Tag: social media

5 Ways to Repurpose Video Content For Social Media Sharing

Ever feel like your brilliant video content disappears into the social media ether after just a few fleeting views? You poured your heart and soul into creating it, yet its lifespan seems so short. The good news? It doesn’t have to be that way!

What if you could breathe new life into your existing content, transforming it into something fresh that could capture the attention of a whole new audience?

Photo by Sydney Sang on Pexels.com

There are many ways that you can repurpose your existing video so that you can amplify your social media presence.

In this article, we will explore five creative ways to repurpose your video content.

1. Sharing One Video in Different Formats

To truly maximize the reach of your video content, consider tailoring it to fit the diverse formats favored by different social media platforms. The two most common video orientations you’ll encounter are landscape and portrait.

Landscape, with its wider aspect ratio, is the traditional video format. Typically sized around 1920 x 1080 pixels (for full HD), it’s ideal for platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, and even as embedded content on your website or blog. You can share landscape videos directly to these platforms, often with options for creating playlists or embedding them into articles.

Portrait video, on the other hand, with its taller and narrower frame, has gained significant traction with the rise of mobile-first content consumption. A common size is 1080 x 1920 pixels. This format shines on platforms like Instagram Reels, TikTok, and Facebook/Instagram Stories. Sharing portrait videos on these platforms is usually done through their dedicated features, often involving vertical scrolling feeds designed for this orientation.

By adapting your original video content into both landscape and portrait formats, you ensure it looks and feels native to the specific platform where your audience is most engaged.

Also, with this, you can create a YouTube short that leads to a long form video.

2. Captivating Snippets: Transforming Video Moments into Engaging GIFs

Want to bring out the essence of your longer videos in a flash? By rendering portions of your video into the universally shareable .

GIF format, you can distill key moments into bite-sized, attention-grabbing visuals perfect for social media. Imagine highlighting a powerful quote, a funny reaction, or a crucial demonstration as a short, looping animation. To amplify its impact, always accompany your GIF with a concise and compelling text description.

This allows you to provide context, ask a question, or add a call to action, making your repurposed content even more engaging and shareable across various social platforms.

3. Picking Key Moments and Sound Bites: Sparking Curiosity

Imagine your longer video as a gold mine of engaging content. Within it lie those sparkling nuggets – the most impactful moments, the most insightful quotes, the most visually arresting segments. By strategically extracting these key moments and concise sound bites, you can craft compelling teasers for your social media audience.

Think of it as creating captivating trailers for your main feature. A short, punchy clip showcasing a surprising revelation, a powerful statement, or a humorous interaction can pique viewers’ curiosity and leave them wanting more. Pair these snippets with text that provides just enough context to intrigue, hinting at the richer content available in the full video.

For instance, if your long-form video features an expert sharing a groundbreaking statistic, a short clip of that moment with the accompanying text, “Did you know X% of [topic]? Find out more in our latest video!”, can be incredibly effective in driving traffic to the complete piece. The goal is to offer a tantalizing glimpse that answers a small part of a question while igniting the desire for the full explanation and deeper understanding found in the original video.

4. Reimagining Existing Videos Into Compelling Mini-documentaries

Let’s reimagine your existing video library! Consider taking raw footage or even polished explainer videos and transforming them into compelling mini-documentaries. By strategically adding a voice-over narration, you can weave a new narrative, provide deeper context, or highlight previously unseen angles.

Think about those behind-the-scenes clips, customer testimonials, or even segments of longer presentations. With thoughtful editing and a well-crafted voice-over, you can unearth the story within your existing content and present it in a fresh, engaging documentary format perfect for capturing attention on social media.

5. Create Keyword Driven Driven Short-Form Videos

Leverage the power of keywords to create engaging short-form video content from existing video content. This approach involves identifying the terms your target audience uses when searching for information related to your business.

For example, a food company that excels in “fried fish” can create a compelling video showcasing the versatility of this product – perhaps different preparations, sides, or even customer testimonials. This targeted approach ensures your videos reach the right eyes and drive relevant engagement.

Conclusion

There you have it.

As we’ve explored, your existing video library holds a wealth of untapped potential for your social media strategy. By creatively applying these five techniques – adapting formats, GIF creation, sound bite extraction, mini-documentary production, and keyword-driven short videos – you can extend the lifespan and reach of your valuable content. Embrace these strategies and discover how to make every video work harder for you.

