We had a great show featuring Sherrie Wilkolaski, AME’s Director of Marketing, and our special guest Shelley Hitz, discussing the many ways to re-purpose content and communicate with your followers across social media and online platforms.
About our guest: Shelley Hitz is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and consultant to organizations, individuals and businesses who want to multiply their impact through self-publishing. She teaches from personal experience. Over a two-year span, while working full-time, she self-published five books, multiple audio CDs, authored two websites that attract thousands of visitors each month, and created multiple products that she sells through her website and at her speaking engagements.
Her website, http://www.Self-Publishing-Coach.com also offers a monthly newsletter, tele-classes, special reports, e-books, webinars, podcasts, videos as well as book marketing resources to help individuals, small organizations, and businesses achieve their goals and multiply their impact through self-publishing.
For Shelley, re-purposing content began with the teen tips she published online. Those tips became the basis for a book (in print, Kindle and PDF formats), then an audio book, blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, YouTube videos and newsletter content.
Image by indiamos via Flickr
Re-purposing content is a great way to reach your audience in a variety of ways, she says. Many people do not follow all of your channels, but find one or two they like. Making your content available in multiple formats via multiple channels ensures more people will see your message.
In addition, re-purposing content into a number of formats lends credibility as an expert; in Shelley’s case it led to speaking engagements.
Getting started:
Start a blog or a website. Write articles and post as time permits. That content can later be turned into a book.
If you want to start a book, sit down and brainstorm your ideas for the book. Set aside time. When Shelley began her book, she was still working full-time, traveling and speaking part-time on weekends. But over a two-year period she self-published five books. Anyone can do this if they take the time.
Image by GRwitters via Flickr
Even if you write 500 or 800 words a week that’s enough to keep focused on your goal. Or, authors can record audio for their book and have that audio transcribed. This is a handy option for those who are better at speaking than writing their ideas.
Resources for transcribing content:
* faith-based books: http://christianvolunteering.org/ – if your material fits this niche
* http://castingwords.com/ – Shelley has paid them 75 cents per minute, which is a great rate
* http://allcustomcontent.com/transcription.html – this service offers different tiers. One of them will transcribe your audio and format it (for a PDF report, for instance). This service is great for creating bonus content for your readers.
Audio know-how:
Image via Wikipedia
Who will record your audio book? You can hire someone, but consider doing it yourself. It helps your readers connect with you and your voice if you do it yourself. Shelley has recorded her own audio books. While many authors think it costs thousands of dollars, they can do this from a home studio.
Gather your equipment. There is free software at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ that you can use for editing.
Shelley’s YouTube Channel has a tutorial on using audacity: http://www.youtube.com/selfpublishingcoach
Share your audio a variety of ways: Tweet a snippet or a chapter. Add a free audio download on your Facebook page and to your website or blog. Use an audio book as a bonus for your followers.
If you have audio to sell as a CD you can use http://kunaki.com/ – this print on demand CD service will take the MP3 file and use your own cover, or the site can help you create a cover. You will get a professional quality CD. Shelley sells the CDs on her website, but also brings them with her to sell at her speaking engagements.
Using Video:
Image via CrunchBase
YouTube marketing is another effective way to re-purpose content.
Shelley believes YouTube is powerful because people feel like they know you after watching you on video.
You can do how-to videos, tutorials, reviews and much more. If you decide to make videos regularly consider investing in software such as Camtasia, http://camtasia-studio.en.softonic.com/.
Generating new content:
Shelley still produces new material as often as she can for use on her blog, YouTube channel, and as audio, emails, newsletters, reports and more.
A teen podcast Shelley developed was turned into a PDF report. Then, that content became a book of devotionals for teen girls. Those excerpts were also sent via http://www.aweber.com/ as an autoresponder (emails you can schedule and send to followers on a regular basis).
Think about what you already have or are creating and how you can use it, she says.
Image via Wikipedia
In another example, Shelley takes the guest posts that she writes for other blogs and uses the information in her newsletter, Self Publishing Tips. Many of her newsletter readers may not follow the blogs Shelley has posted to, and now they can benefit from that information via her newsletter.
Start small: Think of one thing you can do to re-purpose content and take action!
Re-purposing reviews:
You can reprint the reviews in your book, on your website or on your blog. When Shelley gets positive comments on Facebook or Twitter she takes a screen shot. You can use http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ to put that screen shot on a website, blog or book sales page.
Twitter has a “favorite” button, so you can save things people say about you and then post them on your website or blog.
Also, the Twitter “Retweet” button is a great way to share content such as a good review. It provides extra credibility because you can show the identity of the commenter as well as the actual tweet, says Shelley.
Think of re-purposing content as continuing the conversation with those who are following you – video and audio are some of the best ways to make that connection. Don’t be overwhelmed by the choices – pick an option and start now!
Download the full show at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/07/26/re-purposing-your-content
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Upcoming Episode:
Please join us Aug. 9 for Publishing Insights from Ellora’s Cave
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/08/09/publishing-insights-from-elloras-cave
If you want to be on the cutting edge of the publishing world, look no further than Ellora’s Cave. They have a successful formula for both print and ebooks – while others try to figure out how to navigate a digital publishing world, Ellora’s Cave dived right in. Join us as Susan Edwards, COO of Ellora’s Cave, discusses the strategies her company employs to stay on top.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to be part of your show and for providing a great summary post! I encourage each author to choose one way they can re-purpose their content this week and then to take action. 🙂
Thank you for being such a great guest, it was a pleasure to have you on The Publishing Insiders!
What a great show. It was packed with solid tips and content. I’ve been preaching this to my clients for years now. It’s so refreshing to hear someone else champion the cause, and give tips that were new to me! Thank you both.
Debra,
We’re so glad you enjoyed the show! We always hope listeners will walk away with a wealth of information, and Shelley was a fabulous guest. Thanks for stopping by!