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    Which Social Network to Focus On?

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    When you have so many choices, which platforms do you choose?
    Blogs • Email • Twitter • Tik Tok • Images  • YouTube • Podcasts • Facebook • Medium • Quora • Instagram •  Long Form Video  • Short Form Video • Media Companies • Sooooooo many more...
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    Listen here:

     

     

    There's so many ways to spread your message, focus is becoming a problem.

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    You end up bouncing around social media networks, half-assing each one:

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    - You'll Tweet random things -
    - You'll sometimes make YouTube videos -
    - You'll occasionally make a LinkedIn post -
    - You'll then get distracted with YouTube Shorts -
    - You'll record a random podcast here and there -
    - You'll experiment with TikTok and Instagram short videos -

     

     

    Here's 3 questions to figure out where to focus:

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    #1.) What channels do I have a natural advantage?

    #2.) Will I enjoy spending 1-3 years of time on this platform?

    #3.) What main channel helps me create "cascading content"?

     

    Let's explain each question...

     

    #1.) What channels do I have a natural advantage?

    Different people, Different skillsets:
    • Some people are better at writing. 
    • Some people are better at podcasting.
    • Some people are better at video content. 

    For example, I don't think I'm built for TikTok. The extreme short form of videos there aren't my natural style, and the frequency which you must post is too large. Others have me beat in this area.

    However YouTube has been a great channel for me. 

    It's been enjoyable to make videos for YouTube, people have responded well to my videos, and YouTube has brought me lots of customers. 

    So I seem to have some "natural advantage" on that channel.

    For me, stats have shown my natural advantage to be from:

    • Blog posts
    • YouTube videos (often made out of the blog posts)
    • Twitter for screwing around and meeting new people

    So I will primarily focus on these channels rather than anything else.

     

    #2.) Will I enjoy spending 1-3 years of time on this platform?

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    This is an extremely important question!!

    Everyone I know who's built an audience from scratch has been working on it for YEARS. 

    If you hate using Twitter, then trying to build an audience on Twitter will be painful and difficult. 

    However if you naturally use Twitter all the time, then building a Twitter audience won't be so bad. In fact you might ENJOY it! 

     

     

    #3.) What main channel helps me create "cascading content"?

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    If I write a long blog post it can turn into many different forms of media. For example a single blog post can "cascade" into:

    1. Blog Post: Creates an SEO asset, and "cascades" into other content.
    2. YouTube Video Script: Now I can create a video out of that blog post.
    3. Social Content: That blog post and video can now be chopped up into little micro-content like Tweets, Pinterest Images, LinkedIn Posts, TikTok Vids etc...

    So the main channel for me to focus on would be Blog Posts. The rest of the channels feed off that main piece of content.

     

    Group Question: What content do you think YOU should focus on?

    Mine is Blog Posts. If I write a blog post → It turns into a YouTube Video Script → It turns into social media content. What’s yours? Respond with your answer 🙂

     

     

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    27 Comments


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    • Moderator

    My cascading content is a presentation / lesson plan. 

    Every Thursday I teach a copywriting session for B2B sales teams. 

    That turns into...

    - Lesson
    -- Course
    ---- YouTube video
    --------- Email
    -------------- Blog
    ------------------- Social posts 

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    • Administrator

    Hey @Dan - Copywriting Course oh that's an interesting way to think about it! 

    Come to think of it, a lot of times I've been asked to present something I'll make a presentation, and THAT will turn into a banger blog post and then video. 

    Interesting "Cascading Content" path!

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    I’m struggling with this because I really enjoy Instagram, but believe my ideal client is more often on LinkedIn. That place feels stuffy and I’m bored on LinkedIn.

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    • Administrator

    Hey Sarah, one common way of doing well on a social platform is by copy/pasting your content from a DIFFERENT network there! 

    I wonder if you can take some of your fun Instagram content, and re-purpose it on LinkedIn? 

    I've seen a lot of people doing quite well using that method 🙂 

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    Guest Rachael W.