And that is it from me here. What are some of the additional ways you use to repurpose your video content for social media? Let me know in the comments section below.

Up until next time, bye bye and take care.

Follow me on social media @cheptionymutai.

May 7, 2025
3 Red Flags To Watch Out For When Looking At Deals On Social Media

Unlike in the past where freelancers and business owners went out searching for deals via the search engines and social media, deals are now searching for freelancers and business people. In many occasions the deals that comes looking for them are too sweet for them to ignore.

On the other hand the deals that you find via the search feature on social media platforms like YouTube, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram looks very appealing and easy to start earning from.

What stands between you and the deals is the judgement you make. Also the financial position you are at the time of finding the deals plays a major role. Are the bills at hand overwhelming you?

For instance if you are compelled to search for these deals at a time when you are broke and have no money, the probability of you falling into them is high.

So what are the red flags you should watch out for when deals comes looking for you or the deal you find on your search adventure is so sweet?

On this blogpost, I will share with you 3 red flags to watch out for when looking at deals on online.

The Project Manager Is Claiming to Be The Director of A Popular Company

This trick is very popular on Telegram groups and Facebook. The conversation starts when a person offering a job that requires the skills that you have posts on the group. You start the conversation and they tell you he/she is the project manager at a Freelancing platform you know e.g. Upwork, Toptal, Appen e.t.c.

And for them to award you the contract, you will need to sign a contract they send you in PDF or .JPEG:-). Contract presented to you in .jpeg is a biggest red flag I have seen so far.

A closer look at the contract letterhead shows the name of a popular company you have been wanting to work for. That’s another red flag. Freelancing platforms don’t hire people that way. They use their secure platform with escrow payment to do that.

If you find a sweet deal with characteristics like these posted on Freelance group on social media, take you time to analyze before committing.

You can only accept a deal if the person offering it is subcontracting the work to you. For such, the terms are clear and straight forward. You can tell this from the deal amount and how they intend to pay you.

The Job is Easy and pays 3 Times The Market Rate

Before I expound on this, I have a disclaimer. You can be paid any amount to complete an assignment. Its up to the client to decide. But think about this.

A prospect posts a job on a freelancers group on social media. He/she is looking for help to post jobs on the popular freelancing platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer e.t.c. They offer $1000-2000 weekly to do this job. For one to qualify, they need to have an account of 2-3 months old.

Imagine this offer is posted on a Telegram group that has more than 1000 freelancers.

How many freelancer do you think will DM the person who posted this? Several right. This is a good deal if you think about it.

If you are a member of the freelance group, you will find the same person posting the same thing everyday.

When you express interest, they send you a contract document that requires you to fill all your personal data and sign. In the contract, you agree that you will be paid after the job is done and approved.

Question is, how sure are you that you will be paid despite their assurance? How sure are you that the same job has not been given to other freelancers same as yourself?

Incase you are not paid, what will you do? Will the contract help? Do the client have a website? Did the client agree to do a video call with you?

Do they use escrow payment? All this questions unanswered are red flags. Run before they varnish with the completed work.

Ask these questions before spending your time to do the job. Otherwise, you may waste your time and end up not getting paid despite giving out all your personal data.

They Want Logins To Your Cryptocurrency Account

Nearly every freelancer or business person who works remotely have a cryptocurrency account even if they don’t use it. On occasions as an account holder, you look for deals that pays in cryptocurrency. The popular cryptocurrency platforms here in Kenya is Binance and Paxful.

If you join groups with users in either of these cryptocurrency platforms, you will see users post juicy deals. I decided to try one of them with my Paxful account and ended up getting my account suspended.

So on a Telegram group a guy posted that he wanted someone with an account with good reviews to help him transfer $3,000 USDT. At the end, the holder will get a commission for the help. So he wanted logins so that he can load the money from his Visa card.

I have never seen something like this on Paxful where one loads money using a card but out of curiosity, I went ahead with this deal despite the red flag.

With 2FA activated, I gave him my login details. The guy logged in from Accra Ghana. That means he was a Ghanian.

I was to wait for 6 hours for his funds to reflect and we could finish the deal. 3 hours later, I receive an e-mail from Paxful that my account has been restricted for attempting to defraud users through trade.

On contacting the guy, he never replied to my calls or messages. That was when I knew he was a scammer who wanted to use my account to defraud others.

Conclusion

Don’t let your financial situation dictate the decisions you make. You will end losing more instantly than what you were to gain from the deal. Be patient and honor your instincts when you spot a red flag. As you look at deals online, always know that your personal data, your money and your reputation is at stake. Handle yourself with care.

