How can you avoid the risks of relying on a single content distribution channel?

Steer clear of the single-channel trap by first setting your navigation points: identify your content goals and diverse audience segments. Just as a ship needs multiple sails to navigate different winds, varied channels cater to distinct demographics and objectives. This strategic diversification hedges against overreliance on one channel and mitigates the risks, ensuring your content reaches its intended destinations effectively.

First, identify your core target audience and content verticals-millennials vs generation Z ; lifestyle content vs gaming/tech content ? Second, choose the right content format and deploy channel strategy. For TikTok , you can combine short video, longer format video and Live . Video format has a longer life cycle to go viral and reach to more users; Live could be powerful to interact and engage with your fans in a short period of time; email marketing and newsletter are key to grow your communities. Lastly, tonality. To distribute content on TikTok, it is all about being inspirational, relatable ,inclusive and educational; while other social platforms set a different tone .

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket." 3 Questions to Ask on this: What are the potential risks and drawbacks of relying on a single content distribution channel for reaching an audience, and how can these risks be mitigated? What strategies can content creators use to diversify their distribution channels and reach a wider and more resilient audience? Can you share examples of individuals or organizations that faced challenges due to over-reliance on a single distribution channel and how they successfully diversified to reduce risks and enhance their reach?

Navigating content distribution channels is like playing a game of chess. Each platform is a piece with its own strategy. Relying on a single channel is like playing with just a king; it’s limiting. It's about using a mix of platforms —your knights, bishops, and rooks—to reach your audience. As you monitor and explore new channels, you adjust your strategy, ensuring your content finds its audience, no matter where they are on the board, leading to a well-rounded game and a stronger connection with your audience.

To avoid the risks of depending on just one way to share your content, it's like not putting all your eggs in one basket. You spread your content across different places, like your website, social media, email, and more, so if one place has a problem, your content is still safe and can reach your audience in other ways. It's like having multiple routes to get to your destination instead of relying on just one road. This way, you're better prepared and can keep sharing your content even if something goes wrong with one of your distribution channels.

Never rely on one social media channel. Every social media platform is borrowed. You want to use them strategically to your advantage. Use one social media platform to grow the other. Build on one Expand on the next one And cycle continues

Diversify your content distribution across owned media and borrowed media. Owned media includes your website, blog, and email list. You have control over the owned media. While borrowed media is your social media pages, YouTube channel, etc. You don't have control over the borrowed media. The borrowed media should serve as a gateway to direct traffic to your owned media.

It’s really important to know where your audience is hanging out, and what content they are interested in. A lot of companies think they need to be on every social channel—this isn’t true, and often a waste of time. Invest the time and resources into the channels that are working for you, and don’t be afraid to cut the ones that aren’t.

All that glitters is not gold. Save yourself from the trap or temptation of investing in all the trends and all the channels. Some channels might be completely irrelevant to your audience, and some might be highly relevant driving traffic to your website, and you are not even aware of them. You must conduct research to find out where your target audience go to get their information when they are in their awareness or consideration stages. Based on that research, you can draft up your content plan that must be executed specific to a channel.

Too often in social, we get asked to place content on our social channels because social media is considered a must-use channel that performs well. But more often than not, when we cut it back to the core objective of the content, social isn't the right channel and our audience won't find any meaning or value in it ...and we'll have the data to back it up. Long story short, always ask if there's alignment between a channel's data and what your goal is.

You would be surprised what can be achieved on Quora, Reddit, and even Pinterest. Few people venture into these channels, and even fewer do so successfully because your strategy must be wholly different to that used on Facebook and LinkedIn. However, if you can master lesser used channels by brands, you'll stand a head above your competition.

To avoid the risks of relying on a single content distribution channel: 1. Use multiple platforms and channels (social media, email, website, etc.). 2. Share content with relevant third-party platforms. 3. Optimize content for search engines to drive organic traffic. 4. Build a subscriber list for direct communication. 5. Invest in paid advertising for wider reach. 6. Interact with your audience on various platforms. 7. Track performance across channels for insights. Diversification safeguards against changes, outages, or algorithm updates on a single channel.

Slice and dice your content — repurpose is the (new) game. Too often we think of the NEXT piece of content to create or a NEW channel to explore. But take a step back before moving so quickly. ?? Turn that case study into a social series ?? Round up your product announcements and include them in the next newsletter ?? Chop up that founder talk into shorts ?? Add an update to last year's best performing blog post ?? Turn slides into PDFs and share them on LinkedIn Explore new channels? Yes! But don't let that mean you have to create new content. Repurpose whatcha already got. ??

Run a quick expected returns and feasibility analysis for the new channels that you consider to explore. Not every channel is going to be worth your marketing budget and efforts. So, pick the ones that make sense for your marketing goals, and as per audience and competitor analysis. Once you have selected the right channels, don't make the mistake of giving up too early on them when the results don't show up in the initial few weeks/months. Keep an eye on the defined KPIs and metrics to track month-on-month progress. Readjust your strategies, if needed. It could take several iterations of campaign optimization before you start seeing tanglible results.

In my experience, not putting all your content eggs in one basket is key. I once worked on a project that heavily relied on Facebook for content distribution. It was all smooth sailing until one day, our reach suddenly dropped due to an algorithm change. We learned the hard way. Now, I always advise diversifying content channels. It's like having backup dancers ready; if one stumbles, the others keep the performance going strong!

