Do you want to save time? Repurpose content.
I am a huge believer in the art of repurposing content and even if I was not a social media consultant I would still share this nugget of business advice with anyone who would listen. That’s how strongly I feel about this topic.
You are not the only one in your industry doing what you do and there will be those questions and challenges that come up again and again. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time you answer those age old questions, just put your added flair on it. If you explained it once in a blog, share the same information again in a webinar or video. If you shared the information as a text post, share the same information again on an image with text overlay. Camera shy? Try doing audio clips using Sound Cloud or something similar.
There’s nothing new under the sun. We have to keep sharing the same information over and over. You know why? Because it happens to everyone. We forget what we know at times and we need to be reminded.
Sometimes it’s even necessary to just get back to the basics and who doesn’t know the basics? It’s easy to forget when we get caught up in the trappings of doing things some other way.
When you repurpose content there are few things you want to keep in mind:
Not everyone saw it. First and foremost, when it comes to social media, only a small fraction of your fans and followers actually saw what you posted the first time, so don’t be afraid to post it again.
Content is meant to be shared more than once. Every single blog you write can be shared multiple times and on multiple social media platforms. When possible, create a size appropriate image to share your blog on whichever social profile you have chosen to use. The right size image makes a better impact for your viewer. When images are too small or too large and can’t be easily viewed in the newsfeed, they tend to get overlooked.
Not everyone knows what you know. Also, the thing you think everyone knows, may be the thing someone in your audience today doesn’t know. It’s easy to talk yourself out of sharing something because you think it has been shared before, but the big question is, has it been shared by you? Not all content you repurpose will be content you originally created.
What was old becomes something new. Once you have written a few blogs on a particular topic, you can take those blogs and turn them into a guide or e-book. There’s no need to start from scratch, just pull them together in a logical order and add whatever else you have learned about the topic since writing those original blogs.
Opportunity to do something new. Blogs also convert into great podcast material. Don’t feel like you have the voice or equipment for a podcast? Start looking around. You don’t have to have the most high-tech equipment to test test the waters.
You can get creative. A list of handy industry tips can be converted into an infographic. No, you don’t have to be a graphic artist to create one either. You can create an infographic in Canva or Infogr.am using the free version. There are so many free tools you can use now to create your own infographics. Read more about it here.
I could go on and on with examples but if you take away just one thing from why I recommend that you repurpose content, it’s this–it is going to save you time. Do you want to save time or do you want to just recreating the wheel?
