Susan Friedmann
Welcome to Book Marketing Mentors, the weekly podcast where you learn proven strategies, tools, ideas, and tips from the masters. Every week, I introduce you to a marketing master who will share their expertise to help you market and sell more books. 

Today. My special guest is Kelsey Shumway. Kelsey is the Director of Strategy at Repurpose House, which is the world's leading content recycling agency. Kelsey helps entrepreneurs and content creators best strategize how to consistently show up on social media and get the most out of their video, audio, and text content. 

Kelsey, what an absolute pleasure it is to welcome you to the show. And thank you for being this week's guest expert and mentor.

Kelsey Shumway 00:00:50

Of course. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Susan Friedmann 00:00:54

Kelsey, social media, I mean, people are living and dying and doing all sorts of other things. With social media, it's like, okay, there are so many different things that are going on, and I think it's probably changing daily. But give us an idea in terms of where you're all coming from with regard to repurposing content. What are some of the trends that our listeners should know about as we're looking at 2023?

Kelsey Shumway 00:01:26

Absolutely. I think what a lot of people have noticed are a lot of platforms are kind of expanding their availabilities into having short form video content kind of be the primary view of their social platform. You think about Instagram releasing Instagram reels. TikTok has become so monstrous, which I know you know, and with YouTube releasing YouTube shorts, the way of the world is really shifting towards short form video. One of the biggest things I see people taking advantage of now is whatever kind of content they were creating in the past, they're now recording video to kind of say the same things and take advantage of the fact that video opposed to just standstill images. What social used to really prefer video now gets 1200% better engagement rates. So if we're wanting to really take advantage of what's trending we are creating video content in this day and age.

Susan Friedmann 00:02:19

Yes, and I've heard that so often. And the whole idea I know that TikTok is not my scene. So many people have said, oh, you'll be great on TikTok. I'm like, nah. But the YouTube short form, which is something that I was recently introduced to, that's of interest. So I'm eager to know more about that. I, for instance, have got an audio podcast, as you know, how would I, for instance, take this audio content and repurpose it in terms of what you're talking about, the short form video, how would I do that?

Kelsey Shumway 00:02:55

That's a great question. We see a lot of podcasters with audio podcasts or even people who have audio versions of their books. Any audio content, I would suggest be repurposed into what we call audiograms. Audiograms are a shortened, condensed version of your audio content where we're basically kind of pulling together a highlight reel out of that specific chunk of content. It looks somewhat like a standstill image, but I'm sure you and your audience have seen them on social. They're standstill images with a little sound wave that kind of syncs with their voice. That is a great way to showcase audio content on social and also turn your audio into a video asset for those platforms to be able to take advantage of that great engagement rate that we know video gets opposed to standstills.

Susan Friedmann 00:03:39

So you talk about also the idea of turning that audio and having that sound wave and I know I've got that on YouTube, but I've got it as the whole podcast. Now, if it was just a short form, what are we talking? 30 seconds, 60 seconds? What's short form?

Kelsey Shumway 00:03:59

Great question. So in total, what we're noticing across all platforms is that drop off rates happen right after about two minutes. That's as long as we can typically hold people on social media. But the way of the world and a lot of platforms are really shifting closer towards that 1 minute mark. I know YouTube short specifically currently only allows for a 62nd clip. So what I would want to do if I was going through my audio content to create this short form content, I would want to listen for the best maybe 1 minute monologue, the best 1 minute sound bite or kind of clip together the bits and pieces that do kind of create that 1 minute in total audiogram and utilize that across my socials. But we're really looking, if we're being wise about social, we're looking at creating assets that are from anywhere between 30 seconds to two minutes long at the absolute max.

Susan Friedmann 00:04:50

Okay, and that's very helpful because yes, I mean short, it doesn't say specifically that could be interpreted in many different ways and it is. So that's helpful. Yes, the 32nd to 62nd, especially now for YouTube. So what are people doing wrong? What are the kind of mistakes that you are seeing that people posting on social media are making?

