The other day I was talking with a tourism pro who asked what they could do with all the photos they’ve taken over the years.
- Photos of stunning destinations.
- Photos of group tours.
- Photos of exotic foods from around the world.
Sounds familiar right? Don’t you just hate knowing these images are sitting on your phone or hard drive. What a wasted opportunity!
We all know that we’re supposed to repurpose these images into something wonderful.
But, why bother?
When you repurpose your own unique content, your fans will understand that you’ve actually been to that destination. It’s your social credibility and professionalism that are showcased for the world to see. In addition, your fans will get a glimpse into your personality, and that’s the starting point to building a stronger relationships over time.
Speaking of time: How much time have you spent this week curating photos, creating blogs, videos, and social posts? If you don’t have an assistant or ad agency in your world, you’ve probably spent a ton of time. Stop spinning your wheels. Start repurposing!
Photo Repurposing
Here’s a quick run-down of 7 super-easy things you can do with your images, so that you can inspire people to travel again AND earn more social followers.
- Create a video slideshow from your still images. Simple to do with the options right on Facebook, or using i-Movie.
- Embed a collection of images into your blog. What a great way to do show & tell… with a lot less writing!
- Add captions to them and post socially
- Use them as Stories on Facebook and Instagram
- Use your photos in your next presentation or virtual conference.
- Broadcast live on your favorite social site and showcase a destination or style of travel using your photos as the visual part of the show & tell.
- Last but not least—now this one is really cool; use them as a virtual background for your next video conference. Check out these tips for your next virtual background strategy.
What else have all of us travel pros collected over the years of traveling? Travel Tips!
Repurposing Travel Tips
But what do these tips have to do with social marketing? Think of it this way; each of your travel tips can become the inspiration for new content. For example, each travel tip can be transformed into at least 6 new pieces of content. Tune in for a wealth of new ways to showcase your professionalism and potentially earn new clients.
Video Repurposing
Let’s say you’ve written and shot a video about your top selling destination or style of travel. That video can have an even longer life when you take these 5 easy steps so that it earns more eyeballs. Here’s where to start;
- Clip the video into smaller segments and post these short clips as individual social posts.
- Start an email drip campaign and include one short video into your on-going email campaign. It’s like telling your story in individual segments. You’ll increase your open rates, as hopefully your readers will be waiting with bated breath for your next video email.
- Earn more eyeballs for your video by embedding it into a blog post. Super easy!
- Upload the video to your website as an FAQ, destination guide, or tour highlight reel
- Use the video as part of a lead magnet or group marketing effort. Here’s how to promote your next lead magnet.
Ace this and you’ll reap the reward of better SEO as well as more social reach. This is because search engines and social algorithms love video.
Blog Repurposing
Blogging may be the work you love to hate, or it can be your biggest content asset.
Did you know: 57% of marketers say they’ve gained customers specifically through blogging.
When planning blog content I like to think in terms of evergreen content so that it can be used in various channels. Once a blog post goes live, here’s a blueprint for repurposing the content.
- Pull out a key point and write a social post directing readers to the full blog post
- Create an e-book from the blog content
- Produce a video showcasing the main information from the blog post. Here’s the video tools you’ll want to explore to grow your brand awareness.
- Record a podcast using the blog content
- Write a long-form social post highlighting several key blog points
- Recreate the blog post as an ‘Article’ on LinkedIn. (I simply copy/paste from the blog right into the ‘Article’ template on LinkedIn. Super-easy)
Content creation can take on a life of it’s own. Researching, writing, editing, shooting video, recording podcasts. Sounds complicated, but guess what… it’s really simple when you begin to repurpose, re-think, and re-jig the content.
The bottom line is that different people absorb content in a variety of different forms. By repurposing and providing your content on various channels and formats, you’ll reach different audiences.
When you start thinking strategically about your content and how it can morph into even more content, it’s like the snowball effect. It grows bigger and better over time.
Catherine Heeg, International speaker & trainer, focuses on social media marketing strategies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Connect with her at www.cmsspeaking.com and socially.
