5 Easy Ways to Repurpose Content

If you’ve ever been on Pinterest or watched HGTV, you’ve probably heard of “upcycling.” You take an old dresser and stain it and repaint it and you’ve upcycled it!‍

Upcycling or repurposing, as it's more commonly known, is simply the process of taking something old and creating something new or equally more valuable than what it was before.

]Repurposing isn’t just for clothes and DIY projects! You can repurpose content too. Repurposing content is transforming a piece of content for the purpose of adding value and bringing that back into circulation. If you’re not doing this already, you really should be because upcycling your content is the smarter way to stay consistent with content, grow your audience and extend your reach.

Why should you repurpose your content?

Most people suggest you repurpose content for social media because it’s a time-saver and it is! You’ve already spent the time and energy to brainstorm ideas, research content, map it out and put it together so you can skip that part of the process altogether when you repurpose social media content! But there are more benefits than time.

You save yourself from what we call the “content creation treadmill.”

The content creation treadmill is when you are hustling to create so much content that you feel like all you’re doing is creating and pushing it out and then creating more content. When you get stuck in this cycle, it’s hard to tell what’s actually working for you and it’s a one-way ticket to burn out.

‍There are many ways to repurpose content that gets you off of the content creation treadmill and gets your content working harder for you.

‍While getting off that content creation treadmill is less exhausting, the biggest and most beneficial reason to upcycling content comes down to gambling.

No, we’re not talking about playing poker or hanging out at a racetrack. We’re talking about betting on your content. Not every piece of content you create is going to be a best-performer and that’s ok. We can’t all create winners every single time.
But you should want to make the most of the winning pieces of content that you do have. That’s the power of content repurposing.
And when you do recycle that winning piece of content, you can see even more benefits, such as:

• You’ll have time to create the best content ever
• You have extended reach. People consume content in different ways and repurposed content reaches more audiences who may consume content in a way that’s different from that original core piece of content
• Promotes visibility. You can say the same thing but in different ways
• You respect your audience’s learning style

What type of content should you repurpose?

One of the great things about content repurposing is all you need is one really great piece of content. Take a look at your analytics to find a piece of content that performs particularly well and then get to work on repurposing it.

It can be a blog post, or a podcast episode, an e-book or even a speech you gave at a local networking event. The format of the content doesn’t matter but the content does.

There are certain types of content that are best for upcycling.

• Evergreen: Evergreen content is content that is still relevant and valuable, long after it’s been published. In other words, it’s not based on timely trends or news.
• Series: A series of content that is based around a specific topic can easily be transformed into an new pieces of content.
• Authority: What content shares your thought leadership or your unique way of working? If you have a piece of content that shows off your personal secret sauce to success, it’s perfect to repurpose.

The key to repurposing your content is to avoid anything that timely or evolving because you want your content to remain valuable to your audience for weeks and months after you repurpose it! It’s also important that the core content performs well. If your core piece of content isn’t a winner, then your repurposed content may not perform well either. Remember: always bet on your winners!

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How to repurpose content in 5 easy and creative steps!

Let’s take a look at how to repurpose your content in creative ways that are easy wins!

1. How to repurpose blog content into an audio podcast

Some of your audience won’t have time to read a long-form blog post but upcycling blogs is a great way to get your content in front of those who have time to listen to a podcast on their way to work or at the gym. Use the same content from your blog and turn it into a podcast episode.

You could invite a guest on to discuss the topic or simply run through the tips you mention in your blog post. We just started recording our blogs into our Social Posts podcast! You can also add a little extra personality over audio.

2. Repurpose blog content into an infographic

Upcycle blog content into a useful infographic to get more eyeballs on it. Lots of people are visual learners and they can digest the information faster with a visual representation. There are several fantastic infographic tools like Piktochart that make it easy to create infographics, even if you don’t have design experience.

Once you create your infographic with the information you already covered in your blog, you can share it on all your social media channels.

