How To Repurpose Content: The Ultimate Guide
Creating content takes a lot of work, organizing, planning, and research before the production part even begins. Then there is the difficult but necessary task of checking the material for mistakes or wrong claims before posting it.
With the growing need for more content to be distributed to our audience, repurposing has become a very convenient way to keep people engaged, all while using some of the content we have already produced.
There are various ways how to repurpose content. Whether migrating it from one means of communication to another or transforming it to appear different, repurposing content will save you time and get even more engagement than the original post.
Do you want to discover all the possible ways of repurposing content? Let’s get started!
Repurposing Content
Making fresh and engaging content is difficult for all content creators, and repurposing content is a convenient way to squeeze out more juice from your old posts. The type of content that can be repurposed is called “evergreen content,” i.e., content that doesn’t lose relevance over time.
Some of the reasons for distributing content can be a lack of time to produce fresh material, to get even more out of successful content, to reach a new audience, or to give an unsuccessful piece a second chance. Sometimes the content becomes old, requiring refurbishment to be as productive as it once was.
Therefore, how the content is repurposed depends on the content's nature and the creator's goals. There are numerous ways to repurpose content.
- Republishing is reposting the same content on the same webpage or blog with a few tweaks in order to update the material and freshen the SEO.
- Syndication is when the content is republished but on a different platform to reach a new audience. This is done by either appearing as a guest writer on a different blog or migrating the content to another platform like social media.
- Transformation of the content is when you remake it into another format while maintaining its core ideas. Some ways you can transform content are text to a video, text to a podcast, video to an article, podcast to infographics, etc. Transforming the content requires a fair amount of skill and effort by the creator because it simply means creating new content without researching the subject. Sometimes there might be a need to learn new skills or ways to communicate with a crowd, like organizing a podcast or editing a video.
- Converting doesn’t require much effort, and it is only effective if more visual content is converted into less visual and engaging content. For example, video content can be transformed into voice or even text using particular apps. Converting refers only to changing the format of the content.
How to Repurpose Content
No creator should feel guilty about repurposing content. Finding new ways to express an older message can add value to your followers or clients.
Absorbing the message from a new medium can strike a chord with a part of your audience. It can also offer a new perspective, or it can amplify some of the points that were made.
There are many ways how to repurpose content. Whether by migrating it from your webpage to your social media or transforming it from written words to audio or video. Sometimes it is the convenience of not opening links that will make your follower get interested in what you have to say.
In some cases, they will get intrigued by the content through the way it has been communicated to them. Some people like to read, while others prefer to learn about stuff from podcasts.
So, not redistributing content would be not taking advantage of this fact.
Reasons for Repurposing Content
There are many reasons for content creators to repurpose content. It can be due to blog posts becoming old and less relevant, or it can be for the goal of reaching new audiences.
Here’s a list of possible reasons for repurposing content:
- The content became old and less relevant.
- The content has seen success and can be even more successful.
- The content has been unsuccessful, and repurposing can give it a new opportunity to succeed with a new audience.
The Possible Ways
Republishing
Republishing is an easy way to get a new audience. Some of your most successful posts may go through the second glory if they are republished. The post will reach new audiences who may not have seen it before. It can also increase visibility and engagement on the post.
Naturally, it would need some refurbishing in regards to having up-to-date information and relevant SEO. Still, this is a straightforward way to attract new people to your platform.
Syndication
One of the most straightforward ways to repurpose content is by moving it from one place to another. For example, you can post a text from an article directly on Facebook or a video from YouTube to Twitter.
You can also appear as a guest creator on another platform and post your republished content there. This will allow you to increase backlinks and showcase your ideas, products, or services to a different crowd.
Many content creators still struggle to understand how powerful migrating content like this can be. Getting it from one platform to another will get new engagement on your post and receive fresh feedback.
Even if the same people follow you or your brand on different platforms, they do not perceive content on all platforms the same. When they are on Twitter, their mentality tends to differ from when scrolling Facebook.
What to avoid
Repurposing content like this can be very straightforward and productive but can also give negative outcomes. Assuming there’s a fair amount of people who consumed the content the first time it was served, they might not like seeing the same stuff all over again.
