11 Ways to Repurpose Blog Content into New Media

What if you were able to extend the life of your current and past content? 

Rather than posting an article and moving on, you could turn it into two, three or even four new forms of media.  That’s what repurposing your blog content can do. 

Below are 11 creative ideas to help you brainstorm, compile and create a successful content repurposing strategy in no time. 

1. Take Stock:

What content have you created in the past and how can you update, refresh or repurpose content for another use? 

If you’ve been blogging for any more than a year, you have a stockpile of content at your fingertips. It’s important to leverage that content in a whole new way.

2. Brainstorm Ideas:

a. Spotlight an Event on Social Media 

Did you recently attend an event or online conference and share takeaways on your blog? Take that conversation and dissect it. 

Two easy ways to use this

Give your community a deeper look behind the scenes of your business or industry. 

Offer your thoughts on why this event was so important and why the information shared should matter to potential clients.

b. Provide a Video Tip Series 

Take a popular blog post and break it down into multiple video tips. 

3. Create a Podcast:

If you have considered podcasting, but don’t know what to talk about, grab a few points from your latest article and expand upon each bullet point.

4. Make a Pinterest Board with FAQ’s:

Dependent on your type of business, you probably get asked the same questions over and over. If you’re smart, you’ve written a blog post answering many of them. 

But if you haven’t, sit down and write the top ten questions you’re asked over and over. Now, answer those questions. 

Once you’ve written the blog post it’s time to turn one Q & A into a pin for Pinterest. Create a new Pinterest board and start a series dedicated to these tips.

5. Utilize Twitter Cards:

Have you used Twitter cards to promote your blog content? If you’re not familiar with Twitter cards, let me explain. 

With Twitter Cards, you can add a Call to Action to your tweets, all in a visually appealing package. 

Use them for list sign ups, registrations or to promote your blog post.

6. Design an Infographic:

Want to capture the attention of your online audience? Incorporate Infographics! 

Donna Moritz is an excellent example of repurposing at work. She writes a post and then turns that post into additional media.

7. Tell a Bigger Story:

Are you sharing customer stories? If not, you should be. It’s a great way to explain how you solve customer problems, while sharing the successes of your clientele. 

Highlight your clients (with their permission of course) in a blog post and then create testimonial graphics that can be shared on any of your social networks. 

8. Turn Blog Content Into a Slideshare:

Take your blog post and turn it into a presentation and then post it on Slideshare. You can also give that content a one-two punch by writing a new blog article and reposting the content along with the embedded Slideshare. 

Haiku Deck, which is now integrated into Slideshare, is one of my favorite ways to convert an article into a visually appealing slide deck. Incredibly intuitive, Haiku Deck will save you a significant amount of time and allow you to create stunning, image-rich slideshows that stand out. 

9. Schedule a Webinar:

Whether it is you on screen or a screencast of your latest PowerPoint, connecting with your audience through video is crucial. 

Take your blog post and break it down into a free, educational webinar. 

A free program to create and share your content is Screenr. Just click “record now” and within seconds you are recording anything you can see on your screen. 

10. Make a Roundup Post:

This idea is easy to implement and takes very little time to put together. 

Here is how it’s done: 

Create a new blog post that highlights previous articles that readers might have missed 

Go back through your most recent articles and write short snippets around each post 

Link to a select group of your top posts and watch them take on a whole new life.

11. Online Course:

Once you have been writing for a while it’s easy to see the massive amount of content you’ve amassed. Take that content, consolidate it, and then share your knowledge in an online course.

New Media Is Now Better Than Mainstream Media

A little over a month ago, the magazine Revista 5W broke a speed record for the highest-earning journalism project on the Spanish crowdfunding platform Verkami. In 49 hours and 20 minutes, backers pledged over€25,000 to fund 5W’s international narrative and visual information magazine Revista 5W.

