Are you looking for ways to extend the “life” of your blog posts or social media content, or recycle and reuse old social posts for a new use?

Are you looking to be more time efficient when it comes to making social media posts?

For most of us, the answer is YES.

Imagine how much time you would save if you could create less content and spend more time promoting it? Thanks to a simple technique referred to as ‘repurposing content’, you can finally re-use and recycle older content that you feel is still relevant and helpful to an audience.

But first, what is the problem we are all trying to solve, and what is Return on Content (ROC)?
The problem for business owners is that we want to get results from our social media. Yet, posts have very short life cycles, often just a few hours. So, many of us make one post – we set it and forget it – and then we move on to something else. In more involved pieces such as developing seminars, webinars and trainings, or eBooks, we have a tremendous opportunity to leverage that work for a new use, especially for others who have not seen it yet.

So, What Does it Mean to Repurpose Content?
When people think about repurposing content, they immediately assume it has to do with republishing content (copying and pasting it somewhere else online). Repurposing content has to do with reworking an article or social media post for a particular audience OR a particular format. It has to do with extending the life of a post or piece of content that you feel still has more to give by changing it and making it appeal to a different segment of people or people on another social channel.

For example, let’s say you created an article geared towards families searching for a professional landscaper. You can repurpose the article and reach a new audience of homeowners in a new market; for example: the do-it-yourself home improvement market. It is also great for SEO, and it adds value to your business.

Why Should I Repurpose Content?
Especially on Facebook where your organic ‘reach’ may be low, many times your Fans may not have even seen the original post. This is true on all social networks. If they have not seen it, then although you have posted it, it is still brand new to them. This alone is a good reason to reshare by way of repurposing old posts.

Reposting the SAME older post is NOT RECOMMENDED and can even work against you on certain social platforms.

What is the key to knowing if I can re-use content?
If there is one word to focus on it is “Relevance.” As long as a topic or content is still relevant and timely, it may still make a great share to your community. Or, it may be reconstructed to suit an audience on a different social network. For example, you may have content on Facebook that may be a good source of information to a community you recently started on Google Plus. Why not share it if it is still of value?

Creative Ways to Repurpose Content

First, think about who the audience is. Then think about the format of the content. For example, you may have given a training session to an advanced group of trainees on the subject and questions were raised during that session that made you realize new ways to present the same material to a more beginner level audience. You then write a tips sheet, turn it into an Infographic and post it on your Facebook page. In this instance, you are taking one piece and adapting it to a new segment of people with a fresh format. This is a good example of repurposing.

One thing you will want to do is to find your most prized piece (i.e. a blog post, video, social media post, etc.). For example, you can turn your blog post into an Infographic, or even a tutorial piece on YouTube. Or, you could put a tip into an image and include your logo, branding your content before it is spread online.

If you have an interesting topic, you can even turn your content piece into an e-book. There are a variety ways you can repurpose content. Here are a few more ways you can re-use your content:

• Create individual posts from a bulleted list within an article.
• Take something complicated/technical that was meant for one audience and simplify it for another
• Turn an idea within your post into a case study.
• Create a podcast from your best blog article.
• Turn sentences within a blog post into quotes.
• Turn your content pieces into a slide share – just make sure you make it visual.
• Repurpose content into a webinar.
• Turning an eBook into an autoresponder email series
• Turn a blog into a Vlog i.e. a video blog.

These are just some ideas. If you have offline articles or a print newsletter, another option is to take them and write them into web-friendly pieces that are then distributed online.

Here are a few tools you can use to help repurpose your content and get it into the hands of new readers:

• YouTube
• Bubble.us
• Visual.ly
• Scoop.it
• Medium
• Roojoom
• BlogsRelease
• Tribber
• List.ly

The list above can go on-and-on. These are just a handful of tools that you can use. The key to success when repurposing your content is to make sure the content is still useful to your audience. Your content should compel people to take action – even if it’s just sharing your content on their Facebook page.

5 second litmus test to see if it is worth reposting it?
1. Is it Relevant?
2. Is it Timely?
3. Will it reach your intended audience if posted?

If you answered yes to all three, then give it a try. Sometimes a post was not successful the first time only because it did not reach its intended audience. If this is the case (you can e.g. see how many people a post reached in Facebook Insights to determine this), make a game plan to ensure it does.

Good luck!

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