How to populate content on 7 different digital platforms with one video in sports.

I had a friend say she was starting a video show to post onto Instagram TV. It was long-form and meant to help build her brand up through helpful content.

I asked, "Why just Instagram TV?"

She gave the answer I get a lot from people who are creating content. "I don't have enough time to create new content for the other platforms."

There was a whiteboard there...and being an art major I had to draw my thoughts.

After a fury of writing, this is what was left in the chaos.

Although it is sloppy, this is the blueprint to how you can easily create content for 6 different channels with one video.

Today I'm going to take you through how you can utilize this to become a content machine, build a new audience on platforms you've never been on, and spend half the time you think to pull it off.

First, we need to understand what to wear to each party (social platform)

The way I think about the different social media platforms is the same way I think about dress codes.

If you fail to grow a following on a channel it's because you wore cut off Jorts to a black-tie affair. In order to succeed on which content will work on each platform, we need to understand the proper dress code for each platform.

This comes from being a consumer at first. Just like the way you knew how to dress at a wedding, you need to see other weddings to really get an idea.

Download a Tik Tok account if you don't understand it. Look at the Discovery section of Snapchat and the content being made there. Make accounts and consume on them. See how others do it well.

Understand which are better for short-form and long-form content. Understand the nuances of posting. Learn the seriousness of the content on each platform.

Once you know how to dress for the party you can go without looking like a Goober. That is the first step.

Ok, now for the formula. Find (or create) your long-form videos.

These are your Hard Knocks type of in-depth content pieces. The kind we all love to create in sports. Practices, home life, behind the scenes game day videos. The goal is to create as many long-form video content pieces as you can.

How long is long-form? It can be as short as 2 minutes and as long as two hours. There are places (dress codes) for both as far as digital platforms go.

For this article, I'll use one of my favorite sports movies of all time....the Sandlot... as an example (You're killing me smalls).

Post your long-form videos on YouTube & Facebook Watch

Again looking at the dress code, YouTube is the Black Tie Affair of your long-form content. It is where you post the whole Sandlot movie. Fans will consume the whole movie on YouTube, they are in the mindset to do so.

The next platform to look at for the whole video is Facebook Watch. I love this platform because you can tap into the built-in audience of your Facebook following and when your fans share your video it allows you to reach even more fans.

Overall though, the proper attire for YouTube and Facebook Watch is the whole Sandlot movie.

Take your long-form content and find mini-stories within them.

From here we are finding mini-stories that are compelling throughout the movie. For anyone that has seen the movie, here are my mini-stories:

• First game (Smalls Meets the Crew)
• The Sleepover (Smalls learns about the Beast & Smore's)
• The Pool Scene ( Squints makes his move on Wendy)
• The 4th of July night game
• The match up with the little league team (You mix Wheaties with your Mama's Toe Jams!)
• The Fair (Big Chief...the best)
• Smalls hits the Babe Ruth ball over the fence
• The Ghost of the Bambino visits (Heros get remembered, but legends never die)
• Benny the Jet plays Pickle with The Beast
• Meeting Mr. Mertle & Hercules, the trade
• Benny in the big leagues stealing home against the Giants to win. Smalls on the call.

Ok...that is 11 separate mini-stories we can put create content with. They will be, say, 5 minutes to 1 minute each and show different aspects of the characters and story.

Take those 11 moments and make them their own video content. That is 11 posts you can create from one long-form video in order to create new content for your team and fans to consume.

But where do they go? This comes back to the dress code.

For 1 minute to 5-minute videos you have a few options:

• Toward the 5-minute end: Facebook post & IGTV
• Closer to 2 minutes & below: Instagram wall & Twitter

These are the proper dress codes for these platforms. People will consume longer videos on these outlets but not as long as they would for YouTube & FB Watch.

Also, you need to look at the content of each to read the dress code. Today, Facebook is a bit of an older crowd (sorry) so content needs to be a bit more mature. Instagram is a bit younger so you can push onto the more playful or immature side.

For the sake of the Sandlot reference: Squints telling the Beast story...probably will do better on Facebook. Squints tricking Wendy into kissing him...probably on the Instagram side.

Ok, maybe a bad reference so here is a sports one: Inside look at how the front office manages the team & business side...better for Facebook. Players having fun at practice...more on the Instagram side.

