Social Media:
19 Content Strategy Ideas from a TV Network
By
Mike Brown
A social media guru was on Twitter bemoaning the content strategy where people auto tweet links to already published blog posts on social networking sites. He was wondering aloud (as much as one can wonder “aloud” on Twitter) if these people did not have any new ideas to share.Since I share non-auto tweeted “From the Archives” Brainzooming blog links as part of our social media content strategy, I was intrigued to see how others reacted. For the most part, people challenged the social media guru, saying already-published blog posts can still be quite relevant. They enjoyed both seeing reminders to valuable information they had missed and readership from people checking out their own older blog posts.
To me, this was just another example of a social media guru calling out something he does not do as “wrong” because he “allegedly” does not do it.
A Different Point of View about Your Content Strategy on Social Networking Sites
My philosophy on sharing already published blog posts was shaped by a long ago NBC slogan for its summer reruns: “If you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you.” Sharing previously published social media content seemed a natural since:
- There are well over thirteen hundred historical, not particularly time-sensitive, blog posts on Brainzooming
- An incredible number of people globally have Internet
- There’s a slightly smaller, but still incredible, number of people who have never been to the Brainzooming blog
Maybe it is also because my dad managed a television station, but beyond the NBC slogan, I have clearly gravitated toward a TV or cable network model for shaping our social media content strategy.For all the discussion you hear about old models not working in this completely new era of social networking sites, TV networks have been experts in attracting eyeballs through providing compelling content for decades. To a great extent, the content marketing model simply extends a TV network model to other organizations as they become content creators, aggregators, and sharers to build their own audiences.
A TV Network Model for a Social Media Content Strategy
In light of this connection between content marketing and TV network models, think about how each of these TV network programming strategies could shape your organization’s content marketing strategy across social networking sites. To make the connections more apparent, “programs” has been replaced by “content” in the list below. Remember that as you consider how TV networks:
- Offer content 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- Feature both their own content and content developed by others
- Run content of varying lengths
- Provide a mix of both current and timeless content
- Program content that interests people
- Stop running content audiences are ignoring
- Do a lot of storytelling
- Offer a mix of new content and popular older content
- Offer exclusive live, as-it-happens content to attract larger audiences
- Have multiple complementary channels offering both some of the same yet also different, more focused and concentrated content
- Syndicate their own content to appear on other channels they don’t own
- Run advertisements for others, themselves, and for public issues (public service announcements)
- Create multiple celebrities / personalities to help attract an audience
- Mix both serious and silly content
- Sometimes counter program directly (i.e. an evening newscast at the same time as other networks) and sometimes completely differently
- Have series you can see once and completely understand
- Have series with running storylines where you have to see what’s before and after to completely understand
- Feature competitions – sports, game shows, reality shows, etc.
- Appeal to both the lowest common denominator and audiences with more sophisticated tastes
How Many of These Are You Applying in Your Social Media Content Strategy?
By my count, The Brainzooming Group is using eleven of these social media content strategy ideas regularly across the Brainzooming blog, Twitter, and Facebook. How many of these nineteen ideas are you incorporating into your social media content strategy? Are there other things you see TV networks do that have a place within your social media efforts?
Mike Brown is the founder of the Brainzooming Group. He has been at the forefront of leading Fortune 500 culture change, contributing new approaches in research, developing simplified tools for innovation, strategy planning, and aligning sales, marketing, and communications strategies for maximum business results. Additionally, he’s won multiple awards for his strategic brand-building approach to customer experiences in NASCAR and conference event marketing efforts.
