Content Creator Tips – Creative Life Midwife

Image of a computer monitor and phone with Beatrix Potter Books on it with the title "How to Make 3 New Social Media Posts from 1 Blog Post" inspiration for writing, blogging and social media with Julie Jordan Scott"

One of the biggest challenges for people wanting to impact the world positively through social media is finding the time to “get it all done”. Without a strategy – and without the means to manage one’s to do list – we run the risk of becoming discouraged.

Instead, let’s look at how simple it is to take one blog post to create 3 or more completely different social media posts. Repurposing – using content in different ways – will connect and engage different people with your messages. It will also inspire members of your community and yes, bring more people into your blog and beyond.

The easiest social media post to make from your blog post is to take your blog image and use canva to resize it to use on social media stories.

Social Media Post Example 1: A Story

For example, I took the 3 Easy Content Strategies from Beatrix Potter post earlier this week. Before I even published my blog I had an image ready to share on instagram and facebook stories. This is an effortless way I shared that story along with a link to my blog post.

On Instagram, I also shared the story into a highlight (by the way, if you look my highlights are not updated and need work – all in good time) so it will also be accessible in the days and weeks to come.

This is an instagram story sized image I shared immediately after my blog post was "live". Note how I kept space on the graphic (which I easily resized on canva) to add the link to the story.

This is how the story image looked – note how I left space for the link in the story so people can go straight to my blog post from the story.

What I am doing next is recreating the blog post into no more than 5 sentences to share on Linked In, Facebook, and/or in an Instagram Post or Carousel Post.

I simply go into the blog post again and use the headers as my “sentence starters.” This is my starting place – and I may even edit it down to shorter sentences but this first new social media post will work wonderfully as is, don’t you think?

Example 2: Condensed Blog Post to the Facebook Business Page and the Linked.

Below is an example of what I gleaned from the original post – below are links so you may see what it looks like on those platforms.

It might surprise you to know Beatrix Potter, a 19th Century children’s author, has wisdom for 21st century content creators.

Beatrix Potter was actually a multi-passionate creator who was an entrepreneur, a scientific illustrator and a wildlife conservationist who started writing her beloved Peter Rabbit – the work she is best known for – in order to have something to share with the sick child of her governess.

It was in her dedication to science experiments, mostly “amateur” and her hunger for knowledge that helped her artistic endeavors

Beatrix Potter’s greeting cards and stories that began as letters to a sick child turned into what we would now call “merch” were not because she wanted to launch an empire we would still be talking about all these years later, but because she was a woman who followed her fascinations and lived according to her passions.

She meant what she said when she wrote, “With opportunity the world is very interesting.”

Inspired? Here is a prompt for you to use to create a story or social media post following the lead of Beatrix Potter:

What is something delicious about what you are offering or observing today? Relate what you are offering to a specific flavor and be silly, creative, surprising with what you say. Try this in the form of a letter like what Beatrix Potter did for her governesses child.

See this story on my Linked In Page here:

See this story on my Facebook Page, Writing Camp with Julie JordanScott

Example 3: Simple Social Media Quote Graphic

To write a simple third post, find quotes by Beatrix Potter your readers may enjoy. Use the quotes to make simple Canva graphics and share them daily in a facebook group, in a message to your email list, or make a free quote ebook giveaway or lead magnet.

The effort (which isn’t much) will make the endeavor quite satisfying.

While I was on Canva I took 5 minutes to make two different sizes so tomorrow I can post an Instragram Carouself post. See how simple this all an be with a bit of strategy?

Beatrix Potter was a scientist. Repurposing content is like a science experiment. You might even make it a deeper scientific experiment by checking out the analytics as you begin implementing these ideas.

What is your biggest take away or gold nugget from this blog post?

Julie Jordan-Scott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Northwest New Jersey (Sussex Borough, Nj) where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

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A block letter of "POETRY" in pink, blue and lavendar encourages writers in all genre to read poetry with great love and enjoyment.

