Nicola Balkind

Freelance Writer & Content Specialist

  • Services
  • Work
  • Books
  • Contact

Spring Clean Your Content: Part I, Media Mix

By Nicola Balkind

Media Mix

Trends change quickly and it’s easy to get in a rut with your content strategy. What better time to clean up your content than in Spring?

Before we dive into defining your content mix, first it is important to understand the type of media you’ll be posting and where to post it.

Today I want to help you take a look at your offering, give you a summary of trends in digital media, and suggest some ways to Spring clean your content. Next week, we’ll talk about the content mix and how to organise your own.

So, let’s learn about your options – or as I like to call it, the “media mix”.

 

Media Mix

Let’s talk about the media mix. We’re thinking about the types of media you can post, primarily text, images, video and audio, and how they’re best placed across digital platforms.

 

Blog Updates

If you’re still blogging – and I hope you are – text and images are probably your primary tools.

Words are always well-supported by pictures. They give your reader a sense of expectation, frame what’s to come, and illustrate your arguments.

Blogs are also important because they are a home for your content that you control. As we’ll discuss more below, every social media platform wants to keep you on-site, so linking out to other places is becoming less effective. The trouble is that you never know when a social media site will crash, go out of style, or even disappear.

Your blog is your home, and it’s an ideal place for your content to live. If you post a video to YouTube or a podcast to SoundCloud, it’s easy to embed these on your home blog. It gives your audience a central place to go where they can always find your latest news and updates. Don’t underestimate it!

As we’ve talked about previously, the same goes for email. Meet your audience where they’re at, get their email address, and keep them up-to-date with links back to your best content.

 

Social Media Updates

Updating your social media pages used to mean posting some text and maybe a link on Twitter or Facebook. Now, things are far more visual.

Currently, two of the fastest-growing platforms are Instagram and Snapchat – both visual, image and video-based platforms with massive young audiences. Not to mention Tumblr, a hugely visual platform and community which, arguably, focuses more on sharing and curating content than creating it. Users still create here, but it tends towards remixing and repurposing extant content from elsewhere (i.e. TV, YouTube videos, new memes).

Meanwhile, Twitter added images and Facebook also favours visual content that keeps users on-site.

My point? Social media still has a strong basis in text, but visual media is taking over.

 

Video

Let’s talk about dedicated video content. Video is one of the most rapidly-changing dynamics online these past fea years. Industry leaders have been heralding its moment for years now.

While YouTube launched 10 years ago and is credited with democratising video, it’s not until the past year or so that we’ve seen more platforms embrace video. Twitter launched Vine and Instagram added video capabilities around the same time; meanwhile Facebook favours auto-play and Twitter has now added a 30-second video option.

These are important changes as they keep users on-site. We can now post video directly on these social platforms – we publish the content directly to social, rather than publicising links and asking our users to follow them. The imperative to leave Twitter or Facebook and follow a link to YouTube has been weakened, so it’s time to start creating video content that’s fit for your chosen platform or platforms.

 

Audio

Audio content has great potential, and some sea changes have taken place of late – not least the massive success of Serial, which exploded the audience and appetite for podcasts.

Podcasts, micropodcasts and even audio clips shared on social media are an intimate way to connect with your audience. The direct voice-to-earbud delivery is unparalleled in this regard. Audio also occupies a different space in people’s lives: you’re reaching them while they’re out and about, walking, driving, doing daily tasks or even sleeping.

 

Next week we’ll look into defining your content mix.

Til then, what are the trends that you’ve seen in digital multimedia? What are you trying to achieve in your content strategy, and do you need help in going about it?

Drop me a comment below, tweet me @robotnic, or email me.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Filed Under: Social Media & Content Tagged With: content mix, content strategy, media mix, multimedia content, social media, spring clean your content

Subscribe to my newsletter

Trackbacks

  1. May Links | nicolabalkind.com says:
    June 10, 2015 at 1:02 pm

    […] Spring Clean Your Content 1: Media Mix – Back to basics! How to understand the type of media you’ll be posting and where to post it – or your “media mix”. […]

You must log in to post a comment.