You have the power to protect yourself online by shunning away fraudulent deals even if its presented to you by your relative.

And that is it from me.

What are those red flags that you watch out for when looking for deals online on social media or when the deals are presented to you by prospects on social media?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

And if you need help to produce video content, let me know about your deal by reaching out to me here:-).

Until next time, bye bye and take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

March 16, 2023
Why Content Creation Process For Your Brand Needs To Be Continuous Activity
Before you venture into content creation for your brand, it is important to keep in mind that there is no stopping once you start. If you are working on a budget, decide on the content you will want to focus on based on the cost.

Now the cost for this will vary. If you are a content creator by profession, then it will only cost you your time to create the content you want. On the contrary, if you are planning to hire someone to help you to create the content, then you need to have a plan. Planning is important for any long term investment that has a recurring expense at the beginning before it reaps returns.

Watch Video

But the big question here is, why should the process be continuous? It’s simple. Content is for marketing a business and marketing is a continuous process.

Its like a shop owner who opens his/her shop everyday. If they fail to do so, do you think customers will trust their business? The answer is absolutely NO.

That is the same with creating marketing content. You have to constantly come up with content in order to build trust with your customers.

Before I continue, here are some common useful content that you can think about creating for your brand or business.
1. Blog posts.
2. YouTube Videos.
3. Social media shorts for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook & Tiktok.
4. Graphics designs.
5. Guest posts.
6. Photos.
7. Answering to Frequently Asked Questions.
8. Technical Articles (Support Articles).
With this said, lets now dive in and talk about some of the reasons you need to regularly create content for your brand.

Sharing Content Regularly is Like Opening A Shop on a Daily Basis

Online space is a completely different market aside the physical location your business is operating from. Your customers therefore need to know that you are always there for them. Having a website is the first step to getting your brand ready to venture into the new marketplace. But is that all?

No, its not.

According to Siteefy, every minute, 175 websites are created. You are competing with many other businesses like yours. Currently, there are 1.14 billion websites in the world.

The only way to stand out from others is through content. Of course there is advertising which is expensive if you don’t have the money.

Photo by Rio Kuncoro on Pexels.com

Contents Are Lead Magnets

One way of directing people to your business is advertising. If it’s a physical business, then available forms of advertising is on signboards or billboards. That’s the same as a well branded website. That’s not all, there are many free ways to achieve the results you desire online via content. Content is the best means to direct customers to a business.

If you create content and people like them and find them helpful, they will be curious to find out about the source. And when they arrive at your website, they will get to know about your product. If you have an opt-in form, the will not mind sharing with your their e-mail address for updates.

It doesn’t matter where they find the content, be it social media or SEO, the customer will be on your site because of the content they found about you online.

Marketing Using Content is The Future

The future of marketing a brand, company or business is in the content they share. How connected is the content you share to your business?

Individuals should always think about this during the creation process. The only way to create and leave a lasting impressions on people is through the content you share on public.

Content is duplicable and compoundable. Once you share your content online it remains there. The more you create the same content around a given theme, the more you gain momentum.

In no time, there will be several keywords around business on the internet. This in turn will direct more people to your business. When more people visits your business, you grow.

Content Can Be Used To Retain Customers

Going by the fact that there are many businesses same as yours being set up online everyday does not mean that your customers will leave you for them.

But think about this;

If your customers are aware of your latest services, products, plans or see you announce changes you are making on your business online, will they have a different view of your brand or business? Of course they will and a positive one for that matter.

Even if a customer may leave you for the competitors services or products, they will have a good memory of your business and will be back if something bad happens to them there.

So when planning to create content, think about it as a means of retaining customers.

Conclusion

Whatever type of content you choose to start with, have a budget for it. Also look at the content creation process in a long term perspective. What expectations do you have from the content you create and share?

Also, imagine how much content your customers will access talking about your business if you regularly and consistently create and share.

More than enough right?

What will that mean to your business?

It will mean many things. First, you will have happy and satisfied customers.

Secondly, the trust that your customers will have on your brand or business will be unmatched.

Lastly, the same customers will recommend more people to your business.

There is a lot that one gains from content in a long term.

Do you think content creation process has to be a continuous?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.

And if you need help to produce professional video tutorials for your tech product, you can request a quote here.

On the other hand, if you need help to kickstart the video creation process for your brand or business you can contact me here.