I can literally hear the shrieks from many of you upon reading the title of this blog post.

Poetry, the dreaded. Poetry is difficult to understand. Poetry, that unit in English class that brought your grade from a healthy B to a C, which made your parents take away your phone privileges for a week.

Would it help you to read poetry if you saw real reasons why any and all of us who use words to create content of any sort ought to embrace and regularly read poetry in a similar way to how Robin Williams character in “Dead Poet’s Society” suggests? At the bottom of this blog post I have included a video with some words from that movie about poetry the Apple Corporation used in their advertising campaign.

9 Examples of how reading poetry will help you be a more successful writer and content creator

1) Samuel Taylor Coleridge famously wrote, “Poetry: the best words in the best order.” Many of us believe him and practice poetry for the joy of polishing our words into short, enjoyable and yes, easy to understand and/or natural to make us want to stretch our understanding of life, this world and one another.

2.) Poetry is often concise -which will help you write better headlines, catchy slogans and synopsise main points you want to convey.

3.) The Harvard Business Review stated “Poetry teaches us to wrestle with and simplify complexity.” Harman Industries founder Sidney Harman once told The New York Times, “I used to tell my senior staff to get me poets as managers. Poets are our original systems thinkers. They look at our most complex environments and they reduce the complexity to something they begin to understand.”

4. ) Reading poetry gives us more unusual topics of conversations, videos and written content. Reading a poem in the morning and planting it into your subconscious mind will ignite you to approach your content differently – which is always a good means to improve your content and writing development.

5.)A Fast Company article visualizing a post-Covid19 Pandemic World leads off with a quote from Rainer Maria Rilke followed by these words about how poets and poetry reading people make for better business leaders: “Poetry requires of its readers a different way of thinking, more expansive than usual, more flexible, more nuanced; a way to tune in to undercurrents, accept ambiguity and the absence of answers—embrace lack of closure and relish complexity and uncertainty.”

6.) Reading poetry increases one’s curiosity and the desire to ask questions. This is especially good for people writing sales copy. How does this poem relate back to what I am trying to communicate to possible clients and students?

7.) Memorizing poetry about success and overcoming obstacles helps the brain to stretch and grow. Suggestions for such poems include “Success” by Ralph Waldo Emerson; Triumph May Be of Several Kinds by Emily Dickinson or In Praise of Pain by Heather McHugh.

8.) Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft said “Poetry is akin to ‘that force created within us that seeks out the unimaginable, that gets us up to solve the impossible.” This sort of inspiration and motivation helps me get up and write yet another blog post, social media post, thank you note… every day – to tune into the creative life force that creates poetry as well as a note to someone who is grieving.

9.) Discover the pleasure of the sounds of poetry through watching videos of poets such as former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia (who is also a graduate of Stanford School of Business and worked in the business sector for 15 years before pursuing a literary and academic life. Recognizing really good writing through the voice of Dana Gioia will help you to hear your own writing improve.

Your poetry reading challenge:

I challenge you, even or especially for the skeptics among you, to visit some of the links I am providing here and consider how poetry has the power to help you improve in every single kind of content creation you are attempting.

Reading one poem a day will change your life in an infinite number of ways.

Reading (or listening to) one poem today, even if it is the last poem you ever read, will impact you as well.

I am grateful you are even considering it. Thank you so much for reading this far.

Poetry Resources, including references from this article:

From The Poetry Foundation:
Poems to Read When You Get Stuffed in a Gym Locker (success and anti-success poems):

Success Poem list frpm DiscoverPoetry.com

Dana Gioia YouTube Channel Playlist of Poetry Recitation. His voice and delivery are incredibly enjoyable.:

Fast Company Article about CEO’s and Poetry:

Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she is working on finishing her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.

Follow on Instagram to Watch IGTV exclusive videos, stories and posts about writing and the creative process.

Let our Words Flow Writing Community: the only one missing is you! Join us in the Private Writing Group by clicking here.