Be Seen With Online Content – Denise Wakeman
SUMMARY
In this episode with Digital Marketing Strategist, Denise Wakeman, she talks about how to grow your following through adding value to your content. Having value and being clear on your message helps leverage your online presence.
She also explains how online content can be repurpose and republish to different platforms, which will then result in attracting more people.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The first thing that has to happen is you need to be clear on your message. Commitment is also important.
Before you can grow a following, you need to know if you’re delivering what that following wants.
Every platform is different so you can repurpose and republish content. You can post different size, images, and different amounts of content.
Consistency is a foundational piece to attracting a following.
There’s got to be a compelling reason for people to follow you.
Repurposing is changing the format of the content. You can create a video, tweets, images, or quotes out of it.
Republishing is taking the content and tweaking it a little bit for different platforms and republishing the whole thing with links back to your site.
If you have a podcast, you can have it transcribed and use it for every format you can. You can condense it down to a tweet, or put into a video, and have it as a blog post.
Know where your audience is so you can maximize your time.
Create a checklist for yourself. It’s helpful for not missing any steps and makes it easier to pass it along to a VA or somebody helping you.
TRANSCRIPTION: BE SEEN WITH ONLINE CONTENT – DENISE WAKEMAN
Luis Congdon
Hey, Thriving Launchers, today, we’re going to be talking about how to create content for your website, why that’s important, and how to repurpose content so you can be everywhere online and be seen.
Kamala Chambers
We are here with a Digital Marketing Strategist. She’s been doing it for over 20 years, Denise Wakeman.
Luis Congdon
Hey there, Thriving Launchers.
I know you guys want to learn about how to get your message out to the world, get heard, be seen, and use this piece, the internet. I’m excited to have Denise on Thriving Launch to talk about how to do that.
Denise, are you ready to launch?
Denise Wakeman
Let’s go for it.
Luis Congdon
You’re a big content producer, you have large social media following, and I’ve seen you all over the place.
I’m just curious. When people want to grow their following wherever they’re at, what do you think are some good tips for them or good starting points and thoughts to be seen online?
Be Clear On Your Message To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
Well, the first thing is you need to be clear on your message and what you want to get out because otherwise, you’ll be frustrated, and it gets blocked and stopped. People don’t do anything if they’re not clear. That’s the first thing that has to happen for you to be seen online. You need to be clear.
Be Committed To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
The second thing is to be committed to it. Without that commitment, then again, it’s going to be just haphazard, and that doesn’t work either if you want to be seen.
Kamala Chambers
We hear that a lot from our experts that come on the show. They talk about having clarity with your message and being consistent to be seen online.
I’d love to hear some other tips on growing your following.
Be Seen By Knowing Who Your Audience Is And What They Want
Denise Wakeman
Before you can grow a following, you need to know if you’re delivering what that following wants.
It’s got to be clear to both you and them that you are offering something that is of service and can transform and change their life, their business, whatever it is you’re doing. To get to that point, a lot of people say, “I don’t know where my audience is,” so I’ll start there.
Using Polls Helps You To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
The first thing to do is to ask them where they are by posting on social media and saying, “I’m curious, where do you prefer to hang-out?” Now, the one caveat here is that if you ask on Facebook, they’re going to say “Facebook?” but you can do polls that offer multiple options.
There’s a tool called Polldaddy that’s super simple, and you can create a one question poll, and ask people where they want to hear from you.
Going For The Low-Hanging Fruit First To Be Seen Easily
Denise Wakeman
When starting out, you always go with where you are.
Even if there are ten people on your email list, you ask them. That’s what I call going for the low-hanging fruit. You start with that, and then you can branch out from there.
Kamala Chambers
That’s such an important piece.
Create Something That People Want To Be Seen
Kamala Chambers
I always have clients, and we talk about that a lot on the show. It’s putting out surveys first, asking what people want so you’re not just creating something, and then nobody wants it or no one’s interested in it because we could put a lot of energy, time, and money into something like that.
I’d love to hear more about some of your pro-level tips on getting more of a following coming in once you have your message clear.
Denise Wakeman
Okay.
Consistency As A Foundational Piece To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
One of the things necessary is going back to what we talked about earlier is consistency. If you’re not consistent, you won’t attract much of a following. That’s a foundational piece.
I also recommend having the thing that you’re going to give away. You probably talked to other people about lead magnets or content upgrades, that kind of stuff.
It got to the point where unless you have something, an enticing reason for people to sign up to follow you, whether it’s on Facebook or Twitter, or LinkedIn, or your blog post, or your email list, is there’s got to be some compelling reason.
The email list is where you want to bring people through everything,
Be Seen By Giving People A Compelling Reason To Follow You
Denise Wakeman
In 1997, when I was starting out, all you had to do is “Join my newsletter” or “Join my email list, ” and people would flock to you. Now, that doesn’t work. There has to be a compelling reason.
If you’re an author, it might be to be in the inner circle and get updates when the book is published or things you don’t post on your social network.
If you’re a consultant, it can be a checklist or a chapter or an eBook or a video series, or something you’ve already discovered that they want, and then you deliver it free of charge.