Kelsey Shumway 00:05:19

Absolutely, that's a great question. Typically what I see is people who are creating a lot of content and then getting kind of stuck on what I like to call the hamster wheel of creating the content, posting it, and then needing to create another piece, and posting that. It's a kind of cyclical way of content creation with the intention to get good engagement. Right. But the likelihood is if you're creating any kind of long-form content and by long-form content, I mean anything past five minutes, sure, I'm positive that there's such great value within what you're sharing. But to make it digestible on social, you have to be repurposing it. You need to be going through that long-form content, cutting out those minutes to two minutes. That's actually what we're in the business of doing, going through that content for you, picking out the best pieces, and even further than that. Going through that content with the lens of what creatively draws people in, what does my audience really want to hear? What's performing? Well, analytically, not going through your long-form content, repurposing it. To continuously get more social engagement, and more social presence out of what you've already created, is one of the biggest missed opportunities I notice day in and day out. Not even just that. Not even just going through your own content that you're creating specifically for engagement, but not repurposing your testimonials, not repurposing some of the email blasts that you might have said in the past that are really impactful or get a lot of engagement. You don't necessarily think about those things when it comes to social presence, but they not only can be turned into social assets, they absolutely should. Just to make sure that the content you've created, we're getting the most life out of it. We're not putting it on this archive to collect dust when really it could be working for us immediately to help us achieve the goals we have at the current moment.

Susan Friedmann 00:06:59

Yeah. Because you know that once somebody's looked at it, it's like it's gone. They're on to the next thing. Yeah. I mean, I tried to find past posts of people's material that I've read. It's like almost impossible. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack. Yeah. Being able to repurpose some of this. And there's some great stuff. I mean, I know that I've been doing these shows now for seven years, weekly. We're on like 360 episode. And so you know that there's a lot of content there.

Kelsey Shumway 00:07:35

Absolutely. And even furthermore, you've got to think, if I've been creating this podcast for seven years, how much has my audience grown? How much have the new followers and the new subscribers? I have not even heard of this really incredible content I've created a long time ago. Even though it's still evergreen content and really great advice, potentially. How many times, how many audience members are missing out on that entirely because they don't have the attention span or the desire to go into the backlogs and figure that out? Even if you have repurposed your content, even if you've kind of got that out there within the last year, finding new ways to repurpose it, maybe rewriting a header and utilizing the same content is also a really good idea to make sure that your entire audience gets a good picture as to all of what you've created and all of the really great portions that we can put back in front of them to help us stay present on Social.

Susan Friedmann 00:08:25

It sounds so easy, and yet it's one of those, oh, my goodness. We're adding this to the to do list, but obviously that's where Repurposed House comes into its own. And if you go through this material, are unable to cull the best parts and you know what people might be looking for I think that's pretty amazing. Now, you say you do that with text content as well. I mean, how does that work?

Kelsey Shumway 00:08:53

Yeah, text is one of the largest pieces of content or bodies of content that gets overlooked when it comes to repurposing content. Books, blogs, articles, PR releases, email blasts, even the long form copy based Instagram or Facebook posts that you used to write that used to get phenomenal traction. People loved reading it and that's just obviously not the way of the world anymore. So what we do with that text content, we go through it, we summarize it. Basically, we pick the best, maybe 100 or so words to utilize out of that article or whatever body of written content that might be. We'll go through it, pick the best pieces, and create what we call a text motion video, basically, where the text is kind of rolling across the screen as closed captioning. And we get to add all animation, sound, video, photos, anything that really creates a cohesive video so that it's more attractive. Not only is it video content, which again gets better engagement rates, but it's more attractive and easier to take in, opposed to just reading this large body of text that you might be posting across your channels.

Susan Friedmann 00:09:56

Yes, and so many authors are just taking pieces out of their book and posting them. So let's look at the whole idea of the book. Obviously, our listeners are primarily nonfiction authors and they've got a book. Let's start at the beginning. What could they start with? Let's say they've done nothing, they were just starting out. Would they look at doing it as short form first? Would they look at perhaps doing a long form and then breaking it down? How would you tackle that? What would you advise them?