    While on Upwork ultimately looking for copywriting jobs, I stumbled upon romance writing!!!!!! Try not to laugh. And I decided to go for that because I love to write. Had never read romance or written fiction in my life, but I'm now a mad romance consumer (for my training) and just finished writing my first book. Will be one of a series of three, so won't publish till sometime in 2023.

    I think my best platforms will be:

    • Email: putting out a newsletter
    • Youtube: making book 'trailers'
    • Instagram: because it doesn't bug me much to use that.
    • Also advertising on FB.

    Thanks for everything you do Neville! You're hilarious, entertaining, adorable, a stud, and a constant inspiration.

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    • Administrator

    Thank you for the kind words Rachael! 

    It's amazing when you're a fan of a genre, and then get to actually CREATE something in that same space. Actually it's probably far easier to do that because you enjoy the genre and participate already. 

    I think romance novels are a pretttyyyy big business too, so there's still room for brand new entrants. 

    Best of luck on your book launch!!

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    I'm a content writer, so I write a lot of posts on personal non-work-related WordPress blogs as well as posting on LinkedIn and on a website I'm currently rebuilding.

    I'm thinking that Twitter would be a logical next step.

    So, blog posts would seem to be my logical cascade mechanism.

    Thanks for the advice and insights.

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    • Administrator

    Hey Dennis, it definitely seems blogs would be your "Cascading Content" platform, then it trickles down to smaller bites on something like Twitter!

    So yours would look like:

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    I'm 100% with you on the blog post > video script > social content (specifically IGTV, YouTube, Facebook).  

    I've been trying to get into the whole Reels/TikTok craze and I'm just not cut out for it lol!  I'm a one-and-done type person and the concept of spending hours trying to do one flawless transition and pointing at nothing in general is too much for this Gen-Xer!

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    • Administrator

    Hey Tai, that's good to know what you're NOT good at, or just flat out don't like. 

    If you hate a platform, then trying to succeed on it will be hard. 

    Good you know yourself!

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    Hey Neville,
    Thanks for this post, it really opened my eyes. 

    Right now I'm not doing anything on any platform, I basically posted occasionally a video on Youtube, a post or story on Instagram, more posts on Facebook and that's about it.

    But thinking about it, it took me so much time and it was a bit difficult to create blog posts or 
    your 3 questions really helped me reconsider how I approach this.

    I believe the answer for me is I am best when people honestly ask me for advice, basically coaching / consulting / teaching. So, my platform of choice would be wherever I get interviewed by someone: podcasts, Youtube, maybe Facebook live, Instagram also.

    The interview can then be cascaded into a Youtube video, podcast episode, short clips, blog post, social media posts etc. for their and my channels, so that's useful.

    Another useful thing would be if I get interviewed by people in front of their audiences, so they do the work of creating the media file etc. and also get me new leads because of that - like Bryan Harris's strategy which he teaches at Growth Tools.

    But what do you think about this, since it is not really my own content (since it will be published by others on their channels)? Is that bad or can it work?

    Thanks so much, I will see how I start to do something in this direction.

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    • Administrator

    Hey Sergiu, it sound like the answers to your questions are:

    #1.) What channels do I have a natural advantage?
    Interviews (so YouTube or Podcast)

    #2.) Will I enjoy spending 1-3 years of time on this platform?
    Maybe YouTube and Podcast?

    #3.) What main channel helps me create "cascading content"?
    Long form interviews and podcasts.

    I'm not sure which platforms you'd enjoy, but I'm assuming YouTube or Podcast might the best way to post longform interviews. 

    From what I can tell you do best with people asking questions, and you answering, which sounds like a common podcast format. 

    Maybe you do a podcast where you take common questions people ask, then answer them. You could theoretically start recording this right from your phone at first, then ramping up production if it catches on!

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    • Administrator

    The reason I didn't add that questions SPECIFICALLY (kind of implied in #1), is that if 2 years ago you told me TikTok for business would be big, I'd have thought you're crazy.

