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Content Publishing

Root Content Feeds Fruit Content

In my backyard we have a few tomato plants. Every week I go out there, usually before I cut the grass and do other yard work, and collect the couple dozen new tomatoes that have ripened since the last time I did so. The roots remain the same but every week there is new…wait for it…content.

 

As part of one of the sessions at Spredfast Summit 2015, a speaker was talking about how they review video from TV broadcast tapings and other sessions and find ways to repurpose it. So they view a moment that’s been filmed and think X moment can go on Instagram, Y moment can be GIFd and shared on Tumblr and so on.

That got me thinking about this idea of “root content.” That’s the material that spins off into other formats, acting as the root through which all sorts of other fruit is born from. It’s the big thing – a TV show, a movie, a blog post, a photo shoot – that creates opportunistic ancillary sharable moments.

I think we can all agree that this is a good idea. You can see it already in how some TV networks are creating GIFs for their shows as they air. But it’s a good idea that requires resources, which may not be easy to come by.

It’s not enough for someone to just look at a TV episode or movie trailer and say “Oh yeah, that’s a GIF/Vine/meme.” It takes someone to do that then hand it off to a production team that can turn them around and deliver them to the distribution team then adds them to the content marketing program’s ed cal and ultimately publishes them for public consumption.

That first person, though, is so important. “Hey, that would be fun on Instagram” isn’t just the statement of someone who is “good at Instagram.” It should be the considered opinion of a program manager who knows who the audience on Instagram – or whatever network we’re talking about – is and has a data-based eye for what will or won’t work there. Because not only are they going to be responsible for pointing out what will work but also for defending their rationale as to why someone else’s ideas may not work.

This isn’t just for videos that can turned into GIFs, either. Think about this the next time you’re writing your next blog post. What are your Tweetable lines? Where are your pull quotes? What do you want to have overlayed on a graphic that can be shared via Twitter or Facebook?

Next time you’re doing something big, think about the small things that can be pulled from it and be used to promote it.

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