Luis Congdon
Denise, one of the things that come up for me as you’re sharing is the amount of content you produce, and the amount of content that most of us online are producing.
Creating Content Online To Be Seen
Luis Congdon
If we’re creating blog articles, YouTube stuff, podcast, and we’re writing, and then we’re creating other kinds of exclusive content for other places like the email list or Google+ fans or Twitter fans, it’s different.
I’m curious. How do you create so much content? That’s one of the things that’s surprised me the most with you when I watch you on social media is how prolific you are.
Denise Wakeman
Thank you. I believe in leveraging content.
Leverage Content To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
I’m a big fan of repurposing and republishing because every platform is different. You can post different size, images, and different amounts of content. Twitter is short while Facebook is longer.
I start with writing an article on my blog. In the olden days, when I was teaching people how to blog, I would say, “You have to blog at minimum every week if not more.”
Now, I blog maybe twice a month but what I do is I take that article, and I chunk it down into lots of smaller pieces of content. I’m repurposing it, or I’m republishing it, and there’s a difference there.
Repurpose And Republish Content So It Will Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
The repurposing is about changing the format of the content, taking it from being a written article, a text article, and then creating a video or tweets or images or quotes.
Republishing is taking that content and maybe tweaking it a little bit for different platforms, and then republishing the whole thing with links back to your site on sites like LinkedIn publishing or Medium, Reddit, and different places like that. That’s how I do it because there are only so many hours in the day.
Make Your Content Be Seen By Everybody
Denise Wakeman
If you’ve created a good valuable piece of content, not everybody’s going to see it on your blog. Most people won’t see it on your blog. You want to again, be where your audience is.
For me, they’re mostly on Facebook at this point but I know I also have a following on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+. And so, I make sure to have at least something on those sites with a link back to my blog to get the whole story and to hopefully entice them to get on my email list with a free something.
Kamala Chambers
This is such great advice and something I love helping people come forward with.
Repurpose Content In Different Ways, So It Will Be Seen
Kamala Chambers
Even with our podcast for example, if you have a podcast, you can repurpose it in many different ways. You do an audio interview, you can transcribe that, and then you use it for every format you can.
You can condense it down to a tweet, and you can put it on Google+, and you can put it into a video, and put it on YouTube, and have it as a blog post. You can even turn all those transcripts into a book. There are many different ways to repurpose that content.
Denise Wakeman
Right.
Kamala Chambers
That way, we don’t have to keep coming up with new stuff all the time.
Denise Wakeman
Right.
Kamala Chambers
I’m glad you brought up that point.
Getting Your Content Out To Enough Places To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
Yeah, and I think this is important because a lot of people will write on their blog and they share it to a couple of places, and that’s the end of it.
Then, they wonder why they’re not getting any traction, why nobody’s signing up for their list, and why nobody’s engaging with them. It’s because they’re not getting that content out to enough places. This goes back to knowing where your audience is.
I don’t use Snapchat for example because that’s not where my audience is. I don’t need to be there. I probably don’t need to use Instagram but I like Instagram, so I use it.
Be Where Your Audience Is So You Can Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
I think that’s important too.
Five to six years ago, I’d say, “You have to be everywhere.” Now, this is what I would say.
Kamala Chambers
Before we go, is there any last tip you want to make sure the Thriving Launchers walk away with, something they can apply right away?
Have A Checklist Of Things You Need To Do To Be Seen
Denise Wakeman
Create some checklist for yourself. It’s not that it’s complicated. It’s just that there are more steps now.
At this point, when I write a blog post, I’ve got a checklist of every place it gets shared, how often it gets shared, and then how that content is going to get reformatted into different pieces. It’s because if I didn’t have that checklist, I would forget.
How Helpful A Checklist Is For A Person Who Wants To Be Seen Onlinev
Denise Wakeman
Having a checklist makes it easier to pass it along to a VA or somebody helping you with that, but it also makes sure you’re not missing anything.
Luis Congdon
I love that Denise, it’s great.
Checklist helped me in my life. It is good to check things off, track what I’ve done, and know what needs to be done instead of reinventing the wheel every single time and scratching my head. That list is fantastic.
Thriving Launchers, we’ve been here talking about the importance of creating content, how to build content, and how to repurpose your content so that you’re getting your message out there. It’s important these days.
Be Seen With A Podcast
Luis Congdon
Thriving Launchers, you guys know we do the podcast. We do YouTube videos, blogging, and a lot of this stuff. We take one idea, and then we just move it over into the podcast, over into the blog, and we repurpose it and change it to give you the information in different ways for different types of people or the various learning styles. We appreciate it.
One of the things also is that with Denise’s prolific building of content, I see her all the time. If I log into different places, I see her work, and I’ve gone over to her website quite a few times before we invited her on the show. Because of that content, she intrigued me, made me want to reach out, and get her on the show.
Get Your Name Out There And Be Seen With Content
Luis Congdon
Kamala and I were excited to have her on the show because we’ve seen her content often, and it works that way if you’re trying to build your clientele base and getting your name out there. Creating that content will help you.
Thank you so much Thriving Launchers, and keep thriving you all.
