Are you struggling to bring back some life to your social media accounts? Or maybe you just want to mimic past social media successes?
Whatever the case, there's a simple solution - repurposing your top social media content. In this post, I'll share five of the best ways that you can use to repurpose your top social media content and boost your results.
Why repurpose content?
Well, for one...why not? Depending on how you're going to repurpose your content, more often than not, it'll be quite different from the initial posting. So why not maximize the value of your already existing content?
By repurposing, you're saving resources and, most importantly, time. Instead of constantly creating new content, you're making use of what you already have and enhancing your returns - and developing a more effective, sustainable content strategy for your social media marketing.
So, take out your social media calendar and look through your old updates: what can you use and repurpose?
What content should you repurpose?
For one, you should always try to repurpose any high-quality evergreen content - i.e. content that continues to be relevant over time. If, on the contrary, you have any timely content, that you can forget about for now.
You should check your website analytics to see which of your older pieces of content are still driving traffic to them - after all, if they're still getting traffic, it shows that there's something there that still works, so why not also use it on social media? Then, you can automate your social media posts and continue driving traffic, time and time again.
Other content that you can repurpose is content that drive significant engagement. Look at your social media analytics and find out what your best performing content is each month, as well as from past months - could it be re-used in the future?
For example, you can use a tool like Agorapulse (or your own social media management tools' analytics) to check your best performing social content:
Once you've established what content you want to re-use, there are multiple easy ways to repurpose your old content. Hopefully, one of the following 5 tips should help you find a good use for that old piece of content:
1. Optimise your best content for several social networks
Keep an eye on your social media analytics - are there any posts on a social network that generate a lot of engagement?
Maybe you posted a quote that got you a lot of shares on Twitter, or you posted an image on Instagram that got you a lot of likes - whatever the case may be, if an update got you lots of engagement on one social network, it could also work very well on a different social network.
In some cases, you can re-post the update as it is, but most of the time, you'll need to optimize it for each network.
For example, if you had a very popular update on Twitter, to re-post it on Facebook, you'll most likely need to add a bit more for it. Or, if you want to re-post it to Instagram or Facebook, you could turn it into an image with the text over it.
Whenever you have an update that generates a lot of engagement, think of ways that it can be re-used on other social networks and profiles. Chances are, you'll reach different people, and will likely continue getting engagement.
2. Turn popular text-only updates into images
Another way of re-purposing popular social media updates is to turn them into images of some kind and re-post them on the same platform after your old update gets lost - or re-post it on different social networks.
People tend to respond better to images and they generally attract more attention than text-only updates.
Turn your best, most popular text-only tweets, quotes, Facebook updates and so on into an image and then re-post it on your different accounts (Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn).
You can use a tool like Canva to easily add text to images, which you can either upload yourself, or use one of their own templates.
They already provide design templates for most major social networks, so you can be assured they'll be the right size - or, you can use the custom dimensions feature to optimize your images for any social network. Plus, there are all kinds of other customization features, so that you can simply drag and drop all kinds of illustrations, icons, shapes, etc. to your image. It's extremely easy to use, even if you don't have any kind of design experience.
3. Use your popular social media updates as inspiration for blog posts
Another way of repurposing social media updates is to use them for your blog content.
For example, maybe you asked a question that generated a ton of responses from your audience - could that be used as the basis of a blog post? Chances are, since so many people showed their interest in that update, it would also make for a popular blog post.
Another way to use popular social media updates on your blog is to create a case study - tell the story of your popular social media campaign and the results it's generated, and incorporate the updates in your post.
4. Re-use popular social media visual content on your blog or website
You probably invest a lot of resources into creating visual content for your social accounts: images, videos and so on. Instead of using them once and forgetting about them, try incorporating them into your blog or website.
If you've created a popular video, for example, you could also embed it on your blog, as a blog post. Or, if you've created any great images, perhaps they can be used in future blog posts - or, as I mentioned in my previous point, they could also be used as inspiration for a future blog post, where you can also incorporate the images.
5. Repurpose your videos by turning them into shorter videos
Have you created any videos? Another way of repurposing videos instead of re-posting them on other social networks or on your blog, is to turn your videos into multiple short videos, of a maximum of 30 seconds, and then posting them in order on your social profile.
Although videos are very popular on social media right now, most people won't want to watch videos that are too long.
On the other hand, a short, under 30-second video - especially one that can be understood even without the sound on - can drive a lot more engagement and views.
Take a look at all the different videos you've created over the years and simply start chopping them up and reposting them - make sure, however, that the videos still make sense when shortened.
Conclusion
Just like with other types of content, you should always look for ways of repurposing your best, most successful social media updates. You spend time and money creating these, so it makes sense to milk them for all they're worth.
Take a look at your social media analytics regularly and make a note of your best performing content, then, look for ways to repurpose those updates, so that you can extend upon that initial success.
Do you repurpose your social media content? And if so, how?
Main image via Tom Hilton/Flickr