“Our niche is in the Spanish-speaking market,” said Agus Morales, reporter, coordinator and co-founder of Revista 5W. “We would love to reach a wider Latin American audience and talk to them about Africa, Asia and the Middle East.”

Revista 5W comes from Barcelona’s Colectivo 5W, S.L.,a group of eight Spanish journalists, photographers and a web developer.

The spirit of the magazine is in the name: to honor the 5W’s – who, what, when, where and why. Why is the Greek economy in shambles? Who has political power in New Delhi? What does ceasefire in Gaza mean for Israel and Hamas? Where did Osama Bin Laden hide during his last years?

Since its inception, the magazine has published international, socio-political, cultural and human rights narratives on its Medium blog. Backers of the project will receive a print edition of the magazine in December. The official website launches in September. One of the eight founders will travel to Africa, Asia or the Middle East to conduct an investigation on what happens after war near the end of 2015, the inaugural piece of an ongoing investigative journalism series, Morales said.

By collaborating with internationally-based photographers and photojournalists, Revista 5W will feature quality photos and timely narratives from around the world.

“We are excited to collaborate more with photography collectives Ruido Foto and Me-Mo in the future. There is a complementary element between us, which makes our collaboration natural,” said Morales. Longform visual storytelling collective Me-Mo also crowdfunded their magazine and interactive app last year and brought in about $25,000.

Another notable Spanish news startup launched this year: El Español, who after raising €3.5 million is now the considered the most successful crowdfunding campaign in the history of journalism.

Earlier this month, Morales, Me-Mo Magazine co-founder Jose Colón and Spanish photojournalist Ricardo G. Vilanova hosted the New Media and Photography Conference at the 5th International Fish-Eye Photo Meeting at La Virreina Image Centre in Barcelona.

“We started a debate on whether Me-Mo Magazine and Revista 5W can compete with larger Spanish international media organizations,” said Colón.

While no conclusions was reached between the two, Colón is certain: the new media emerging in Spain is far better than traditional Spanish mass media.

10 Ways You Can Increase Engagement with Visual Content

A key strategy in redesign and social integration has been a focus on visual content. Sharing quality infographics on site has skyrocketed our reach and allows us to discuss the content in them with each share. This infographic from Canva is no different – walking someone through all of the different ways you can make visual content.

Visual content gives you free reign to customize your message, use different techniques and mediums to get your message across; it’s really an infinitely useful tool.

Differentiation is such a key online. As we write article after article, we have to work so hard at differentiating it from the thousands of other articles that are published every day across the web. Add one key visual, though, and the article takes on a totally new impression with your visitors. Not only that, the share ability of that article increases exponentially.

In this infographic, Canva shows us 10 Types of Awesome Visual Content your brand should be creating right now:

1. Eye-Catching Photographs – 93% of buyers say images are the #1 deciding factors when buying products.

2. Inspiring Quote Cards – Quotes reflect your values, are easy to create, and are highly shareable.

3. Strong Calls to Action – 70% of businesses lack any call to action even though viewers are highly likely to take action.

4. Branded Images – Using detailed and branded images can help you gain 67% more audience attention.

5. Interesting Data Visualization – 40% of people respond to and understand visual information better than plain text.

6. Engaging Videos – Only 9% of small businesses use them, but 64% of consumers are more inclined to buy after watching a video.

7. Tips, Tricks, and How-To’s – Provides value and use for your product and helps to build authority.

8. Informative Screenshots – 88% of people read reviews to determine a business’ quality, take a screenshot of your reviews!

9. Thought Provoking Questions – Encourages sharing, conversation, engagement and brand awareness.

10. Infographics – There’s a reason why DK New Media produces so many infographics for our clients! They’re 3 times more likely to be shared and businesses using infographics report 12% higher profit than those who don’t.

2016 Will Be a Bonanza for New Media Agency Business

There is so much new media agency business around this summer that everyone and his dog thinks this is once-in-a-lifetime moment. I beg to differ.

