Are you stuck in a bit of a content rut? Consistently creating and distributing the same content you’ve been doing for years? Not sure if it’s still working as best it could be? Maybe it’s time for a content strategy update.
We took some time out to review ours and made some meaningful changes off the back of it… keep reading to find out how, or click below to listen to the episode.
The importance of regularly reviewing your content strategy
In the super fast-paced world of content creation it’s easy to get caught up in the cycle of producing content after content without pausing to assess its impact and relevance.
Now, you’re obviously not chucking content out there without consideration, but it’s easy to get stuck in a tried and tested formula for years, without taking a step back and saying ‘hey, is this even working… or do we need a content strategy update?’
We’ve certainly found ourselves there.
It’s so important to regularly review and adapt your content strategy because your audience demographic may have changed, people’s preferences change, platforms and algorithms certainly have changed, and trends are always shifting.
How to prep for a content strategy update: 3 key considerations
Now we’re aware of the potential of repurposing UGC, let’s delve into three strategic avenues to maximize its impact.
1. Data Analysis
First and foremost, data is your best friend! Collect and analyze all the important data that you can get your hands on, and review how your content is performing.
Dive deep into the metrics from page views to video views to social media likes and shares, in order to identify what’s resonating with your audience and what’s falling flat.
The numbers won’t lie and will guide you towards making informed decisions.
2. Gather feedback
Your team and your audience are invaluable sources of insight. Have conversations with your content creators and see what they think is working. Similarly listen to your audience. It’s important to go beyond the data.
3. Stay informed about industry trends
What’s working for others in your niche? What emerging platforms or content formats are gaining traction? Staying informed about industry developments and what’s working for others is crucial to staying competitive.
Changes we’re making at Content 10x
Now, let’s look at some of the changes we’re making to our approach. Because we believe in practicing what we preach and we love a good content strategy update!
1. Podcast timetable shuffle
We’re shaking up our podcast timetable. We’ve recorded a mix of guest interviews and solo episodes (1 guest interview followed by 3 solo episodes) for the past year. We’ve seen that our audience value the guest episodes so we’ll step it up a notch and now feature one guest interview followed by two solo episodes.
All three episodes in a cycle will be based on a central theme that comes out of the guest episode. This will allow us to go deeper into valuable topics. We hope this change resonates with you! And we believe having themes will help us add even more value to our content.
2. Eliminating ineffective content
It sounds really obvious, doesn’t it? But, we’re getting rid of content that takes up a lot of time but doesn’t engage our audience.
A big part of our assessment was how much time does it take and how much return do we get. So it’s goodbye Twitter/X threads, memes, certain episode graphics and things like our posts on international repurposing news stories.
Sometimes you have to recognize when it’s time to let go! Although, we’ll still share the odd meme but only when we believe we can jump onto a popular viral meme and do well with incorporating a repurposing angle.
3. Streamlining social media posts
We’re continuing with image carousels on Instagram and LinkedIn because we think they are a great way to visually share our thoughts and ideas, but we’re simplifying our design.
After examining what works we decided they have previously been a bit on the wordy side and there’s been a bit too much focus on adding design elements.
We will spend a little less time on our carousels and see if in turn engagement goes up. Wouldn’t that be nice!
4. Doubling down on social media videos
Expect shorter high-quality videos with eye-catching captions, B-roll footage and expressive emojis! It seems everybody loves short-form vertical videos — so let’s make ours look amazing.
5. LinkedIn remains our priority platform
We’re continuing to focus most of our attention on LinkedIn and we’re putting more effort into engaging with others in and around the industry. Building meaningful connections on LinkedIn remains a top priority.
6. Changes in social platforms
After reviewing the metrics, we’re stepping back from Facebook almost completely and are going to pull back from Twitter, but we’ll start to engage on Threads for the time being and monitor how that goes.
7. Increased focus on YouTube
We’re increasing our focus on YouTube. Expect more ‘how to’ videos, along with our continued commitment to Shorts and featuring guest episodes. YouTube is such a versatile platform, and we’re excited to make the most of it!
There’s plenty of other changes that we’re making, we had a pretty big to-do list at the end of our review, that spanned not 1, not 2, but 3 meetings with the team, but they are 7 of the key changes all aimed at refining our content strategy.
This blog post is not suggesting you make the same change at all, every content strategy update needs to be unique. But I hope by sharing what we looked at, and what we’re doing, it’s a good reminder that evolving your content strategy is not a one time effort. It’s an ongoing journey.
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