Kelsey Shumway 00:10:30

That's a great question, as I'm sure many authors do. It's kind of how do I section out this book? Do I want it to be a listicle? Do I want it to be long form content? Either way, what I would do is create that long form content, feel at peace with that creation being done, which I know is a monstrous achievement. And then looking through it with the lens of how do I pull bits and pieces out of this? Where I tease out the really great information without giving away the entire book. Right. The majority of the time when authors are showing up on social and doing this, teasing out little aspects of their book, the goal at the end of the day is to get people interested enough to become buyers of the book, to become followers of your work, which is all great stuff. But I would suggest create that content, then go through it with the lens of how do I tease bits and pieces out without giving away the entire work? And use those smaller assets to not only help get more people to purchase, but show up on social and get more engagement. Get more people to see you build your audience that way.

Susan Friedmann 00:11:29

Yes. And as I'd mentioned to you earlier, repurposing a book. I've talked about this for many years. It's like, how can you cut, dice and slice a book so that you can get the most out of it? I mean, I took my first book and I turned it into tip sheets. I turned it into checklists, and I made more money selling those than I did necessarily in selling a book.

Kelsey Shumway 00:11:56

Great.

Susan Friedmann 00:11:56

That's helpful, taking the chapters and making maybe ebooks out of those. But you're taking it even further than that. And it's almost down to the lowest common denominator. 100 words. That's nothing.

Kelsey Shumway 00:12:11

Totally. And I suggest that both of these things happen, right? That we're creating video assets out of your content. If you're repurposing an ebook to create another revenue stream, that's a phenomenal idea, too. Let's utilize these assets to bring awareness on social media to the fact that these exist. Let's get people interested in seeing them and then drive people from social media using call to actions to be purchasers of the book or this ebook or these lists, however that might look, whatever you repose that into, let's utilize what you've created to help us get more people to attract to that. If that makes sense.

Susan Friedmann 00:12:45

Yes, I mean, it does. It makes so much sense. And one of the things that she said earlier, which I really like, and it resonated because I know I do this, is that you feel that you have to create new content every single time, right?

Kelsey Shumway 00:13:01

And that's just so not the case when you're stuck on that hamster wheel. Creating new content, posting it, creating new content, posting it, the opportunity to really review what you've created and see if there's better ways to shorten it, to condense it, to use those assets for social to not do that is a big missed opportunity. And ultimately, a lot of the times when I talk to authors or when I talk to content creators, they end up noticing how much they've left on the table. Right? There is so much we can do with a backlog that exists like that. To go through it, find new things, and all route towards the same goal we're having in the current moment without having to stay on the hamster wheel of creating more. That's how we help.

Susan Friedmann 00:13:42

It seems so obvious. And yet, as you said, you get stuck on that hamster wheel of thinking, I've got to tell them something new. They've heard this already.

Kelsey Shumway 00:13:53

You make a good point, too. It seems simple, right? Of course this seems like it makes sense. But then when you really get into the nitty gritty, what 1 minute chunk do I pull out? What do I write as the header and in the copy, what hashtags do I use? Are there keywords? Are there SEO components? When do I post this? Where do I post it? There's a lot that goes into that. And understanding social media, for the most part, is not something authors have time for, right? Or really a lot of people who are running businesses. If the goal is to create this written content, finding ways to repurpose it might seem simplistic, but they might find that it's more challenging than they assume. But ultimately, showing up on social with bite sized chunks is the goal is the way that the world is consuming content these days. So however they start that process, however they begin learning it, it's a great modality to be able to achieve what we want to achieve.

Susan Friedmann 00:14:43

That laundry list of things that you reeled off, I was like, oh, my goodness, that sounds exhausting. That's why you hire an expert to do it. I know. What other mistakes do you see people making, Kelsey? I mean, there's got to be another laundry list of mistakes.

