I send out a newsletter every Monday at 9:00 AM Eastern Time. To get my writing in your mailbox each Monday, subscribe to the mailing list. Much obliged.
I’m super excited to be writing these days.
Whether it’s this newsletter, or blogging, or tweet threads, or a LinkedIn post…I’ve figured something out.
Write simultaneously for multiple platforms. Remix your work. And lean into constraints.
Let me give you an example.
I was writing posts like the one you’re currently reading: a weekly blog post / email newsletter. Typically 1,500 to 2,000 words.
Without fail, I posted the link to this blog every Monday: to LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
And for several weeks, I received NO engagement and NO responses, outside of direct email, i.e. the newsletter version.
When I send this out as an email newsletter, I get tremendous open rates and responses. Friends reply back to me. We enjoy nice back-and-forth conversations over email.
But for LinkedIn / Facebook / Twitter?
Nada.
These social platforms I mentioned — they don’t like links! And their algorithms de-emphasize linking off their platform (i.e. to my blog).
OK genius, you figured out that social media platforms like text and not links. So what???
This is what I do now:
- I write the blog post here, on WordPress.
- I copy-paste the blog post into an email newsletter. I keep the email newsletter format because it’s high engagement and I own my audience.
- I “remix” the blog post text into a Twitter thread; re-format everything to be catchier. Try to hook the reader on the first or second tweet. Keep it to a series of 12-15 tweets, max.
- I “remix” the Twitter thread into a LinkedIn post, as one block of text. Massage the text so it doesn’t go over the LinkedIn character limit. I use a block of text instead of linking to the blog post.
- I “remix” the LinkedIn post into a Facebook post, also as one block of text.
Note that this means I basically don’t share this blog post anymore. It serves as a “launching-pad” for my writing, but I don’t actually link to it.
Step 3 — Twitter thread — is absolutely crucial. It’s the crucible of fire.
Twitter is the biggest (and harshest) judge of how good your writing is. If your writing isn’t hook-driven, and doesn’t get right into the point, then you’ll know.
It dies a slow agonizing death on there because there’s no engagement, no Likes, and no Retweets.
No signal boosting from anyone = it didn’t work.
Is there space to write about things that don’t “land” on Twitter? Of course!
But guess what? Having people read my damn work is also really important. Focus on outcomes and not self-limiting constraints, e.g. “I need to write a blog post and share it, no matter what.”
I don’t have a real editor watching over my shoulder, so I use Twitter to get tighter.
Since I started leaning into these sets of “constraints,” I’ve written catchier and punchier topics.
And while I’m nowhere near perfect, I’ve slowly started to figure things out.
I wrote a recent Twitter thread that did fairly well in terms of community reception and signal boosting:
Here’s another thread I wrote:
What’s awesome about this “remixing” method is that I could expand the steps into creating a YouTube video, Tik Tok short clip, or Instagram Story.
Take the Twitter thread, further condense the script, and then make that the starting point of the video content.
Not every subject is appropriate for every medium, but it’s nice to know the option is there.
To end it, let me re-emphasize something important about writing for the internet:
Know what works for each platform, be flexible, and set up a process where you can “remix” your work for maximum impact.
Take care of yourself, and be well.
James
To get my writing in your mailbox every Monday, subscribe to the mailing list. Much obliged.
James Hsu 
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