Twelve Social Media Gifts of Christmas for Small Businesses That Want To Share Their Brand Story Online (Part 2)
Last time Edgar introduced you to the most important social media tools that your small business needs in order to start its journey online. These give you the possibility to identify your target audience, become a good social listener and employ the power of surveys. They also allow you to learn what topics are trending and what content to create, how to distribute it most effectively on social media and how to benefit from email marketing.
In the second part of the Twelve Social Media Gifts of Christmas, we want to take you further into content creation and its effective distribution online. Even to places that Santa doesn’t know about! And, you know, he has all these elves working for him throughout the whole year…
But let’s get focused. Here we talk about recycling and reusing great content you have already created.
Think about your best blog post or coolest infographic. They probably got the biggest engagement online. Why not reap benefit from them again and again?
That’s what content repurposing is all about. You can make many different pieces of content starting from one blog post, for example. These can be social media updates, presentations, videos and whatnot. Combine recycling and reusing with quality content curation, and you’ve got a great recipe for widening the reach of your own content.
With all of these, you effectively — and creatively — reinforce your brand storytelling efforts. Just remember that all content coming out on your channels should carry the authentic stamp of your brand — and should tell its story in a powerful way. And then you’re good to go!
So let’s dive into the next six gifts of Christmas.
On the seventh day of Christmas…
You have a well-researched blog post with loads of good data that people appreciate. And you spent ages preparing it… So why not turn it into a beautiful presentation that will keep circulating online, bringing benefit to your audience and back to your brand?
SlideShare can be of help for this task. It’s easy and intuitive to use. Besides offering you a place to create or upload your presentation, it is itself a platform for sharing content. So yours can also get noticed there.
On the eighth day of Christmas…
Another cool way to repurpose your existing content is Storify. It gives you the possibility to recycle content in shorter form, almost like a presentation, but on top, you can also cross-link it with other content on the net.
This means you can directly include text, images and video from other networks such as Twitter, Facebook, G+, Youtube, Instagram and so on. What better way to combine original content with curated one? That’s how you tell a consistent and well-versed brand story, after all.
The other awesome feature is that you get to involve other people who are interested in the same topic. When you use other people’s tweets, you practically increase your reach and engagement. Of course, make sure you let them know you’ve mentioned them in your story.
On the ninth day of Christmas…
Let’s dig in Santa’s bag of presents… and in Edgar’s tools, too. With Edgar’s StoryCrafter, you can tap the potential of great visual storylines. It’s a great way to tell a micro-story, which of course, is nicely embedded in your wholesome brand story.
The tool allows you to create a complete story in seven moments that can consist of images or videos for backgrounds, and then your text or tweets on top. The whole piece is tied together by your virtual business card at the end of the storyline, so everything comes back to your brand. And of course, fellow storytellers can comment and compliment your stories, which you can share them across all media channels.
On the tenth day of Christmas…
Fancy having your own brand newspaper? Well, Paper.li is the right tool for that. It allows you to make a winning combination between curation of relevant external resources and your own repurposed content.
The platform sifts through a huge amount of posts and updates daily, so you’ll get vast quality content that you can select for your own paper. Then, it’s just about embedding all into your brand story’s context. And publish and share generously, all the while multiplying the reach of your own narrative.
Just like in Storify, here you can mention other people in your paper too. In this way, you show them you appreciate their contribution, and they often show you theirs by sharing your paper.
On the eleventh day of Christmas…
And here we go with another great tool for content curation and creation. That’s Scoop.it. You create a topic — and start scooping relevant articles to post on the topic’s Scoop.it page.
This is a great way to aggregate relevant resources and connect with users interested in the same topics as you. You can also upload your own content, which means yet another venue for your repurposed original posts.
On the twelfth day of Christmas…
The last (but not least) great platform on the list is Medium. These days, it has turned into the go-to place for quality articles online. Content there lives a life of its own — so it’s wise to include your posts there too.
You can go for slightly longer pieces and naturally, include images and videos throughout the piece. Both content specifically targeted for Medium and repurposed old content work. If you’re doing the second option, make your post a bit more extensive, but make sure to keep the brand voice consistent.
Edgar is in Christmas mood
So, friends, what else is on your Christmas wish list?
If you need to show Santa you’ve been good this year, Edgar can help you with that too!
