If you spend anytime on the internet at all, you’re probably familiar with those brands who consistently put out fresh content that makes your own efforts feel a little weak. I know I get that feeling whenever I get a peek at Funny or Die’s 21 Best GIFs of All Time of the Week, which I usually do when I’m looking for inspiration.
How do they do it? Do they spend hours each day online scouring YouTube for people and pets doing stupid or funny things (not a bad job, if you can get it)? Well, depending on staff size, they might. Most of us don’t have that kind of time or the resources to spend your work week on YouTube curating content, or even creating your own content. And that’s OK. There are other ways to keep your content fresh. In fact, I’ve got 5 tips for you right here.
5 tips for keeping your content fresh
1. Source lists
I don’t have time to get through one content calendar without a source list, much less five. A source list is a great resource for curating content. You probably find yourself going back to the same websites for industry information. Curate those sources into one list that you can quickly reference when you need to share fresh content and don’t have time to create your own.
2. Make old content new
You know those blog posts that you wrote last year that are already outdated? Update them. You don’t have to search for a new topic each time; some industry topics will always be of interest, you just need to keep them updated. Don’t reinvent the wheel, rethink your old content.
3. Repurpose content
Another way to rethink old content is to recreate it in a different form. Take a few blogs you wrote that work together and incorporate all those ideas into a new white paper. Or, take a white paper you wrote and break it up into smaller posts for social media or blog posts.
4. Guest posts
Guess who has fresh ideas? Other people. Adding a guest to your blog can help you get a fresh perspective and new content that you don’t have to take the time to create yourself. Inviting a guest to your blog will also serve to get your brand in front of a new audience: your guest’s network.
5. Utilize your team
Ask your staff to help come up with ideas for social media posts, blog posts and white papers. They’re likely to have fresh ideas that you hadn’t thought of yourself. Maybe your customer service staff is fielding a lot of the same questions that could be answered on your blog or social media. Many brains are better than one; that’s why we work in teams. If you don’t have a team, you can outsource that.
This might sound simple, and the truth is, coming up with fresh content can be simple. New and exciting things happen around us and in our industry every day. A new cat video is added to YouTube every 12th millisecond. OK, I made that stat up, but you get my point.
You need to extract that new and exciting content from the world around you. If you don’t have the time or resources to create it on a daily or weekly basis, find it through other sources or by rethinking the content you’ve already created.
Fresh content is necessary for grabbing attention in a world supersaturated with other brands’ fresh content. Don’t count yourself out, use my tips; get in the game.
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