    I think good storytelling and information delivery can be conveyed through different platforms, and new platforms invent new ways of storytelling.

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    Great post Neville. Quick question. What's the most important principle for easily creating blog posts to video to social you have found?
     

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    • Administrator

    Hey Kyle, I'm not sure I have THE answer, but my personal process right now is:

    1.) Writing out a full blog post about a concept (often re-writing it several times).
    2.) Using that blog post as the script for a video.
    3.) Taking some of the images and snippets and turning them into small social posts. 

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    Hi Neville.

    This post came at the right time. I have been torn between options and you've helped me reach a decision today.

    The nature of my career (visual design) relies heavily on visual content. However, I'm more comfortable writing because it allows me to be witty.

    Now I know what channels to use:

    I'd create blog posts, then Instagram and that includes the reels and video posting, then finish off with Twitter which is also a great place to have interesting and spontaneous conversations.

    Thank you so much.

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    • Administrator

    Hey Mercy that sounds like a solid plan!!

    You're correct in that visual fields do well on Instagram which is a primarily visual platform. 

    Twitter is *ok* for visual posts, but REALLY EXCELS at being able to connect with new people. I've DEFINITELY found that to be the case!

     

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    I'd like to learn more how you cascade when you mentioned templates from one form to another.

    I get the concept but just curious if you have a certain pattern that seems to work best?  I'm in the middle of a project now where it'd be helpful to apply that.

    In the past, I was building rank and rent sites using a similar method:

    1) Build a site (*noindex while developing) and collect that content to add to a Google Doc to export for a kindle book with the title being the keyword I was targeting.

    2) Take the blog posts in that content and do text-to-speech to create podcast episodes to submit to iTunes, Spotify, etc

    3) Finally index the site by submitting to search console.

    *Would do it this way so amazon kindle team would see my ebook submission wasn't already published on the web.

    The above would help with approach for '1st page domination' all targeting SERPs for desired keywords. It did work for awhile with a couple local SEO projects.

    Currently working on another similar project where I'd especially like to try cascading from blog posts to video content to social media posts.

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    • Administrator

    Hey CJ, that's an interesting process! 

    Doing this "Cascading Content" thing depends on the type of content you're trying to make. 

    If you're doing mainly SEO and no video, a good process might be:

    1.) Create big post on a topic.
    2.) Take snippets from that post and break them out into smaller post, linking the main post. 

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    Thanks for the relevant post. 

    I'm fascinated by TikTok.
    I really like making short videos and can see myself doing it for many years.

    Cascading content works well wih it:

    Literally repost my TikToks as -
    Youtube Shorts / Instagram Reels / Facebook Stories

    So I focus only on making TikToks as Organic Content.

    Next to that I write Emails to my list, that is all. 

    Curious for your insights.

    Liking your weekly emails.

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    • Administrator

    Hey Goya, if you love TikTok AND you love making short videos....then it sounds like a perfect match! 

    Loving the platform is great because you know what works and what doesn't intuitively based on your usage. 

    Once you have your main TikTok content, you can then craft emails around that to send to your audience.....then maybe just convert those emails into blog posts you can reference later.

    Glad you found your own "Cascading Content" methodology!

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    • Administrator

    Hey Dichaba you might want to try this:

    Try publishing 3 articles on Medium.com or your own blog, or social media. 

    THAT'S IT. 

    You'll quickly find out if you like blogging/writing or not 🙂 

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    Hey Neville,

    Thanks for this post. It helped clarify the idea of cascading content for me.

    I have an essential oil business and am currently in the process of creating content for my blog.

    Since I love writing my cascading content would be:
    ------Blog post (long epic post) then write smaller posts linking to the main post.

    ------Email

    ------ Social Content. (Pinterest 1st then repurpose on LinkedIn)

    I LOVE working in Canva and creating posts with images. Since my business lends itself to images I would post first on Pinterest. From there I would repurpose my (fun) content on LinkedIn since this is where my primary audience is located.

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