Content Marketing - The Nine Lives of a Single Topic
Awhile back I was perusing a chamber website and clicked on the blog. There I found a stark, blank, lonely page with one post that said “Coming soon.” The post was dated 2013.It made me sad. It made me sad because this chamber was trying. They understood the value that a blog could deliver to members, but like a lot of other chambers, they obviously lacked the resources to get it up and running.It reminded me of another time when I came across a chamber Twitter account with once again, one lonely post. The post read: “Really excited to get into this Twitter thing!” It was dated about 2 years prior to me stumbling upon it. There were no other posts to the account. It was a digital ghost town.I get it. You’re busy. In the interest of full disclosure, I get busy too. It can be hard to keep up with the demands of digital media cycles.But digital media is one of the best and most affordable tools to help you connect with your members. So, here’s an easy strategy to help you keep your social media and blog platforms hopping with content your members will love.
Quarterly Themes
Identifying quarterly themes that are connected to the value that your chamber provides for its members can help you reinforce the messages that are important to you on a consistent basis.You don’t have to necessarily publicize the theme, it can simply be an internal driver to help you come up with ideas when the creativity well is dry. And your social and blog content does not need to be exclusively tied to the theme. You can and should produce other content, but your theme will serve as a foundation for the content that you push out during that quarter.For example, a great quarterly theme option for a chamber could be networking.
Here’s how the quarterly theme of networking might play out in a little game I like to call The 9 Lives of a Topic.
Networking’s 9 Lives
#1 – The topic experiences its first life as a blog article “Five Tips to Help You Get the Most Out of Your Next Networking Experience.” Have a staff member write it, or maybe a volunteer who is a networking ninja. Don’t have a blog? Nice try, you’re not getting off that easy. Publish it as a newsletter article or use LinkedIn’s publishing platform. Another option – search the internet for a networking related article and share the link on your social media platforms.#2 - Break the blog article into five social media posts, each delivering a single tip. Link back to the blog article for followers who want more.#3 -Create and share an Infographic – How to Work a Room or How to Follow Up After a Networking Event. Don’t have a graphic designer on staff? No worries! Find a shareable one on the internet and push the link out to your members.#4 -Blog article – Six Never Fail Conversation Starters. Once again, write it in-house or have member help. When all else fails, search the internet for a shareable link on a similar topic.#5 – Create a Meme. Memes are like kitschy, digital posters. You’ve seen them circulating on social media sites, like the photo of the toddler with a tight fist and the caption…”Go ahead, make my day.” Make your own with a networking theme. No graphic designer? No worries! Free apps like Canva make it easy for non-designers to pull together some great looking graphics.
#6 - Member testimonial - post to your social media, a concise, authentic, value-drive testimonial from a member who finds value in the chamber's networking opportunities. You can post text only with member attribution, or if you're feeling really spunky, place the text onto a photo of that member, or a photo from a networking event. Get the member's approval, of course.#7 - Share member survey results on the subject of networking in a succinct social media post. Have you conducted a recent member survey? If you included questions about your networking opportunities, consider sharing some of the (positive) results with your members. E.g. Did you know the majority of chamber members rate networking as the top feature of chamber membership?#8 - Social media post – Find and share a link to an article about the history of the business card. Did you know that it has been around since the 16th century?#9 - Shoot & Post a Video - How to Follow Up After a Networking Event. It doesn’t have to be a major production, just offer a single tip. Can’t muster a video? Post a blog or newsletter article instead.There you have it – 9 ways you can spin a single topic into multiple nuggets of quality content that will help your members be better networkers. Take these ideas and run with them, or play the 9 Lives of a Single Topic game on your own to help keep your social and blog platforms hopping with quality content.