3. How to repurpose video content

Video is super simple to use in many different ways and it works well on all channels. Thanks to productivity strategist, Alyssa Coleman, here are 7 steps to repurpose video content that grabs your audience’s attention.

Step 1. Share your video on IGTV and Youtube

‍Make sure you share your original video onto IGTV and YouTube. It’s all about crossposting!

You want your content to get in front of people where they're already hanging out. Putting it on both platforms will achieve this. (Don't worry — Edgar makes this really easy to do!)Extra Bonus for IGTV: If you choose the option "feed preview", Instagram shares a preview of the video in your feed.

‍Step 2. Create caption intrigue with the MeetEdgar categories

‍Now it's time to really use MeetEdgar to its full capacity by creating categories.

We'll start by creating caption intrigue using MeetEdgar. The first thing you'll do is upload the video into MeetEdgar and create five variations of the caption.

Creating five captions helps see how many people we can resonate with, and what language intrigues people to engage with our content.

Then we share those five variations to our Facebook page, Facebook group, LinkedIn account and Twitter. To do this in MeetEdgar,  select "Add New Content" then upload your video directly into Edgar and save it into a category (We'll get more into categories in a second it's what really makes MeetEdgar a powerhouse.)

Adding the video to the Library in Edgar is how I can re-share this video later and recycle it.

Once you add the video write five different variations of the caption that's going to go along with that video. It's just five different ways of describing your content. (Find more ideas on variations here.)Next we use the "Schedule, send and save" feature. It allows you to say, "Hey, I've created five variations that talk about different things in my video.

But I don't want to send out all five this week, and overload all my social platforms, because that might be a little bit much, and people might find that crazy."So you go to "schedule, send and save" and it's like saying, "Hey Edgar, hold this post until this day and time, then send one variation and to all those pages on Tuesday."

Step 3. Create an Instagram post

‍We already added the video to Insta using the "Feed Preview" option on IGTV, but we all know you've got to create once and promote multiple times on social media. We want to find ways to leverage the work we've already done.

So use what you talked about in the video, or use a variation you already wrote for FB to create an awesome caption for Instagram and put it in a scheduled post.

Remember it's ok to repeat content!! Not every follower will see every single post you send.  So if you have a great message, remind people about it. It can be as simple as saying: "Hey if you haven't yet, go ahead and check out that IGTV video, you can find it here. And this is what we talk about."

Then you can schedule it in MeetEdgar and tell Edgar to send a push notification on Thursday to remind you to post.

‍Step 4. The blog

‍These videos you create need to live on your website. Posting on your website helps with that longevity factor. If you're only posting on Instagram, your IGTV posts are going to get buried.

You need your own space on the internet to share your content. Why? Because you can then send more traffic to your website, increase page views, leverage other offers, and grow your email list.

Remember, social media is a rented space. At any time, the algorithms could shift or the platform could disappear. So we recommend having a blog on your website where your content lives forever.

‍But if you're not a writer, or maybe the thought of blogging every single week seems exhausting for you, it's is OK. What you can do is use the content you've talked about in your video in a blog post. You can have it transcribed (Team Edgar uses Rev.com for this). Then you have great, valuable content in written form for people who like reading blogs. It's all about content upcycling, baby!

‍Step 5. Create Instagram stories

‍Once you've written the blog, it's time to have a little fun with your promo. You want to leverage all the different features of Instagram and one of those that is king right now is Instagram Stories.

Try creating six or more Instagram Stories to promote the video and blog post and then schedule those stories into Edgar.

You have a few options on what to say in these different stories:

• Use the image that you have in your blog post to create some promos for your story
• Share some bullet points about what you cover in the video to give people a little teaser
• Share the IGTV video, add some GIFs and text overlay promoting it
• Record a few quick videos where you talk about the content of the video and blog (this one is probably the best + easiest thing to do!!)

Then use Edgar to schedule your stories to go out at different times throughout the week.