This might appear as desperate and lose you points with the people who are fans because they are the ones who likely saw your content the first time it was posted.
While bringing it to as many people as possible is important, it should not be at the cost of alienating the existing audience. If you are going to repurpose such content, it must be a quality piece.
How to syndicate content
The key is to find new people who would engage with your content, and you need a platform where you can republish your content. You need to find a blog where you would appear as a guest.
If you don’t have the opportunity to appear as a guest writer, then you can publish the content on Medium, Quora, and Product Hunt.
You can also do it on different social media and achieve similar results. For example, an article on your web page might appeal to some new people if they saw it as an article on LinkedIn.
When posting on social media, you can split the content into multiple pieces and have your audience engaged for a longer time than what would be the case if you post it all at once.
Transformation
Getting the most out of your old content by repurposing will save you time as there won’t be a need to do research, but it will still require effort to do it successfully. One of the ways to generate more from your content is by transforming it.
Think of it like a movie that started as a book. After seeing some success as a book version, the story got made into a movie, and then into a video game, and later it was a popular board game, and so on. Transforming content can follow a much similar pattern.
As opposed to conversion, for which we will speak later, transforming the material means recreating it in another shape or form. For example, an article you wrote can become a video or vice versa.
This opens the door for many ways to use this option for repurposing content, and it will be down to your creativity to make it work.
We will go over some of the ways you can repurpose content by its transformation, but there will probably be many other ways that we would not have thought of.
We should mention that for any idea, the opposite action would also be valid, for example, transforming an article into a video and vice versa.
An article to a video
A good article you have written can effectively be turned into a quality video, creating new value for your followers. If it is a how-to article or a simple informative piece about a given subject, you can use its resources to create a video.
Making videos requires a whole different skill set than writing. Still, with the right tools and persistence, the article can be transformed into a captivating video containing your core ideas.
It is important to refrain from swaying from the subject and focus on the topics that made your old article great. Adding new information or excluding some points wouldn’t be a problem as long as the context of the video remains in line with the article.
After creating a video for the article, consider a publishing tactic with the timing and length of video segments in order to achieve maximum success. Posting it into multiple video segments will keep people engaged with your content longer.
A video to an article
The opposite action may be simpler, but it depends on your writing skills and capacity to make the switch. A successful video can easily be turned into a productive article, allowing a new audience to come in contact with your business or ideas.
Therefore, this is a straightforward way of repurposing content, but it requires skill, effort, and careful planning.
An article to a podcast
This is where it could get tricky. Repurposing your content this way will require your creativity and organizing the project all over again. This will probably feel like creating whole new content, although fundamentally, you would be repurposing the old material.
It doesn’t matter if you go with video footage or only go for a sound version. What matters is getting the guests a unique perspective and insight on the subject.
If you are a content writer and inexperienced with podcasts, creating a podcast could be a little too challenging. What you can do is find creators who already do podcasts and offer to be a guest on their show. Afterward, you can use that content in a way that would suit you or your business best.
If you want to go through the process on your own, you will need to get equipped with adequate tools like microphones, cameras, etc.
A podcast to a video
Although it sounds similar, podcast creators would face a different type of challenge if they were repurposing content in the opposite direction. They need to have a keen eye for detecting key points and be able to transform informal language into coherent sentences.
There would have to be a selection process where the valuable material is kept, and everything in-between is disposed of. In this process, many things you find valuable may not appeal to the audience, or the opposite, you may get rid of segments that might be of interest to people.
The best way to go about it would be to get a second opinion which would help you make the right choices in selecting the key segments of the material, which would later become the key points of your article.
The length and writing style would depend on the type of podcast you had and the topic in question.
An article to a webinar
Creating a webinar would require a more structured format instead of doing a podcast. The advantage is that you can do it alone. Having all of your old content repurposed into a webinar is a good idea.
Where many creators go wrong is they just have the content recited on video, relying on graphics to deliver the message. In most cases, that is not how to repurpose content successfully.