Kelsey Shumway 00:15:02

I would love to dive further into that one. One of the best ways to drive further engagement is through writing social copy. And I know that I just mentioned that in my previous laundry list, but this is where we miss the mark. This is where I see a lot of people miss the mark with copy. What we should be not only asking for is engagement on the post, but then we also need to ask them to do something else afterwards. So a lot of the times when you see it done right is maybe the piece of content is a video discussing the five things that you should be doing every single day to achieve a better way of life, whatever that might look like. And that's just a random example. The copy of that should have something to engage with the asset. So maybe that means which one of these are you going to implement? Which one of these tips have you attempted implementing? Which ones do you have issues with or have had challenges with implementing in the past? Because not only does that kind of question ask your audience to engage with that post, which the algorithm sees as great performance, the algorithm loves when people engage with your content. And then you start to get that preferential treatment that the algorithm gives to content creators who have engaging content. So we're achieving one thing right there. The second thing we also need to have in the copy is a call to action. The call to action should always sound something along the lines of, if you're interested in this, you can check out the long form here on my YouTube. You can see the link for that in the bio. Or it'll say something along the lines of, like, if this piqued your interest and you want to talk about how you can be doing this for yourself, specifically, let's hop on a 20 minutes call. You can book that call on my website at this link. Something along those lines. Let's ask them to engage so we get the performance we want out of the social platform, and then let's ask them to do a next step, especially if this audience is becoming more and more engaged with you because they're seeing more and more of your content. Let's ask them for that call to action. Let's get them on our list. Let's get them to sign up for that strategy call. Those are the two things I see really being a necessity in copy. And a lot of the times people assume that copy on a post should just be a summary of what that asset is. And that's where we really end up missing the mark.

Susan Friedmann 00:17:04

Literally, the second before you said Call to action, I wrote on my sheet of paper here, CTA Call to Action. I was like, oh, she can see what I just wrote. That was like, oh, my goodness.

Kelsey Shumway 00:17:20

Yes.

Susan Friedmann 00:17:21

That whole idea of call to action, it's interesting because recently and you'll hear when we sign off, I invite people to a 20 minutes brainstorm with Susan. And I hadn't done that for years. I did the podcast, and I never had a call to action. And I'm like, why isn't the podcast doing what I want it to do? Which is obviously attract people. Yes, I'm putting great information out there, and I will continue to do that because I love doing that. And I also want to be able to help people if they've got challenges. But if they don't know that they can do that, I mean, my bad for not telling them.

Kelsey Shumway 00:18:04

Totally. And if the goal is to help people, not only is the information you're sharing in that social post or for your example, your podcast helping them, but to take it a step further to personalize that help with that strategy call, you're just taking the help you're wanting to give a step further. It's not just about making a sale. It's about really wanting to complete the cycle of your goal. If the goal is to help, then this is a great way to do it as well.

Susan Friedmann 00:18:26

So that's another interesting point, and that is that so many people obviously want to make the sale. And it's like, you've seen this. Bye bye bye. In fact, I've started to make several connections on LinkedIn, and one of the messages that I got back was, I'm so pleased you just want to connect and you're not trying to sell me something. Yeah, that's out there.

Kelsey Shumway 00:18:56

There is. Yeah. And a lot of the times we get that wrong too. We think that the audience thinks like we do, where it's just this book is so amazing and the content I've created is so phenomenal that how could they not want to purchase it? But like anybody, when it comes to actually purchasing something, does it take a while to build brand trust? Typically, does it take a while to really familiarize yourself with the author or the provider of the service, probably. And to only create sales based content on social is where people get it wrong as well. We also want to educate our audience. We also want to engage with them in really fun ways. Your content can't all be geared towards sales. That's when we start to see that monstrous drop off, because if people wanted to see that, they would opt in for ads. That's something people don't do often.

Susan Friedmann 00:19:42

That's really good to hear because I heard that maybe every third or fourth communication, you might put in something that could potentially lead to a sale or something to the effect of, hey, let's jump on a call together.

Kelsey Shumway 00:19:59

Right? Yes, you're hitting the nail on the head. Maybe sporadically add that in. And I'm not saying exclude call to actions, even on your educational post, but just be cognizant. These are people you're wanting to purchase your assets and they think like you think I don't want to be sold to constantly. So keep that in mind when you're showing up on Social.

Susan Friedmann 00:20:16

Yes, that's real words of wisdom there, because there's this tendency, I've got this book, I want people to buy it. I want people to buy it. I mean, you mentioned that earlier. It's all geared around, well, how can I get them to buy it? And it's like, well, why should they buy it? They don't know anything about it yet. What's in it for them? People don't buy books. They buy what the book will do for them. So that's got highlighting some of the important parts of the book, the strategies or maybe little even tactics or dangling the carrots. I suppose that those are things that come out in those tips.

Kelsey Shumway 00:20:58

Absolutely.