Until next time, bye bye and take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
November 16, 2022
I was Almost Scammed On Reddit With a Freelance Job Offer!
As Covid-19 continue to claim lives and wreck havoc on businesses across the world, remote way of working has become the new modus operandi. Fraudulent business groups on social media are emerging everyday targeting new and existing freelancers who are desperate to make money online.

In this blogpost, I will share my personal way of identifying a typical fraudulent Freelancer recruitment funnel on social media. This will in give you a picture of how the scheme looks like and how it is very hard to suspect. They will lure you to doing work for free or once you are in, they pay as they wish with false promises of increasing the pay.

These rackets are all over Reddit. This does not mean Reddit is a bad social media network. It’s the bad motives by some of the users.

If you have never been to Reddit, all I can say based on my personal experience is, it’s a good social media network where people share valuable information for free. Note the word FREE. This is the catch that fraudsters are using to get free service from You -the user- without you suspecting anything.

For the short time have been on Reddit, I have enjoyed every bit of information that I found shared on Reddit groups.

It got even better when I noticed that people were posting work opportunities for Freelancers. Me being a full time Freelancer, I decided to respond to one of them by messaging the person who offered the opportunity.

Here is a snippet of the offer.

Please take note of what the client is offering here. I have highlighted them in yellow so that you can see their hook.

They offer $10-100 to edit 1 Minute Videos

It means they will pay each editor that gets into their funnel based on how the negotiate for a given assignment. If you are confident enough to negotiate, you will be paid better. Sadly, many new and even experienced freelancers are afraid to negotiate because they fear being denied the opportunity. So if the client fixes a budget on a given video, they will accept. This takes me to the second hook.

10-20 Videos Per Week

This is very enticing to anyone looking for sustainable income. Any Freelancer will do a quick math using the average pay which is around $55 per video. If you do 10 videos a week you make $550 and if you do 20 videos a week, you make $1100. This is good money. Moreover, it will be recurrent work. One has a potential of earning $2200-4400 a month working directly with the client. In fact if you are paid $100 per video, you will earn $4000-$8000 a month.

This is enough to blind any freelancer. I mean this is good money. One can do anything to get the job:-). This is where they begin their show now that they have your attention.

The Screening Process

Like any other interview, before you are considered, you are required to submit your portfolio. That’s what Freelancers do everyday right inside their cover letters when bidding for work.

As you can see, they will first review your porfolio and if you are fit, they will ask you to do a ‘test project‘ to confirm your capability. Now, this is where one knows if its going to end well or it is going to turn out as a fraudulent opportunity.

Trusted freelancing sites like Upwork have implemented a policy regarding to test project to protect freelancers from fraudulent clients who their sole purpose is to waste Freelancers time. The condition is; that clients have to pay Freelancers for any test projects.

Having found this policy helpful is protecting myself, I apply it everywhere.

Now, in the post, the client concluded that the test project will be paid-which is still in line with the policy.

Next Steps After Submitting My Portfolio

The client liked my portfolio and not elevated me to the next stage of their Freelance Recruitment funnel, a slack channel for Video editors working for them. The channel had more than 40 members.

All instructions on how to go about the test project was in there. After, going through the files, I was happy. The instructions was very clear. Seeing that I had all that I needed to proceed, I contacted the team lead to clarify 3 things;
1. How they pay editors – Is it via Paypal, or bank transfer e.t.c
2. If they have an Non Disclosure Agreement to sign before starting work
3. How much they pay for the test project which looked like everyone in the channel was supposed to work on.
The VA could not answer that. This was the first sign that was something was not right. In response, she referred me to their accountant who deals with paying freelancers.

She avoided the question on having and signing a contract before work. That’s was alarming. I mean, who works for a company without a contract in place especially when you consider the amount of money one will earn while doing the job?

This is very important. Loosing $4000 a month is not a joke. What if they pay at the end of the month and after you do the job, they remove you from the slack channel or stop responding to your concerns. Anything is possible.

Having a contract is a sign of commitment.

Contradicting Statements

In their video editing post, they said they were going to pay for the test project. But on persistently consulting the accounts clerk on Slack before working on the test project, I was surprised to learn from her that they DON’T PAY for test project.

This is enough. If they don’t pay for test, withdraw from the interview and forget it.

But how many Freelancers do this?

If all of the 40+ Freelancers in the channel had started doing the job without confirming if they were going to be paid for the test or not, what does it tell you about their level of seriousness towards freelancing? Its vague right.

