One Piece of Content, 3 Ways to Use It: How to Make Your Content Work Triple Time

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You're a business owner and your time is limited.  So when we tell you things like, "You should be blogging regularly" or "It's important to pitch yourself or your business monthly, with new ideas" or even ask, "Have you shared something interesting, whether content or a promotion via social media", I'm sure many of you let out a sigh and wonder when you'll get it all done.  You may even get overwhelmed by all the content you have to write and instead of attacking it strategically, you neglect to do it at all.  Well sigh no longer!  It's time you learned a trick that will free up more of your time, while covering all your content bases!  Sound impossible? It's not! Let us officially welcome you to the world of making your content work triple time!

FIRST YOU PLAN:

If you're doing your PR the right way (and you should be) you've created some type of internal calendar or plan for each month, in terms of pitch creation, as well as the "who/what/when" in terms of your outreach, and  so forth.  If you haven't done this yet, try to do this for yourself this weekend!  I promise you, the "plan your work, work your plan" system, no matter how simple your plan is, can be a gamechanger for your business.  If you have any sort of blog action going on at your website you're also probably planning your blog posts out in advance.  Again, if you aren't, you should be, as it will save you from headaches and "what am I going to write about" moment in the future.

NOW HERE'S THE TRICK:

While planning your content (the stuff you're going to write on your blog and social media) as well as your pitches, I want you to start looking at your ideas.  Could any of them have multipurpose uses?  Instead of writing one idea for a blog, one idea for a Facebook post and another completely new idea for a pitch couldn't you use the same concept multiple times?

WHY THIS WORKS:

Here's the thing: when you're blogging you're most likely talking about an idea that is timely and interesting.  This is the same type of idea that makes a great news story.  It only makes sense that you'd work your content in both ways.  The same is true for social media.  Again you're posting timely and interesting things, which your pitches and blogs should be.  So let some of those ideas spill into your Facebook or Twitter feed as well, in the form of tips, statements or whatever else you're talking about.  

Here is an example: a few months ago we did a post on the Tin Shingle website that featured tips you for keeping your work going strong while you have to leave your real or virtual desk due for unexpected reasons.  This is a challenge common to many entrepreneurs and small business owners. Once we wrote that article we had everything we needed to convert it into an awesome pitch! We had tips that were already there ready to be shared on air, or even in print.  Notice we don't try to pitch it to another blog as fresh tips because it's already housed on ours.  That said with just a few "nips and tucks" to turn the blog into a quality media pitch, we were able to send it over (tips and all) to a few business television shows, one of which has booked it for the spring.  Score!  The cherry on top was the fact that we now had great tips we can share on social media from our original post, that provide followers with useful information, and lead them back to read more via the full post.

It's as simple as that.  Try as often as you can to make your content work triple time.  If you write a great post - especially tips of any kind - turn that around and pitch it to press that have an audience who would appreciate your tips, whether they be viewers or magazine readers!  Time is precious, use it as strategically as possible! 

Want to learn how to write the perfect pitch?  Click here...

Are you a service provider or expert with tips to share with the media? Find out how to do it best here...