The webinar needs to be done well and abide by quality content standards, as with any other post. If it is not your area of expertise, research what makes a good webinar and how to get people to engage with it.
An article to a live stream
If it is a subject you know a lot about, performing a live stream on YouTube or Facebook can add great value to the content. This way of interacting is especially valuable because it provides authenticity to your audience and allows them to interact directly with the author.
On the live stream, you would discuss the core ideas of your original content, with the possibility to add new details, expand, and improvise. Doing live streams can be challenging but rewarding, as your followers would enjoy having a direct connection.
Whether performed on Facebook or YouTube, you can schedule an event beforehand and inform your followers of the upcoming live stream. This will give you time and opportunity to promote it and maybe even sneak in another repurposed content before this one.
An article to an ebook
Creating an ebook may take longer, but getting a new, quality audience on board is a great way. An ebook on their subject of interest is sure to get people interested in what you have to say, especially during times when quality content is hard to come by.
You can split the ebook into multiple parts and send it to your subscribers piece by piece to keep them engaged for longer. Of course, this is not possible with all subjects, and it will take careful consideration. However, there surely is something in your library that can be transformed into an ebook.
Creating infographics
An infographic is a collection of images, data, and charts that enables viewers to better consume the content without being overwhelmed with numbers.
This is especially useful if you have an article that contains lots of data and information. An infographic will help your audience digest the message and paint a better picture of your ideas.
Hosting Q&A sessions
Whatever form your content was, you could schedule an event where your audience can ask you their questions on the matter to get a clearer idea. Hosting a Q&A is a great way to interact with your followers and have them engaged with your content for longer.
You can host a Q&A on a live stream or invite your audience to ask questions before you answer them in a separate post. A very common way to perform a Q&A is using a unique hashtag because the questions are accessible at any time and by anyone.
After performing a Q&A, you will clearly understand your audience’s main focal points about your content. What was their thought process when engaging with it, and what questions or concerns arose? This can serve as a great pathway for the next repurposing of the same content, as you will know exactly which points to cover.
Extracting quotes
This is a potent way to get people to engage with your content. You need to find the most powerful segments and create a visual design around them before posting the work on social media.
This requires a fair amount of skill, but it is well worth it as it is provocative for the viewer if you select a good quote.
Conversion
Not to be confused with the previous means of repurposing content, a conversion would mean simply turning the same content into a different format. Your text can be converted to sound, making it available for new people after republishing it in the changed format.
If you want to convert from video to audio or directly from video to text, there are various apps you can use to achieve it faster. However, you have to know that this is far less likely to succeed because merely converting the files doesn’t make them suitable for the other platforms.
Every platform has a unique algorithm that requires the content producers to respect certain principles and maintain certain standards to be successful. Content that is merely converted from one format to another is unlikely to have the same effect as its original execution.
The only way you can successfully apply this is by converting video to sound or sound to video by adding a visual presentation.
Finding the right content to repurpose
Content creators should focus on the repurposing of what is known as “evergreen content.” Evergreen content is when you post about something that would take much longer to go out of fashion. For example, a post about a new software update for a mobile phone might attract people initially, but it will quickly become old news.
The right example for evergreen content would be an article on table manners, ways to clean your laptop keyboard, or how to change the oil on your car. Topics generally don’t fade away that quickly.
Once you identify all the evergreen topics on your web page, choose the most viewed ones and mark them for repurposing.
If you are a YouTuber, the process would be similar. Find evergreen videos from your library and select the most popular ones for repurposing in the ways that you see fit.
Your content may need to be updated because some of the info is changed. Be sure to have it corrected in the new version of your content for the best results.
Repurposing content on social media
Social media allows for quick and easy repurposing using any of the above-mentioned means. Platforms like Facebook, Reddit, and LinkedIn enable you to directly share the content of your article, and you can post it in the form of a video.
By researching how different social media algorithms work, you can get the most out of any platform and expose new people to your ideas or business.
Social media platforms such as Facebook enable you to post your written or video content directly and in segments in order to keep your audience engaged with your content for a longer time. If you want to bring them to your website, always mention that people can find out more by visiting your link.