Those are the same freelancers you will hear soon crying that they were not paid.

Conclusion

The only way we can stand out as full time freelancers online is upping our game based on our experiences for us to gain trust and respect from new clients looking to hire online.

What do you think of the jobs being offered in reddit?

Until next time, be vigilant and take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.
July 8, 2020
3 Platforms Every Freelancer Should Invest in For a Long Term
If you you ask a full time freelancer the advantages of being one, the most common answer is ‘freedom to work anywhere.’ It is one of powerful selling points of freelancing. What most people fail to share is the solitude that comes in at your initial stages of becoming a freelancer.

Video Summary

This is inevitable if you skills revolve around the ‘creative and design‘ space. You will need your time alone or with people who share the same mindset as yourself. As a result, on several occasions, you will be tempted to quit because of spending most of your time alone with your computer.

Expressing your thoughts and ideas about your journey is the best way to share your feelings with other like minded creatives across the world who are struggling with the same issues as yourself on their journey to becoming a freelancer.

So, is that all? Well, it’s not. It will matter a lot where or the platform you use to share your feelings/advice. Before you start sharing, here are questions you should ask yourself;
1. Is what I am sharing truly helpful to the person reading it?
2. Is social media a good platform to share the information?
3. What do I expect to gain from it? is it fame, appreciation e.t.c
When you ask yourself these questions, it will inspire you to take time in putting some thought on what you are going to share. With this said, here are a few ideas on choosing the platform for sharing helpful thoughts with other fellow freelancers.

Build a Professional Website Blog

Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

I don’t recommend setting up a free blog for many reasons. One of them is this; ‘the level of commitment you will have is close to none.’ Secondly, you will be lazy in coming up with blog ideas. Most people who own free hosted blogs publish shoddy information because they have nothing to lose.

That is why I recommend you buy your own domain and hosting. For as low as $1/yr, you can get a custom domain on hostinger. Hosting one website will cost you around $10/yr if you go with the same host. Of-course you can invest more depending on your ability.

Looking into this, it is very cheap to own a professional blog considering the value you will get by having a domain with your own name. When you share information on social media and point it to your domain, people will be happy to visit your website and learn more.

Pick Two of Your Preferred Social Media Platforms

Photo by Tracy Le Blanc on Pexels.com

I don’t recommend posting ‘the thoughts you value‘ on all social media platforms like a spammer. It will loose it’s value as people will perceive you as someone desperate for attention. For example, I am not a fan of Facebook and Instagram so I rarely share any information pertaining to freelancing there. If you want get my weekly blog-post, follow me on twitter here. But if you love Facebook or Instagram, pick one from the two.

I share most of valuable information on twitter.

Let your followers, identify you by what you share.

Pick One Video Hosting Site of your Choice

Based on popularity, you-tube is the most sought after as it comes installed on all android phones. Besides, the service is great and free. This means when people feel like they want to watch videos, the first place they visit is Youtube.

Now, if you prefer other platforms like vimeo or wistia go for it. All content you will share will be based on your blog-post. Once you publish the video, embed it on your blog and share it on social media. Don’t forget to paste a link to your blog in the description area of your video post. This one you back-linking and getting found by search engines.

Important Note

While planning and strategizing on building your online presence, its worth checking if the name you choose for your brand is available anywhere online. You can do this on Namechk.com for free. Namechk tool is capable of checking the availability of the username you choose in over 30 domains and more than 90 social media accounts.

Finally as You Grow Your Blog – Capture Leads

Photo by Jens Johnsson on Pexels.com

If you don’t know what leads are, I will tell you in a moment. Let’s say someone visits your blog and they enjoy reading what you share and will want more of it, how will they get it?

One way is bookmarking your blog. But often times, we rarely visit the sites we have bookmarked on our browser.
That’s is why having a form on your blog where they can enter their name and e-mail is important.
This way, you can send an e-mail each time you publish a new blog-post.

You will be surprised on speed at which your audience will grow. Keep sharing well crafted thoughts and ideas with the world. You never know, one of the readers maybe your next customer.

It’s ok if no one comments on your posts. Point is, you have done your part. Someone somewhere in need of the same information will find it.

And that is it from me here.

If you need help you create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for software’s, mobile apps and web applications, let me know here.
alternatively, you can send me an e-mail to connect@cheptiony.com

Until next time, bye bye and take care.

Follow me on twitter @cheptiony
November 1, 2019