Content Tips for STR Hosts

You are listening to the Boostly podcast. This is a podcast that gives hosts the tools, the tactics, the training, but most importantly, the confidence to go out there and get more direct bookings. My name is Liam Carolan. I'm Mark Simpson's co host. And today we got the Spotlight series which shines the spotlight on people, businesses and services that you, as a short term rental host, need to know about. And today we've got kelsey Shumway from repurposehouse.com and we're going to be talking all about how you, as a short term rental host, may be sabotaging your social media and the things that you should be considering when putting out content. So welcome along. Kelsey, thank you for joining us today.

Thank you for having me. Excited to be here to get started.

Can you give an introduction into what Repurpose House is and anything you want to share about the company?

Sure, yeah. Repurposed House has been around for about five and a half years, or our intention with kind of creating it was, you know, we. We would end up. Our CEO was a videographer and she would end up creating a lot of this content for people who wanted some additional video content. And after those assets were created, they'd go on YouTube or something along those lines. And then the question was always, all right, great, now what, you know, what do I do with this now? So the idea of repurposing kind of came to be because of that need, you know, how else do we utilize this content we not only spent time, but money and resources investing in? So from there, not only do we repurpose video content, we repurpose any text, any audio. So we work really a lot with, with podcasters, a lot with people creating video content to hopefully bring more people down a funnel that way. That's kind of how we came to be. But my specific role at Repurpose House as the director of strategy is to meet with content creators, meet with people who are basically making the podcast, making those blog posts, making that video content, and talk about ways that we can better show up on social media, talk about where we're missing the mark, and it sounds like that's what we're about to dive into. So excited to share some of that with you guys today.

Yeah. Did you want to share what is the first way that people are sabotaging their social media?

Yeah, I would love to dive in. Liam, you made a really good point too, about, you know, sometimes people just don't know where to start. And if I can make one suggestion to even jump us off, make video content, just stand in front of your phone, get some authentic video up, because that's what people respond to. Video gets 1200% better engagement rates than standalone images do. So then in that instance, you know, where do I start? What are people asking you? You know, when people ask you about your business, what are the questions you answer? Most often? Those are great pieces of content to showcase on social and then to lead in to the first thing that we're missing is, you know, when you are creating this content, a lot of the times when you find yourself just talking about something that you really understand, you're going to end up creating long form content. Long form content in my definition is really anything that's above five minutes because anything lower than that is going to be too hard to cut up. So any, any piece of content you're creating, you miss the mark. Missed, missed opportunity. One is not repurposing that content, not going through it, not picking the best minute to two minutes, even shorter, even not looking for those little segments or those little highlight reels to use on social platforms like Instagram, like TikTok, like YouTube shorts that really prioritize short form content and have monstrous amounts of people on those platforms, right? So if I want to get the most digestible, the most short form, the best performing pieces of content, I'm going through what I have. Long form, I'm clipping those pieces out and then I'm using those to help me, you know, get off that hamster wheel of content creation. You know, a lot of the times people think content creation means create a post, post it, create a video, post it, create a video. But that's not always the best way to utilize their time, you know, and a lot of times people don't have time for that. So going through what you currently have, utilizing it to help what you're wanting to achieve now, is a great, great opportunity or a great way to continue to show up on social.

What would you, your advice? Be around somebody? Who would you advise somebody to just post, you know, regularly, daily, or is it a case of this long form and then to be split up and to utilize just better quality, but maybe not less, not as often.

What the algorithms tell us is that consistency is key and even furthermore, video content consistency is key. So what I would suggest is that as often as we can show up on social with video content that is highly produced, I would definitely suggest that now when I say highly produced, I mean, you know, we're doing our best to eliminate the sounds that potentially are in the background because. Because people, Audiences are forgiving of bad video, but they're not forgiving of bad audio. So that would be one of the first things I'd suggest. But truly, the clients that I see get incredible results. A lot of times people think this means I need to go hire a videographer or I need to buy really incredible camera equipment. No, I mean, what works best is the authentic feel of what it looks like to grab your phone out of your pocket and just record.

