Our Content Strategy // The Pyramid of Content
THESE SAME PRINCIPLES APPLY TO THE SMALLEST SOLE-PROPRIETORSHIP TO GIANT MARKETING FIRMS
you’ll just have to hustle a little bit harder.
In today’s world, content is king. There’s no denying it. The more quality content you can manage to push out to your audience, the wider the net you cast and greater chance you have at growing and engaging said audience. But just how do you do that? How do you compete with industry giants and big-time organizations with staff in the hundreds? Notable modern-day marketing moguls like Gary Vee encourage you to post upwards of 100 pieces of content a day to grow your business! That seems like an incredibly daunting task, especially for a company or business that’s currently being run by just you, let alone a dedicated content team like he has. Using some of his principles and modern social media marketing strategies however, I’m going to show you in this article how we here at The Game Pad Podcast post daily content and grow our audience.
The Game Pad Podcast is currently run by just the 3 of us. Obviously in the case of constant content production, 3 heads are better than 1. However, don’t let that discourage you. These same principles apply to the smallest sole-proprietorship to giant marketing firms that employee over 1,000 people like Vayner Media. What’s important to remember is to scale it based on your size and not get down on yourself for not putting out “enough.” If you’re a one-man (or woman) show, you’ll just have to hustle a little bit harder.
TAKE ONE PIECE OF CONTENT AND MAKE OTHER PIECES OF CONTENT ON TOP OF THAT BASE.
The Pyramid of Content
The Pyramid of Content is a term that my co-host Arty came up with during one of our meetings one day and we’ve been using it ever since because it’s a brilliant metaphor for our content strategy.
The basic idea is to take one piece of content (your pyramid base) and build other pieces of content on top of that one original base piece. Almost as if the original piece of content spawned little mini-pieces of content from it.
So here’s what we do:
Every Monday our audio and video podcast gets published and distributed to the various platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Apple, Google, Spotify, etc)
Sara will listen to the show and clip up certain segments of the show (usually about 3+ mins long each) and I’ll then upload those clips throughout the week on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Soundcloud. Basically little snippets of the show that were particularly entertaining or insightful.
We’ll take what we’ve discussed in those clips and turn those into group discussions on our Facebook Group/Page and write blog articles for the website.
So from that ONE piece of content, you’re able to get multiple audio and video pieces, written word, and community engagement and discussions. That one podcast just gave us a week’s worth of content! Hell sometimes we even get merch and design ideas from the things we discuss. And that’s just from our ONE podcast! In addition to that we also do Live Streams regularly on Facebook and Twitch (which also get clipped and cutup into compilations), record video game Let’s Plays, Skits, write “off-topic” articles (such as this one), design and create our own in-house merchandise, etc.
This is of course made much much easier when you have a team. Even though my team is only 3 people strong, by delegating and really good communication, organization, and scheduling, we can put out a very steady flow of content across a wide number of distribution channels. The bigger your net, the more fish you’ll catch. The net being your content, and the fish being your audience.
THRU THE USE OF A SIMPLE WHITE BOARD CALENDAR, WE’VE MANAGED TO STAY ON TOP OF CONTENT RELEASES
FIND OUT WHAT CLICKS WITH YOU BY TRYING DIFFERENT THINGS AND “HACK YOURSELF”
Communication and Setting Schedules
An important success factor that has worked out well for us has been setting and sticking to a schedule for content making and releases. Especially with COVID-19 currently making it’s way across the country, setting a schedule has been more important than ever before.
We try to have at least 1 content meeting per week outside of the regular podcast. In these meetings we discuss what’s being clipped, what videos are currently being edited, what’s “in the can” and ready to be uploaded, and what day all of these things are being distributed and to where. It’s a lot to manage, but thru the use of various scheduling apps, Dropbox, and a good ole fashioned white board calendar, we’ve managed to stay (relatively) on top of content releases and keeping track of things like projects, video and content concepts, etc. These weekly content meetings go on the schedule as well and I highly recommend setting aside some time for them as a leader. They don’t have to be long and drawn out by any means. In fact, that’s detrimental. Keep them short and to the point. That is, getting everyone on the same page and communicating ideas and timelines. This is such a huge aspect that a lot of startups seem to forget about, but it’s certainly something that we consciously try to encourage and practice.
Even if you are currently working by yourself as a sole proprietor, take 15-20 mins and schedule out your week. Get yourself a calendar of some kind and write down when certain things need to be created/uploaded, and do your best to stick to that schedule. Find what works best for you. I for one have a really hard time committing to using scheduling apps on my phone or web-based organizers. But a whiteboard calendar that sits in my room next to my desk works wonders for me. Find out what clicks with you by trying different things and “hack yourself.”
The Pyramid of Content is basically a very simplified version of the GaryVee Content Deck - How to Make 64 Pieces of Content in a Day, which you can download and browse for free at that link. It’s a fantastic resource and does a great job of deep-diving what we just discussed here. I highly recommend taking a look at it and better understanding how to make content at scale and grow your audience.
