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Like many Americans, and probably many more worldwide, I watched the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Reunion Show a few days ago. And it really got me thinking about digital marketing and how timing is everything.
My take on it was much like the reviews I am seeing on social media and hearing on the morning radio shows – some of it was greatness and other parts were boring or missed their mark. Some of the skits were funny during the year they were done because of what was going on in the world at that time so, they were funny to those in the older crowd who understood the context, but the younger crowd, who may not have been around at the original airing of the skit, didn’t get the humor. Other jokes were timeless and would be funny to anyone at any time.
So what does this have to do with your digital marketing? A lot actually. From my impressions to those of the others commenting on various social media outlets today, the thing I have learned is that some things work the second time around and some things don’t.
This applies to the jokes and skits on Saturday Night Live as well as to your digital marketing efforts. Many of us will re-use and re-post or re-tweet the same content on different days and weeks over months and some works on repeat and some of it does not.
How Do I Know Digital Marketing Content Is Ok to Recycle?
Filter out Current Events and Topics
Many of you probably use some of the social media tools that will automatically retweet or repost your website content – and if you don’t you probably should. Be sure that you are using categories and tags to filter the current events so they do not get recycled when it is not longer relevant.
It you share about a current event too much later after it has passed it is no longer at the top of people’s minds and can make your brand look outdated and sometimes lazy, or behind the times.
Content You Should Not Re-share Beyond a Few Days
- Current news stories – if you write about a news story happening that week, that is great, but it will not be interesting later on that month.
- This week’s episode of a TV sitcom – Also, a good way to generate interest in your social media efforts, but once that week has passed people are more interested in what happened in that week’s episode, not last week.
- Controversial Viral Video – Let’s face it, in our generation, controversies come and go faster than you can keep up so repeating a social media post on a controversial video a week or two later will make you look like you are late to the party.
- Tragic event – Sending out condolences to an area hit by a devastating disaster is great at the time, but can be almost calloused or flippant sounding if it is repeated later when the rebuilding effort has begun. Write a new post on the rebuilding/hope/etc.
Best Practices for Recycling Digital Marketing Content
1. Be Sure Numbers/Statistics/etc. Are Current if Re-Sharing
Statistics change, numbers change and percentages change often so if you are re-sharing a post or a tweet those items need to be updated to the time of the next posting. It might be good to create a category or tag to separate out posts that contain information that may change over time.
2. Update Tips and How Tos
If you are a business that shares tips or FAQs on social media make sure they are accurate, this is especially important if you are a digital marketing business and share social media how tos. These things change fast and often and your must keep your information current or you will lose your standing as an expert in your field.
3. Only Repeat Interesting and Relevant Information
The best advice is to never repost or retweet something just for the sake of quickly adding content. Re-share and re-tweet content that is still relevant and interesting to your target audience.
When writing your content initially, try to make it as timeless as possible so that it will be relevant and interesting to your audience long term.
Definitely write posts on current events and relate it to your industry, but make sure you accurately archive the content so it will not be repeated at a later time unless you give the word.
What did you think about #SNL40? Any observations that ties to your industry? Let’s discuss.