A question came up after a reader went through an article I wrote about creating a real estate content calendar you’ll actually use.

"So I read your 8 steps to creating a content calendar and I have one question.

Can you elaborate on this: From there, you should be sharing that content across your 1-2 “spokes”, to draw people in to your original source.

How do you do this?"

I gave her a quick answer, with the intention of delving in deeper here.

My quick answer:

"Your hub, aka your original source, is your website/blogsite. Your spokes are places like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, etc."

Let’s dig deeper.

A consumer asks you a question (just like a real estate agent asked me a question here) and you settle down and write, or video or podcast an in-depth answer for them.

You publish that content on your main site, making sure it’s pushed out to your core readers and of course, search engines.

What next?

You need to get that real estate content out to your social networks.

Image courtesy of [Stuart Miles] / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Now, just posting a link is usually ineffective.

Just posting a title with the link is also usually ineffective (unless you’ve got one bodacious attention grabbing title).  You’ll still want to do this though.

What you want to do is say something engaging and give your audience a reason to go to your content (via a link).

Always remember, what you say won’t grab most people, but it will grab some.  Therefore, try to say the same thing, in different ways, to appeal to the different thoughts, wants and desires in your prospects.

For example, for this specific post, some “teaser” ideas could be . . .

Just the title (which I don’t love by the way): How To Share Your Real Estate Content For Maximum Effectiveness – but it’s rather boring. I’m still going to use it, but I know it won’t grab too many people.

Here’s a teaser example: Get More Traffic To Your Real Estate Blog With This One Trick

And still others:

• Do You Wonder Why No One Is Reading Your Real Estate Blog?
• Are You Wondering Why No One Is Reading Your Real Estate Blog?
• Why No One Is Reading Your Real Estate Blog…
• Getting Prospects To Your Real Estate Blog.
• How To Get Engagement On Your Content.

Remember, depending upon which spokes you are promoting to, you’ve got to change your message and change your delivery.

For Twitter, you’ve got to be able to say something profound or provocative in very few words.  You also want to leave room in your tweet for retweets.

For Facebook, you’ve got more room, but the faster you say something engaging, the better. You also need to include a photo.  Your post is more likely to be noticed with a photo or video.  If you are just doing a link post, know that link posts tend to get the lowest engagement so incorporate other variations into the link post itself (photo, questions, etc).

For Pinterest, you’ve got to deliver your message via a photo, a photo that people want to like or pin.  Make sure your photo links back to the actual post.

For LinkedIn, you’ve got to appeal to suits.  In their language (or at least, in the language expected in a more business environment).

For Google+, at present, you are appealing to Authorship and SEO (there isn’t a heck of a whole lot of engagement there, yet).

On my content calendar spreadsheet, I have a sheet that I keep the title and link to every blog post I’ve written, video’d, or pod-casted. I also have several columns of “teasers” that I write up so I have them ready for scheduling.

Usually, when I video or write something, I go through at least five variations of titles for whatever it is I’m doing. I keep those as brainstorming ideas and write teasers using them. I’ll also read through the article several times to see what I can use as a teaser. What questions do I answer in the post? I use those as teasers.

Doing this while you are writing is a huge time saver, and so much easier! I started doing this after the fact so I had to spend the time going back through all of my content and write teasers. Even though that takes more time, I would still suggest you doing it at least once – you might be pleasantly surprised at the teasers that pop into your mind when you do this.

Now remember, don’t push yourself to promote to too many spokes. Focus on the spokes that your ideal client spends their time. Focus on the spokes that will fulfill your goal, whatever that goal may be.  It’s more important to promote more often to the same spokes than it is to promote once or twice to a ton of different spokes.

Right now, my focus is Facebook (that one is a big fat DUH since my business is focused on helping real estate agents capture, convert and close Facebook leads), Twitter (exposure) and Google+ (authorship and seo). I’m not focusing on any other spokes for my content at present.