3 Reasons Why 2016 Will Be Just As Busy as This Year

1. Competitor response to reviews

We've seen this pattern before. A big blue-chip client opens up a review. The company secures additional media value. That gives it competitive advantage over its competitors, which then decide they too need a better deal to level the playing field. Reviews, like London buses, tend to come in threes.

Traditionally, this pattern occurs in one sector at a time, spreading the new-business load. But this summer, major players looking for new agencies in every sector, from automotive to packaged goods, health care to beauty.

The competitor response will be as much of a major event in 2016 as the initial round of reviews has been in 2015. These companies will have started to see the impact of their new agency deals by early next year and will be eager to take action.

Last year, MasterCard launched a review of its global media; this year, Visa is looking for a new agency.

2. Securing resources for digital, data and content

The second-, third- and fourth-placed brands in each category to consider opening up reviews next year is that the challenges they face are no different from those the category leaders are trying to address. Every single marketing organization in the world is looking to deal with the same issues: They want to secure the right agency resources and expertise to address the challenges of digital, data and content.

Just as in 2015, many of these "next-tier" reviews will be driven by strategic reappraisal of media agency resource requirements, concerns over transparency, and desire to implement new procurement standards across the marketing roster. None of these factors are exclusive to the category leaders. In fact, the trickle-down effect could run into 2017 as every media-savvy brand works through the same process.

Many advertisers are still operating with outdated agency contracts and will need to review their media agency scope of work in light of the new communications environment. Some will do this behind closed doors with existing partners, but many will seek to open up reviews to better assess the value that exists across the market.

3. Factoring in the three-year contract cycle

The normal round of reviews still needs to be factored in. Many companies still operating on a three-year cycle, so the base level of media pitches will still be keeping agencies busy.

We have clearly moved on from the era when brands and agencies worked together for decades. While there are a few such partnerships that do exist, the traditional approach today is to head for the open market.

The bottom line is that 2015 is not a blip -- it's a trend. The media agency pitch market will be very busy for at least 18 months.

New Media: An Overview

Introduction

New media most commonly refers to content available on-demand through the Internet, accessible on any digital device, usually containing interactive user feedback and creative participation. Common examples of new media include websites such as online newspapers, blogs, or wikis, video games, and social media. A defining characteristic of new media is dialogue. New Media transmit content through connection and conversation. It enables people around the world to share, comment on, and discuss a wide variety of topics. Unlike any of past technologies, New Media is grounded on an interactive community.

E.g. Wikipedia, combining Internet accessible digital text, images and video with web-links, creative participation of contributors, interactive feedback of users and formation of a participant community of editors and donors for the benefit of non-community readers. Facebook is an example of the social media model, in which most users are also participants.

National Security

New Media has also recently become of interest to the global espionage community as it is easily accessible electronically in database format and can therefore be quickly retrieved and reverse engineered by national governments. Particularly of interest to the espionage community are Facebook and Twitter, two sites where individuals freely divulge personal information that can then be sifted through and archived for the automatic creation of dossiers on both people of interest and the average citizen.

New media also serves as an important tool for both institutions and nations to promote their interest and values (The contents of such promotion may vary according to different purposes). Some communities consider it an approach of “peaceful evolution” that may erode their own nation’s system of values and eventually compromise national security.

Youth & New Media

The amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among Black and Hispanic youth. Today, 8–18 year-old devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media in a typical day (more than 53 hours a week) – about the same amount most adults spend at work per day. Since much of that time is spent 'media multitasking' (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to spend a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes worth of media content in those 7½ hours per day. 

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 96% of 18–29 year olds and three-quarters (75%) of teens now own a cell phone, 88% of whom text, with 73% of wired American teens using social networking websites, a significant increase from previous years. A survey of over 25000 9- to 16-year-old from 25 European countries found that many underage children use social media sites despite the site's stated age requirements, and many youth lack the digital skills to use social networking sites safely.