Suppose you are already a social media content creator. In that case, repurposing your content for social media outside of your main platforms can boost your overall following without much effort.
Facebook is a great platform for repurposing content because it supports multiple ways of communication with the audience. You can republish a whole article as a status update or have it posted piece by piece. Facebook allows publishing videos, posting whole articles, posting images and infographics, and going live.
It is a complete package, and the fact that almost everyone is on it makes it the ideal platform for repurposing content.
X (Twitter)
X (Twitter) has generally been quite limited when it comes to repurposing content, but the relatively recently added features allow you to go live and talk to an audience. To go on Spaces, click on the “Spaces” icon, which looks like a microphone.
X (Twitter) Spaces is very convenient for the listeners because it allows them to continue to use the app while listening to the live stream. To go live on Twitter with video footage, go to the plus sign to add a new post, then the camera icon, and swipe to the “Live” option.
There are standard options for adding images, infographics, and videos to a tweet. For text, you would have to republish it on a separate platform like medium and then share the link on X (Twitter) because of the character limit.
X (Twitter) is very underused for repurposing content, and it is definitely worth giving it a try. One way that creators have utilized is creating threads that allow them to share larger amounts of text.
While you can’t share much text on Instagram, you can still use it to post reels, and stories, share infographics or go live. It is an underutilized platform for repurposing content because it is not perceived as a good place to do it, but creativity goes a long way on Instagram.
You can extract quotes from your content and have them designed with a good picture that can definitely attract people to your content. Also, with the reels option, you can make short content segments.
If you are a YouTuber, Instagram will come in handy for videos of the best or most provocative bits, which would attract people to your content.
LinkedIn is notorious for being the place where lots of content goes to be repurposed. It seems like fewer creators produce specifically for Linkedin, but many go there to share repurposed content.
Publishing on LinkedIn is easy, but the difficult part is finding a way to stand out from the crowd.
Another great platform to connect to people who are already invested in the subject that you cover. Whatever content you are thinking about repurposing, there’s a big chance that there are at least a couple of subreddits already covering the subject with many productive discussions.
To make Reddit work for you, you cannot just spam into subreddits and hope people will like your content. Instead, you must strive to bring value to the specific community with your posts.
You can create a subreddit on your topic and create a community that would interact within. Reddit also lets you post videos, images, and infographics, while you can also go live.
TikTok
Yes, even TikTok can be used for repurposing content, and if you do a good job, it can lead to some serious results. You can create TikTok videos that capture the core ideas of your initial content, or you can go live.
You can unleash your creative side and combine quotes with music to create a video appealing to the desired audience.
Twitch
Twitch is a video streaming platform primarily used by content creators from the gaming industry, but it can be used for other purposes as well. Depending on your content type, you may find Twitch useful for repurposing your content there.
Overall, Twitch is a great platform for content creators looking to expand their reach and also possibly monetize their content.
Discord
Discord is a simplified platform for voice, video, and text communication. It has a unique culture, and depending on the character of your content, you may find Discord useful.
It's a great way to produce content quickly and easily, share ideas, and collaborate with others. It also allows for creating private channels, allowing users to manage their conversations more securely. That is, you can create a group of some relevant niche where you could post about the core ideas of your old content.
Summary
Repurposed content, A.K.A. recycled content, is when you find a new way to distribute old content to find a broader audience. This is a very common and effective way to get the most out of your old content because constantly creating new content is sometimes impossible and unproductive.
It is important to know that not all content is suitable for repurposing. The best type of content to repurpose is evergreen content, which focuses on broad, general terms that don’t lose relevance over time.
So, how to repurpose content? Some ways to repurpose content would be republishing, syndication, transforming content, and converting it. They all require different skills from the content creator, and sometimes they will need to learn new skills to repurpose their content successfully.
Republishing content refers to posting the same content anew on the same blog, profile, or webpage, with slight tweaks to have a more up-to-date version of the content.
Syndication is similar to republishing, only on a different platform. Converting is changing the format of the content, and transforming it is remaking it in a different format.