That way, what would you say to somebody? And we've met many hosts, and there'll be people listening to this who are kind of going, yeah, that's me. I don't want to be in front of the camera. I don't want to show myself. What advice would you have around that side of things? And for those people, is there any. Is there any kind of tricks that they could use?

There is. Audio podcasts are a great thing to do. Honestly, if my intention is to create video content for social, I can take your text content. So any blogs, any emails, any PR releases, anything along those lines that you have written and are using to help kind of achieve a goal, I can take that text, turn it into text, motion video. So a lot of the times people think I have to be in front of a camera, and that's simply not true. I can repurpose any of that text content that might exist, and I also can work with any audio content as well. So, no, I don't think necessarily when you think video content on social, you have to think I have to record myself. I think you just have to think about what pieces of content is my audience going to find valuable. How do I make that, like an attractive image or attractive asset for social media and just go from there.

One of the questions I know that comes to mind, and I know I get asked quite often from hosts, is do I need to be on all the platforms? Do I have to be on the places which I don't necessarily want to spend my time, or should I focus on one in particular?

I think, to start, it makes sense to be omnipresent, right? You just never know with the right hashtags. And that's another thing I'd want to dive into. What hashtags are using? What keywords are you using? What SEO components are you using? Are you just missing the mark on potentially writing copy? Because a lot of the time you hear from people who say, I've attempted to be on every platform and just this platform or this one just does not work for me. I'D want to do a dive and see why that was the case. Because, you know, I'm, I'm sure with, you know, regards to your business, that your audience does exist on every single platform. It might be smaller than other, other platforms, but nonetheless it does. So my, my mentality is that what testing new marketing definitely makes sense to be omnipresent. And by that I mean create this piece of content, maybe shift the size around for different platforms, but use that piece of content across every platform because this is the way that we find out where the audience does and does not lie. After a while, if I wanted to focus my intention on a specific platform that I knew was performing, that I knew I did all that I possibly could in terms of hashtags and keywords and copywriting to get in front of, then, yeah, by all means, I would, I would definitely scale down from there. However, I would come back and test those different platforms probably every four to five months, just in case that group or that audience section has gotten larger and we have a better way of attempting to find them. I would, I would definitely circle back.

There's a lot of AI tools at the moment creating a lot of content. What is your advice and thoughts around that those tools? Should hosts be using those?

I think AI can definitely shorten the amount of time you spend searching for copy or content creating content. AI definitely can. I know everybody is using ChatGPT, it sounds like these days. Yes, I definitely think that that can shorten the amount of time that you stick spend creating those initial assets. Where I tend to stray away from AI is when it comes to monitoring social trends. So I think in terms of content creation, AI definitely is a benefit when it comes to posting and when it comes to monitoring trends and knowing how to apply the lens of what creatively works on social, but also analytically what's going to perform. Those things don't necessarily always get done correctly by AI. So that is where I would introduce some kind of person who understands digital marketing or social media on a more detailed, more adaptive level. I would want to know that this person was monitoring trends, that they understood how to kind of get the best action or traction on social media. And that I, that I know AI will eventually be able to do. But there is that learning curve right now. Right. And they're always going to be kind of a step behind. So that's, that's, that's where I would advise against using AI. But content creation wise makes a ton of sense.

That's amazing. Thank you so much for spending your time with us today and for sharing all these gems. I feel like the value has been, has been amazing today. So certainly I'm going to go away in action. I'm just going to produce more content but also utilize what I already have. I mean, there's reviews, there's all so much that we could be posting and really make a plan around it. So I'm sure there's going to be lots of people who get in touch with you and we'll pop the in the show notes how to get in touch with this. So thank you so much for today. Kelsey, was there any last moment shares before we bring things to a close? Any final thoughts?

No. I so appreciate getting to be here and look forward to meeting anyone from your audience who wants to learn more. So thank you so much for having me.

Thank you very much and bye for now.

Having a blast Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.