Twitter: Content Machine

Chris Murphy · 12 February, 2021

Summary: It takes time to create content, so developing strategies to use it more than once in different contexts pays off. For example: 1. Make notes watching a YouTube video (which is good for recall anyway); 2. Post those thoughts to Twitter; 3. Use those thoughts as the basis of a carousel on Instagram; 4. Write an article; 5. Cross-post to Medium… and so on.

This morning’s discussion in The School of Design Slack community uncovered a number of related themes around content: what to post, when to post it, how SEO works…

I thought it would be helpful to write these up to capture some of the value created in the community.

Ideas:

  1. As you watch TED talks, YouTube videos, etc., make notes. (I do this habitually, it’s a great way to ensure the ideas ‘stick’ in your head.)
  2. Take these notes and break them down into fragments for testing on Twitter.
  3. Post these to Twitter and gauge feedback. If tweets resonate, expand upon them for your blog.
  4. Take these blog posts and measure their effectiveness with your analytics.
  5. Create more content, nudging your focus on the direction of what resonates.

The Merry-Go-Round

Without a doubt, the most frequently asked question at my content marketing workshop is: How do I come up with ideas for posts?

One of the best approaches is to look at what resonates on Twitter, etc., then expanding on it.

Look back through the discussion, pinpoint what resonates, then write up some notes.

Take those notes and break them down. Use them as tweets.

Look at what resonates on Twitter, take that content and develop it. That will give you a massive list of possible blog posts.