“Repurposing content” is one way to describe what you’re doing when you re-use material you’ve used before … often in a completely different format.
The first time I heard of “repurposing content” was in the mid-’80s. I had decided to try my hand at selling freelance articles, but knew I had a lot to learn about submitting to magazines.
So I started attending writers’ workshops and classes focused on that subject. More than once, I heard the same piece of advice: RE-USE THE INFORMATION YOU GATHERED FOR YOUR FIRST ARTICLE TO WRITE OTHER ARTICLES.
Of course, the format for those other articles would be a little different (like maybe a Q&A or a “how-to” instead of a regular feature), but the point of doing this was that you’d be saving yourself a lot of time with future articles that used the same information.
As anyone who has written articles will tell you, the most time-consuming part is the research.
Nowadays, there is such a variety of media out there (especially digital), it’s actually EASIER to repurpose information.
The Value of Repurposing
Three years ago, I worked with a client who always wanted me to provide her with a month’s worth of social media posts for each blog post I wrote. The social media posts were never longer than one or two sentences, but they each had to link to the blog post – in order to attract visitors to the blog (and her website).
About a year-and-a-half later, another client asked me to help her repurpose several blog posts she’d written into articles she could post on LinkedIn. Both Rachael and Carolyn said that repurposing their content like that was VERY helpful.
The TIME spent repurposing content for these clients was minimal in comparison to the VALUE they received.
Listed below are three categories of possible ways to repurpose content. Keep all three of these in mind when you’re working on your own “repurposing” projects.
Different Purposes
🟦 NEWSLETTERS. Articles shared in a newsletter can be easily repurposed as blog posts by just copying and pasting the content into the blog platform. Portions of them can also be extracted into short snippets of information and used as social media posts.
🟥 ARTICLES. The difference between articles written for newsletters and those written for magazines is usually minor. Magazines (both online and print) and online platforms each have different requirements, but the amount of time spent repurposing content that originally appeared in an article is usually a fraction of the original writing time … if it’s being turned into a blog post or short social media posts.
🟩 TECHNICAL WRITING. Content written for user manuals, white papers, or tech company blog sites can be repurposed in a variety of ways. Because of their focus on marketing, white papers are especially good for repurposing. Case studies and short articles written for a tech company’s internal publication are a couple of examples of content that can benefit from info that was originally shared in a white paper.
🟧 SOCIAL MEDIA. Occasionally, there may be a need to repurpose a social media post into something longer (like an article or blog post). When that happens, be sure to save any additional information you gather for the longer piece(s) of content in a separate folder – so it’s easy to find if you need to access it in the future.
🟪 BLOG POSTS. Two great ways that blog posts can be repurposed are the ones I mentioned above: creating a series of social media posts (20-30 at a time is very do-able) and posting them as articles on a platform like LinkedIn. But you can also use them to create content for newsletters … which can either be emailed or sent via “snail mail.”
Different Platforms
The platforms you choose to use when repurposing content will have a lot to do with both the PURPOSE of the content (as explained above) and the AUDIENCE you’re trying to reach.
If potential clients (or existing clients) are the people most likely to be reading your content, LinkedIn is probably an excellent platform for you. But if your audience is more likely to be on Facebook, make sure your content appears there.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, email marketing platforms (like Constant Contact, AWeber, and Mailchimp), and blogs on user-friendly website platforms like WordPress and Wix are just a few of the choices out there.
Different Audiences
Audiences can fall into more than two categories, although the two main ones are Friends and Clients (current & potential). But audiences that fall under the category of “business” can include Colleagues/Co-workers (who might see content on a company’s intranet or in a staff newsletter) and Groups.
Keeping Track …
The key to staying on top of ANY type of repurposing you may do is keeping track of it with a schedule and having a system to organize all of it. My favorite tools for this are Google Sheets and good old-fashioned tables in Microsoft Word. I know several people who prefer using Excel, but Trello is another option.
Tammy Schaefer – an executive virtual assistant – has become an expert on ways to use Trello to help you manage your content. She gave me permission to share a link to two helpful tools she offers to clients who are curious about working with that platform.
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Repurposing, believe it or not, can be fun! But if re-working your content into different formats doesn’t appeal to you, don’t be afraid to reach out to someone who can help.
Having a system in place for managing AND repurposing your content can help you enlarge your audience faster than you might expect!
