: 10+ videos, spread throughout your social media and youtube channels
Your passion piece can probably be divided into 2-3 sub topics. Go live on the platform of your choice (make an IG story, or go live on Facebook, etc.) covering just ONE of the topics. You can keep it casual and say “I published this blog post about ____ and one of the topics is probably REALLY relevant to you guys here, so here goes…” and then spend no more than 5 minutes talking about it.
You can sprinkle in a CTA like “If this resonates with you, or you're more of a written word type gal, then go look at the blog post I posted on this topic.” And don't forget to put the link in the comments!
Go live again, and talk about it in another group.
Go live again … in another group (yes, about the same topic!)
Go live again, on your Facebook page, your instagram story, your twitter feed, your snapchat… anywhere else you want, until you’re sick of this sub-topic and can talk about it off the top of your head.
Note: Keep track of where you’ve gone live!
Now do it again for the other 2 sub topics.
Now go back and download the best of your videos off Facebook (or Instagram, or wherever). Upload them to Youtube. 🙂
Boom, Youtube channel!
Make sure you put relevant description information and a link back to your freebie (or group, or wherever people enter your funnel) and use keywords that will make your video easy to find.
And guess what… when you’re ready, you can take those LIVE videos, chop them up, and post them on Instagram, too. Bonus instagram content!
If you follow this full process, you’ll end up with (at minimum):
1 passion piece
1 blog post
6 instagram posts
10 tweets
4 value posts for Facebook Groups
10+ videos
And that’s for ONE passion piece. You’ve got two more, right?
And of course, the more you do it, the faster you’ll get. You’ll probably find even more ways to repurpose your content than what’s described here. Have fun content batching, friends!