Repurposing your content doesn't just save valuable time and resources - it's a savvy way to reinforce your messaging across multiple channels and connect with a wider audience. Plus, it helps you maintain a consistent and cohesive online presence, which is essential for building brand recognition and trust. By tweaking and adapting your content to fit different platforms, you're not only extending its lifespan but also ensuring that it reaches your target audience wherever they hang out online. It's like meeting them right at their digital doorstep.

When diversifying your content distribution, staying consistent with your value is the key. While reformatting is necessary due to varying user behaviors and preferences across channels (e.g., short-form on X and long-form on your blog), maintaining your brand voice and value is important. Hence, repurposing your content helps along with a solid tone of voice guideline.

Content repurposing is one of those areas of marketing that is often pitched as "low-hanging fruit." Just cut up your long-form piece into 10 blog posts! While it's good advice, it's often not as simple as it seems to do it well. With generative AI making it easier than ever to generate high volumes of low-quality content, it's even more important that every piece of content has a strong point-of-view, a stance and narrative value. In my experience, repurposing content for different mediums and platforms requires focused work from expert strategists and editors. Again, it's absolutely worth your team's time to do it, as it extends the value of your most important narratives and assets. It's just not going to be a simple switch you can flip.

In my experience, repurposing doesn't always help, while it definitely saves time and is a good tactic for lean teams, it might in fact lead to fatigue and a drop in engagement. For example, X has a very different content requirement as compared to Instagram. While the message and theme /tone can remain consistent it is very important to have platform strategies built on audience interest and past performance insights.

Any business risks growing too fast without being able to maintain quality, and the same is true for your personal brand. Repurposing your top-performing content is a great next step, but do it thoughtfully. Here's one way to scale sustainably: focus on channels and formats that allow you to condense your best content. For example, if you are trying to make the jump from long-form article writing to video, turn your favorite article into a list of bullet points and cut that list down to the most interesting details only. Then use those bullets to "re-tell" your article in the same way would if you had exactly one minute to tell your friend about this crazy story you just heard.

Get feedback often. Talk to your audience. Reply to them often. This way, you'll see what's hitting and what's not. Be curious. Ask people what they like and what they don't like.

Analytics are your friend! Find baselines and targets by researching or speaking to others in your niche, and see if you can hit those targets. On YouTube for example, this would be targeting certain CTR (click-through-rates) and watch time %. On LinkedIn or TikTok, it could be reactions per view. (My target is over 1 reaction per 30 impressions in the first few hours on LinkedIn) If you aren't near those baselines, keep experimenting and tweaking the creative. Find the levers in your content that moves the needle.

Strategy is NOT carved in stone, which means it must be altered depending on the feedback we get. Don't take it personally, human beings change everyday and to cater to them, markets and marketeers must change immediately!

Don’t forget your call to action. Most social media is folks waxing about an opinion no one asked for. Provide value, work with the data you have, be empathetic, and ask for support, engagement or even what your audience thinks. No one likes the person who only talks about themselves at the party.

Stay on your toes; the digital landscape is ever-changing. Regularly check up on your content distribution strategy. Are your channels still hitting the mark? What does the data say? Pay attention to audience feedback too—what’s resonating with them? Use these insights to fine-tune your approach. Maybe drop some channels, maybe tweak others. Be open to testing new strategies. It’s a constant game of adapt and evolve. Don’t just set it and forget it; stay active and agile.

Diversify Channels: Use a mix of platforms such as social media, email marketing, blogs, podcasts, and more to reach a broader audience. Audience Research: Understand your target audience and their preferred channels, and tailor your content distribution accordingly. Content Repurposing: Repurpose your content for different channels to maximize its reach without creating entirely new content. Build an Email List: An email list is a direct channel to your audience and can be a valuable asset for content distribution. Guest Posting: Contribute content to authoritative websites and publications to tap into their audiences. Community Engagement: Build and engage with a community around your brand to foster word-of-mouth marketing.

We used to call social platforms 'earned media'. It resonates because you have to 'earn' your followership by creating content that works for that platform and for that audience. The answer isn't as simple as 'diversify channels' or spread across different verticals. The considerations should be: what do you want to achieve, what is the longevity of the chosen distribution platform, how much budget and resource do you have to your disposal and what is the adaptation pace of your audience. You might be fine with one distribution channel for a certain period of time. It is ok to put all eggs in a basket for one journey - definitely less risky then trying to be everywhere at the same time, with quantity overcoming quality of content.

Honestly, 1 channel is probably the most strategic option for most organizations -- and it needs to be a content channel you have a lot of control over. Before you do anything else, you gotta know where your customers hang, whether that's on Reddit or LinkedIn, at Starbucks or on the train. That may be where you end up distributing, or it may just be where you listen, but you need to "be" there in some way. Then distribution makes more sense because you're going to have a better understanding of where people go to look for help with the thing you solve -- and that's what your content does. Answer the question where they are and own the home for that content -- and you're going to be fine.

Don't forget influencers and subject matter experts within your own company who can post or amplify content to their own followers. Having ways to get content from established but low-traffic channels into other feeds (for free!) is a great opportunity to disseminate your message by people who others listen to and trust and not just your marketing dept.

I truly think its 100 times more effective to double down on fewer channels and do it well rather than being scared of replying on one channel and trying to be everywhere. Building a channel is incredibly resource heavy and trying to build several channels and do it well is mission impossible for MOST small or midsize brands. Picking ONE or two channels and ONE or two content formats and OWNING them is the key.