Have you created a business and marketing strategy and are now starting content creation, but feeling a bit stuck? Or have you been creating content for a while and want to refresh some old blog posts for your audience?
As a business leader, you have many responsibilities, including constantly finding new audiences, improving operations, and staying abreast of industry trends. On top of all this, the social media revolution has made it a virtual requirement to create and share content on multiple platforms.
In this article, we’ll help you make the most of your existing content AND keep your social feeds fresh by looking at best practices for repurposing your content for different social platforms.
Why should you repurpose your content?
Sharing your brand’s unique story is critical to connecting your business on an emotional level with new and existing customers. Through compelling content, you are sharing your business’s history, building relationships, distinguishing yourself from competitors, staying relevant, and growing your audience.
However, you can’t do this just by publishing one blog post and calling it a day. Constantly creating new content can be exhausting and resource-intensive, and frankly pulls you away from running your business.
Is it OK to repurpose your own content?
Of course, it’s ok! The content you created is YOUR content and you can do what you choose with it. Existing content is great for repeating messaging in different formats, and this approach can save you time and resources when done properly (more on this below).
Benefits of repurposing content
Repurposing your content is great for the following reasons, among others:
[themify_list icon=”ti-plus”]
- It can improve your business’s ROI.
- It can organically grow your social media presence.
- It gives you an opportunity to experiment with different audiences.
- It allows you to focus on your core business operations.
[/themify_list]
One goal of content repurposing is to widen your sales funnel, eventually converting leads to customers. Becoming omnipresent over multiple platforms broadens the scope to find these customers.
Challenges of repurposing content
The challenges of repurposing content are similar to creating content itself. Experiencing writer’s block? If you are having a hard time writing a blog post, it’s going to be even more difficult to repackage whatever you’re struggling to come up with for a different medium.
Fortunately, we have a few tips to help you strategize and focus.
Considerations when repurposing content
Repurposing content isn’t as simple as just promoting old blog posts on your social media channels. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind when using this tactic.
Align With Your Marketing Strategy
As a business owner, you should already have an overall marketing strategy that includes business goals, objectives, competitor analysis, key messages, and brand persona. When you begin to create your content, review your strategy, and make sure that you are referring to it as you build your core and platform-specific content.
Distribute your repurposed content
Assuming that you’re planning to share content on more than one platform, you’ll want to schedule your content distribution. As part of your content marketing strategy, you should have a content calendar where you schedule content to be distributed at particular times.
Educate Yourself
Now that you have distributed the content, it’s time to track its success. You’ll need to analyze metrics and review the original content to see what could be optimized. It’s important to keep updating your content and educating yourself, as trends and algorithms change constantly.
Create and track metrics
As part of your business goals, you should have created metrics for success. For example, what is a successful “how-to” video on YouTube? Is it the number of views, how long viewers watched, the number of comments, or likes? You should be constantly reviewing metrics for success.
If something is not performing well, you need to make changes; perhaps using different platforms. You should also maximize your top-performing content and analyze the results for why it’s working well.
How to repurpose content on different social platforms
Regardless of the platform you use, you should become familiar with the distinct types of content including blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, GIFs, memes, user-generated content, how-to-guides, and paid ad content.
Social media is still increasingly important to any business’s marketing strategy. As part of creating your initial marketing strategy, you should decide which social platforms to focus on. When repurposing content for each platform, here are some tips:
While it has become a bit more outdated for younger users[1], most social users have an account on this site. It has become a news source[2] and a community for those who use the platform frequently. As a result, depending on your strategy, you will need to reuse your core content appropriately.
If you are looking to build a community for your clients, then creating and posting relevant information in a Facebook group[3] may be the right fit. But remember your audience. If they are primarily younger clients, it may not be worth posting on Facebook at all.
Instagram is a visual social media platform, so if you decide to use written content here, you need to be sure that you have a compelling visual–whether it’s a video or photo–that excites the viewer to want to read. The written content can be either in the post or linked in your page’s bio, where the viewer can read the longer content. Instagram Stories are great for short videos that you can layer to match the theme and content in an original post.
YouTube
When using YouTube, decide how you want to engage with your viewers. If it’s through tutorial videos, then keep them brief (ideally under three minutes). If it’s to show a longer story or case study, then videos can be longer. For any video that you share on a social platform, it’s crucial to include captions[4] since some viewers may be watching with the sound off or have a hearing limitation.
TikTok
While Instagram is a packaged visual platform, TikTok is not. Users come to the platform to see what feels authentic and homegrown. Sales and marketing tactics are subversive, fostering a long-term and audience-friendly relationship. This is why influencers thrive on TikTok[5].
Think of the content you have that is more personal and tells a short story, then turn that into a video. This could be a how-to or a testimonial from a customer on why they love using your product or service.
Twitter/X
With the organizational and name change, there is still a lot up in the air for Twitter/X[6]. Due to this and the surrounding controversy, advertisers and users have left the platform in droves. Because of this, it’s advisable to be cautious with your resources when creating social media content for this platform. However, if your company is still on Twitter/X, repurposing old content with a visual, link, or meme can be a low-cost way to spread your message.