Follow Me

Sign up for my newsletter

Contact Me

Email: nicola@nicolabalkind.com

Subscribe to my newsletter

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Categories

  • Archive
  • Client Work
  • Microbusiness
  • Notebook
  • Social Media & Content
  • Writing Portfolio

Testimonials

Nicola is an experienced creative copywriter, with a great ability to produce quality pieces quickly and at short-notice. She has a great knowledge of social platforms and ability to apply this knowledge. Nicola is an absolute pleasure to work with and brings her creativity and personality to everything she does.
Kaye SymingtonMint Digital & Stickygram
Nicola’s contributions to our projects for Channel 4 were invaluable: her huge knowledge of social media developments and online trends, together with her editorial flair and excellent writing skills made her invaluable in roles that encompassed community management, social media marketing, content strategy and product development. Her dedication, creativity, forward-thinking and attention to detail made her a major factor in the success of these projects. It was a pleasure to work with her, and I hope to work with her again!
Laura GraceMint Digital
Nicola has worked with Purplefeather on various social media and copywriting campaigns. She is creative, reliable and professional and can be completely trusted with the voice of your brand – rare qualities indeed!
Andrea GardnerPurplefeather
Nicola and I worked together across several projects in the Yomgeo community management team. Nicola is great to work with, her attitude towards projects is always amazing and she is incredibly efficient, Her work is always of the highest quality, and I’ve learned a lot from working with her.
Catherine CarriganYomego
Nicola has been my number one go-to for freelance community management. She is incredibly efficient, she is clear with costs, time estimates and invoicing and completely reliable. She is a breath of fresh air in an industry which is plagued by self-promoting “gurus”: her range of skills and experience is broad and authentic. I really appreciate the way Nicola is uncomplicated to work with: she asks quick, straightforward questions about what’s required then sits down and gets the job done without fuss. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Nicola and would certainly work with her again.
Annie MacfarlaneTOMS Europe
Nicola has been nothing but helpful, insightful, and an amazing force to impact our team. She exudes exceptional talent, and throughout working together I’ve been able to see first-hand her strength in organising and leading a team, attention to detail, and ability communicate with her peers and clients effectively. It has been a real pleasure to work with Nicola, and I can’t wait to continue working alongside and learning from her.
Jessica Yamamoto, Yelp
We’ve employed Nicola’s services several times at Yomego and every time she has been absolutely fantastic in both outputs and attitude. Supporting our community management team, Nicola has added invaluable expertise in creating customer focused strategies for our clients and helping to draft truly compelling content plans. I have absolutely no hesitations in recommending Nicola’s services for anyone that places important on ensuring outputs are consistently exemplary.
Sam Macleod
Nicola is crazy talented, knowledgeable and efficient when it comes to Social Media and Copywriting. I had the pleasure to work with Nicola on several online marketing projects over the course of almost two years. Not only is she a fountain of knowledge regarding latest trends and best practices for both Social Media and online writing – she is also able to put abstract ideas into action. Any team looking to improve their online presence would be lucky to get their hands on Nicola.
Eva MartinSERPS Invaders
Nicola was an important member of the Edinburgh International Film Festival Marketing Department and was key in the communication delivery of the Festival. In such a dynamic and demanding environment, Nicola delivered great content and was dependable throughout, an invaluable asset to the Festival.
Ross PerthEdinburgh International Film Festival
Nicola helped transform EIFF’s web vision at a time of change. She is assured and confident with her tactics in an ever-evolving industry and, more importantly, generates great content with results. Allied to Nicola’s strategic savvy, it’s a winning combination.
Colan MehaffeyEdinburgh International Film Festival

Copyright © 2023 · Modern Studio Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in