Susan Friedmann 00:21:00

Kelsey, I know that listeners are probably chomping at the bit here, wanting to know how they can get in touch with you because this sounds so juicy.

Kelsey Shumway 00:21:12

It is juicy stuff. Yes. What we do at Repurposed House is kind of take this work off your plate. We'll go through the content for you. We can take it a step further and not just create new assets, but we also can write, copy, do hashtag keyword research, and even post for you across a lot of channels. But I like to take a step back before we even start talking about plans or how we could work together and talk about strategy. One of the best things I think I can provide to authors or entrepreneurs or content creators in general. Let's take a look at how you're showing up on Social currently. Let's talk about where I see we might be missing the mark or where we might just be finding new opportunities to show up in a more strategic way. So if you wanted to have if anyone wanted to have that conversation with me, they can book what we call a strategy call. They'd head to our website, Repurposedhouse.com, and there's a quick link in the right corner that says schedule a call. This way I can do a deep dive into how your social presence is performing. What I would suggest we potentially do differently and then we get to discuss all of the fun stuff like repurposing what you've created, going through the backlog, looking through that archive. That's where people can find me in terms of next steps.

Susan Friedmann 00:22:19

And I believe that you have a little freebie for our guests.

Kelsey Shumway 00:22:23

We do, yes. For your guests we currently are offering or you have access to a PDF that we've created. Its title is The Nine Unexpected Things You Should Repurpose but you probably Forgot About, so that you can start preparing to really think about all of the things that you have and you can repurpose and could utilize to show up differently on social.

Susan Friedmann 00:22:42

Nice. And I believe people get a discount, don't they, when they we're going to put a little code and I'll put that in the show notes BMM 15 and you'll get a 15% discount off your first order. I think that's very generous. So listeners, yeah, I'll put that all in the show notes for you so that you can see that. And Kelsey, as you know, we always end off with a golden nugget. So if you were to leave our listeners with a golden nugget, what would that be?

Kelsey Shumway 00:23:17

My golden nugget would be a little bit of an elaboration on what you just said. People want to purchase a book because of what that book will offer them. Furthermore, people want to purchase a book from somebody they know, they trust, they like, they agree with. And you getting to show up on social in an organic, authentic way not only helps push your book into their hands, it also helps push you into their hands so that these are people who not only are purchasers of your content, but are followers of your work. This is how we start to build a really reputable and true following. So whatever that looks like for you, whether that be repurposing your content or whether that be creating new content over and over, keep that in mind when you're thinking about your audience. People want to buy from people. People want to buy from people the products that they know will help them. So keep that in mind when you're creating content. Authenticity is few and far between when it comes to social, but showing up in that way is so impactful, so powerful, that does great things not only for you, but your business too and.

Susan Friedmann 00:24:17

Helps stand you out from the crowd.

Kelsey Shumway 00:24:19

It does, yes.

Susan Friedmann 00:24:20

Yeah. That authenticity is so, so key as we know and the know like and trust factor. Yeah, I mean, we do, we do business with people and we know like and trust us why it doesn't happen straight away that you just go on social and someone's just going to buy something from you. Sure that ain't going to happen. Well, maybe. Unlikely.

Kelsey Shumway 00:24:44

Possibly. We'll see.

Susan Friedmann 00:24:45

Yes, exactly. Well, this has been illuminating, fabulous. Something totally different. As I said, I love the whole idea. I've always talked about repurposing the book, but now you're taking it a step further with regard to repurposing social media content. So I appreciate this, Kelsey. Thank you so much. And we will put all the information in the show notes, how people can get hold of you.

And listeners, if your book isn't selling the way you wanted or expected to, let's you and I jump on a quick call together and brainstorm ways you can ramp up those sales. Because you've invested a whole lot of time, money and energy. And it's time you got the return you were hoping for. So go to BrainstormwithSusan.com to schedule your free call. And in the meantime, I hope this powerful interview sparks some ideas you can use to sell more books. So, until next week, here's wishing you much book and author marketing success.

Click here to download your free copy of "9 Unexpected Things You Should Repurpose but You Probably Forgot About"
You'll get a 15% discount on your first order when you use the code: BMM 15

Click here to schedule your 20-minute brainstorming session with Susan

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