I'm not saying you can't post the front office items on Instagram. I just wouldn't go as heavy there with it as I would the on FB. Again read the room and dress your content accordingly.

Link this back to the long-form video on YouTube

Don't forget to guide your fans back to the whole movie...or long-form content on YouTube. These are snippets to the whole story that your fans want to see and a great advertisement for your YouTube channel.

This is the secret to building up your following on YouTube. Utilize the following you have on other platforms and incentivize through content in the long-form on YouTube.

But wait, there are mini-stories within mini-stories

This is the level where I think most people get hung up. We are now in the short form, meaning 5 to 60-second stories we can tell.

These won't do particularly well on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram wall.

Of course, you absolutely can post a 5-second video on Facebook and Instagram wall. They are well dressed for both. But that would be like making Lamar Jackson play Wide Reciever, you'd lose its potential.

Let's take the scene where Benny and the Beast play pickle. The first scene of that whole chase has them staring each other down, tuned to a western sounding song.

That within itself is a piece of video content that would be perfect for the short form mediums. There are about 10 within that one scene that you can break down into shorter form videos.

These shorter form pieces of content are perfect for Tik Tok, Snapchat, and Instagram Stories. You can create a ton of clips to keep fans engaged on these platforms.

Of course, again, you have to dress it up for the medium. Adding overlays is great for Snapchat and adding text is great for Tik Tok, and most of these are made for vertical orientation. Study these forms and you will see what is great content that fits the platform.

DO NOT try and jam video styles that don't fit into the platform. Fans will notice and you won't get the traction you are looking for. This is like showing up to the prom in a Canadian Tuxedo....few can pull it off.

Don't forget the character storylines

In addition to this, there are side stories you can create from the overall long-form videos. You can tell the story from a different aspect.

An example of this using the Sandlot analogy would be a compilation of all the time Ham says "You're Killing Me Smalls". Or all the times Yeah-Yeah says "yeah yeah".

You can set up content, not in chronological order, to create new content. A break down of a player's dunks in a game. Best sacks of the night. These are both alternate contents that you can create to make more long-form & short-form video content.

Don't forget, short-form content leads back to the long-form

Again, don't forget to link the short-form back to the long-form. On Snapchat & Instagram Stories this means utilizing the swipe up feature that opens a link to your YouTube Channel.

One Snapchat channel that does this really well is the Hot Ones account. They take what is a 30-minute long-form YouTube video and cut it up into the best parts of the episode. They then post those cut-ups on Snapchat and link it back to the YouTube episode.

This drives a new customer segment to their videos. We should be looking to do the same with our content. Don't forget to create an ecosystem that links back to the long-form content.

Do this for every single long-form piece of content you have

You should be doing this for every piece of long-form video you have. The remarkable part of this is it makes content creation so easy.

The first step in filming is to capture the whole story. Whether that is a game, training camp, season, or career of a player. Your camera people should be filming to tell a long-form story.

From there you can tell that story in many different ways and create a content machine that feeds and feeds fans of all ages and consumption platforms.

The best compliment I've ever heard from someone to a content producer is "Man, your stuff is everywhere. I see you on every platform with a new video every day."

This should be our goal. In sports, we want to capture every fan we can, at all age levels, to make them fanatics.

And really there is no excuse, given the above formula, to not be on a platform. There is absolutely no excuse to not be creating content on Tik Tok with the above formula as your short-form content can be made from the long-form.

And the big reason is we are in the attention industry. Our goal is to be the most-watched team in the world. The more eyeballs we get means more fans mean more revenue we can drive. We can do it all ourselves if we create content at scale.

What I love about the world today is that there is no reason a minor league organization can't reach viewer levels that the majors reach.

If you can be on every platform creating as much content as possible you can overtake a major league team in your area.

Unequivocally you can reach their levels with the above formula.

The reason why this is so important is where you can be by following it. You can reach millions of followers as a smaller team if you follow the above formula.

The process is simple. It just takes discipline, endurance, and a bit of creativity. But the time it takes is minimal once you get into the groove.

Today, with this shutdown, it is the perfect time to start building the structure for this formula. There is no better time to take the steps to create this for your team and put the processes in place to keep it consistent.

I hope the above helps spark the journey to making this a process in your team so someone walks up to you and says "I see you all everywhere...how do you do it?"

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