LinkedIn is a professional development social platform. As a result, the heart of the content should be tied to development or education. Do you have content on how using your product or service supports personal or professional development? Then create a short blog or video that you can share on LinkedIn. Of course, LinkedIn is great for sharing and developing your work culture as well. Don’t forget that customers like to see companies that have a healthy work environment and give back to their communities.
Email newsletters are great because they allow loyal customers to automatically receive updates from you. Instead of hoping they will find you on their social feed, you can guarantee that the content is in their inbox. When using email newsletters, write short sentences that include links for more information on a particular story (e.g., blog post) or how-to guide (e.g., YouTube). Newsletters are a wonderful opportunity to use a mix of visuals (e.g., infographics) and written content.
Webinars
Educational content for a webinar is typically purposefully created for one specific webinar event, and then broken down into smaller formats for repurposing. You could take a snippet of a webinar and put that video on LinkedIn, creating a story that builds on the platform. You can similarly, transform a script into a blog post that users can read over and over while using your product.
Podcasts
You may be tempted to create a podcast because your competitor has one or because you want to seem relevant. But remember: podcasts require technical know-how, writing skills, and voice talent. If you’re still committed, great! Just be sure that you are prepared and intentional. Podcast content is generally conversational in nature. If you have customer case studies or testimonials, you could invite those customers to come on your podcast to tell their stories through an interview-like format.
Longform (i.e., white papers and eBooks)
Longform content includes strategy, mission statements, product or service explanations, board of director information, and even financial reports for public companies. This type of long-form content can be a great start for a business to get it all out there, and then select what can be repurposed later. For example, your mission statement might present the starting point for a “Who We Are” YouTube video.
Best practices for repurposing content for social
In this section, we’ll share a few best practices to help you stay on track as you build out your content repurposing strategy.
Build Your Core Content
Core or pillar content is a long-form piece of content that is shortened and repurposed for the rest of your social media posts and campaigns. The content is long-form media, whether video or written. If you start with video content, it’s best to create something that is 30 minutes or longer. If written, an article of 1,000 words or more is best.
Creating lengthy pillar content allows you as the business owner to have more freedom with your message—you aren’t confined to character or time limits. From here, you can determine relevant snippets that you use on your different platforms.
Differentiate From Competitors
With the advent of social media, it has become quite easy to spy on your competitors and their marketing strategies—all their content is out there. As a result, it’s key to research your competitors and focus on what makes you different from them. Use your competitor’s content as a jumping point for differentiating your new core content. Don’t forget–as AI has become a commonly-used tool, there is even more of a need to stand out with an authentic, unique voice.
Evergreen. Evergreen. Evergreen.
It’s important that your long-form core content reflects the mission and vision of your business, the product or service you provide, and your personality. Generally speaking, this content should be evergreen, and referenced for years to come so you can develop a strong brand identity. Evergreen content is great because it can be used for a long time and eventually grows your followers on autopilot.
Ensure It Is Quotable
Your core content is going to be on different platforms, which means that it needs to have good snippets within it. If writing a blog, be sure there are quotable parts that can be reused in a social post. If posting on Facebook, you’ll want a one or two-sentence quote to grab the viewer, with a link to the full blog. If creating a larger video, find a 30-second (or shorter) clip to post on Instagram to catch a follower’s eye.
It’s key to make sure that your long-form content is interesting throughout—meaning that various parts can be retooled for different purposes and uses. When you eventually share on social platforms, it will be important to make it look like you created it with that platform in mind.
Review Your Content
After reviewing your metrics, did you find that a particular content piece is not performing well? One reason may be that the SEO is not optimized for the post. Maybe you are not using the right keywords in your Instagram post or the correct hashtag on Twitter/X, so the right potential customer is not seeing the post.
Another reason may be that your content is no longer fresh. While evergreen content is important to core content, it does not always work when sharing on social platforms. Trending products, ideas, and cultural stories can work in your favor, and you should be constantly monitoring this so you can maximize your presence.
Time to get repurposing
As you can see, creating one piece of high-quality content can last experienced marketers through several different campaigns and platforms. While you can create and repurpose content, it takes time and expertise. Creating the long-form content itself can take days (especially if it’s a video).
As a small business owner, you should be using your time to perfect your business plan, making sure your employees are happy, and saving a little time for your family and personal life. If this all sounds like a lot to keep up with, there are content marketing agencies equipped to oversee your entire content marketing strategy, and increase engagement on your content and social platforms. Check out our lists of the Top Content Marketing Agencies in the U.S. and Canada to get started!
Sources
- Distribution of Facebook users worldwide as of January 2023, by age and gender, Statistica
- Social Media and News Fact Sheet, Pew Research
- How to build and maintain an engaged Facebook Community Group, Blog Social Media Strategies Summit
- How to Create Highly Watchable Silent Videos for Social Media, Hootsuite
- Marketers increasingly turn to TikTok for influencer marketing, Insider Intelligence
- What Comes Next for X? Your Key Twitter Rebrand Questions Answered, Social Media Today