Tag: social media tips

Welcome to this week’s social media quick tip.  This week I want to show you how to create a recurring content feature. 

What is recurring blog content?

Recurring content is consistent content published on a regular schedule using a defined structure. This content has the ability to form hooks that keep readers interested in coming back to your site for more of the same.

I’ve experimented over the years with many different types of regular recurring columns on various blogs, for example the Cool Tool feature which I post each Monday morning.

Why create recurring content?

Marketer Heidi Cohen outlines the following three advantages to creating consistent content.

She goes on to outline the business value

Before you introduce a regular feature to readers, it’s important to take some time to choose a topic that matches your content strategy and crucially won’t have you running out of ideas after a few weeks.  Ideally, your topic should be associated with your keyword phrases to support your organic search efforts.

Once you’ve decided on your topic, decide on the elements you will use to maintain consistency in the design and format of your content.  Choose the same day and time to publish so readers know to expect it at that time each week – this helps build an audience for your content.  To quote Cohen, “as the digital version of appointment media your audience depends on receiving your information at the same time every week. Over time, this builds share of audience attention.”

Finally, keep the format and design elements consistent.

Here are three types of recurring features to add to your content marketing.

1. Advice Column

Set aside one day a week to provide step-by-step instructions, or answer readers’ questions.

2. Interview Series

I ran an interview series, Social Spotlight, last year with healthcare thought leaders.  It followed a consistent question format, with some tailoring to the interviewee, and was a popular addition to my content calendar.

3. Weekly Round-Up Post

I run several weekly round-up style posts for client blogs focussed on their niche. I curate the most helpful, interesting and topical news from their industry and publish them in a blog post, usually on a Friday.  It’s always the most read content when I check the weekly blog stats.

Of course, your recurring content can live outside the written word. With the popularity of video, consider adding a regular vlog or even more popular, a Facebook Live recurring feature.

To sum up

Recurring posts of high value keeps your audience interested and coming back for more. By adding a regular recurring feature to your content marketing you give your audience something to look forward, while at the same time building a unique and recognisable element into your brand.

Here’s to your social media success!

Welcome to this week’s social media quick tip.  This week I want to show you how to generate content ideas when you are running out of inspiration.

Next time you’re stuck for something to write about,  try brainstorming using a tool like HubSpot’s Blog Topic Generator. It lets you input up to three different nouns and returns five blog topic ideas that will exercise your writing muscles again.

Here are the suggestions generated for me when I input the terms “social media” and “marketing” into the tool.

A similar tool to Hubspot, Portent’s Content Idea Generator allows you to generate ideas with just one keyword. Be prepared that the tool can throw up some quirky suggestions, but don’t let that put you off. Keep playing around with it until you find one you can work with. I also really like how it shows you best practice tips, such as using metaphors in your writing.

I also like to use Buzzsumo to find inspiration by searching which popular content is most shared right now on social media. These are the topics people want to read about so it’s worth brainstorming ideas around this content.

Here’s to your socia media success!