‍Step 6. Email

‍All right, let's talk about the email. If you're growing a business, emailing your audience is king. You want to make sure you keep the people who are already on your email list really warm and connected to you and your message.

Remember, we're just meeting people where they are. If they're the type of person who's always checking their emails, we want to send them an email and let them know what's going on with you, that you've got a new blog, or that you've got a new video.‍

Step 7: Pinterest

‍It's time to talk about Pinterest! What's cool about Pinterest is your content lives on there forever. The life of a Pinterest pin is much longer than any other social media post. You get traffic for a long time to come.

You can create templates to make this easier. We recommend buying templates from Creative Market or Etsy or creating your own using Visme or Canva. We then pin to our own Pinterest boards, and we're also going to start to leverage something really cool about Pinterest: Pinterest group boards. These are a hidden gem on Pinterest.

These are boards owned by someone else and have their own set of followers but the owner can invite other collaborators to pin their content. You want to find some that are for your audience and that relate to the content you talk about. What makes group boards so powerful is they can expand your audience without you having to actually grow your followers. Let's say you have 5,000 followers. But you find group boards that has 66,000 followers or 70,000 followers or 30,000 followers or 40,000 followers.

By posting on your Pinterest, you are going to get in front of 5,000 people. But by posting into these four group boards, your pins are going to get in front of 200,000 followers. And you don't have to do the work of growing this audience. They're already being curated for you. And that's just with four group boards.

To be a collaborator on a group board, it's best if you follow the board and interact with it a bit first. Then you can message the person who owns a group board and explain why you think your content is a great fit.

There are group boards for almost everything! Knitting, recipes, you name it! If you like Pinterest, you know they've got pretty much everything on there.

It's really, really incredible, and this is when it starts to get exciting because it becomes exponential at this point. Don't worry about being spammy or anything like that. If you posted 10 Instagram posts all about the same thing, it might be a little crazy. But on Pinterest, that's not the case. That's what their platform actually loves.

4.Turn podcasts into eBooks

Want an incentive for people to sign up for your email list? Then provide them with a useful, free piece of content. You don’t need to waste time creating a completely new piece of content for this. Repurpose podcast content! Transcribe some of your podcast interviews; make them into an eBook of expert advice on a topic you know your audience is interested in learning more about.

5. Repurpose your research for social media

Want to pique the interest of your social media follows with some bite-sized nuggets of info? Then create posts with fun visuals for Facebook and Twitter:

Use your research to turn facts and figures into easy to consume content that your followers will love. Don’t forget to encourage them to share!  

How to repurpose content for social media: getting started

You don’t need a huge library of content to get started repurposing. You just need one or two successful pieces of content. Here’s a quick 4-step process to get you started.

‍1. Audit your content:

‍Look for content that performs well, has your own “secret sauce” or actionable takeaways.

Check your Google Analytics or review your engagement history on your social media pages to see what content was a high performer.

‍2. Choose a repurposing tactic:

‍Look at the lowest hanging fruit. Where does your audience spend time and how do they like to consume content? If you’re not sure, ask them! Or if you’re still building your audience, look at best practices in your industry or what your competitors are doing and how they are sharing content.

‍3. Set goals

‍We always say, every piece of content needs a job and that goes for your upcycled content too!

Set some metrics for that upcycled content, whether it’s reach, engagement or website traffic. Put it to work for you so you know if that tactic was the right choice. If it wasn’t, you can always try another tactic in the future!4. Amplify itAfter you’ve repurposed your content, we recommend amplifying it and getting it out to your audience, just as you would with a core piece of content!

Create several variations of your repurposed content social media posts and use category-based scheduling to keep your upcycled content balanced and make sure it’s not sharing back-to-back! (Psssst! Edgar makes this REALLY easy! Try us out for yourself with a free 7-day trial!)

Final Thoughts

Upcycling content is the smart content creator's to staying consistent, reaching new audiences and creating fantastic content without burning out.

Are you ready to start upcycling your content? Let us know which tactic you want to try!

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