How can you reach more people with your content? How can you ensure more people consume it? Can you get more value from the content you create? You can when you repurpose your content.
You’ve written a great blog post, you poured your heart and soul into it, you researched, you edited, you SEOd the hell out of it. You post it to social media and that’s it, it’s gone in a flash.
It doesn’t have to be that way. You can give your posts extra life and reach more people when you repurpose your content. I’m going to show you 10 ways that you can repurpose both blog posts and other content you may create for your business.
Listen below and discover how to repurpose your blog content and reach a wider audience:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
What does repurposing mean?
Niti Shah describes repurposing In a post on the Hubspot blog as:
“When you repurpose a piece of content […] you’re doing one of two things (or both): changing the format of the content, and/or changing the target audience for the content.”
Essentially it’s taking one piece of content and turning it into something else.
Why?
One thing I’ve learned as a trainer is that different people learn in different ways and the same is true for content. Some people prefer to read, others want visual content, some will like to listen to a podcast or watch a video. Repurposing helps you reach all these people and provide them with content that works for them.
10 ways to repurpose content
There are tonnes of ways you can repurpose your content both on and offline. Here’s my top 10.
1. Convert your professional presentations into blog posts
If you create presentations for work, if you speak at events use this content as the basis of blog posts. Select key images and points from your presentation and write them up in a post.
If you are speaking at an event, aim to have these published by the time you walk off stage, this means you can point people at your post and engage with them immediately.
2. Convert your blog posts into SlideShare content
Slideshare is the YouTube of powerpoint presentations. I used to use it to share the slides from workshops but I found that there was little value for the reader in this. My slides don’t make sense alone, they need to be accompanied by me.
Now I condense presentation to a few slides, each one telling a story on its own, without the need of a voice over or presenter.
Look at your blog posts, is there one, like the one you are reading now that could be broken down into images and short snippets of text? If so try creating a PowerPoint of it and upload it to Slideshare.
A good Slideshare post will drive a lot of views. For example in 2012, I presented to the local chamber of commerce. The topic was digital trends to look out for in 2013
I created a blog post from my speech and put the images and concepts together into a presentation for SlideShare.
To date, the SlideShare has had almost 2,000 views and the blog post just 365.
3. Convert quotes from your blogs into shareable images
Quotes make highly shareable content. I grab quotes from books, podcasts and blog posts and share them weekly alongside an image on Facebook and Instagram. It’s always a bonus when I can create these from my own content.
Here’s one I created from my recent podcast recording with Ian Cleary.
Once you have a bank of quote images you can put them together into a SlideShare post or even a video. Which brings me on to topic number 4.
4. Convert your SlideShare or quote photos into a video
Create a video from images you have created or taken. This can be a great way to tell a story, perhaps you could take photos of people at work in your business or a day at a conference.
You could also pull together the quote images you created above into a video.
I use Flipagram on my mobile to create slideshow videos from photos on my phone. Here’s one I made on a recent trip to the Sage headquarters in Newcastle.
https://www.instagram.com/p/-j21c5y3jg/
Facebook business pages let you create short videos from images now too. You can add up to 7 and it’ll make a slideshow of them for you.
5. Create a podcast of your blog posts
I am a big fan of the CopyBlogger blog, a while ago they started adding more podcast content to the site. I do love podcasts but I’d still be disappointed when I arrived on the site not expecting a podcast. There wasn’t much reading material to accompany the audio so I’d leave.
When I started podcasting I didn’t want to disappoint my readers so I’ve always tried to include value in the show notes. Over time, the length of the show notes has increased to almost full blog length.
So I’m repurposing my podcasts as blog posts but you can do the reverse. Choose a blog post and record an audio version of it. Create a podcast on iTunes, Stitcher or SoundCloud and you’ll be reaching a larger audience straight away. You’ll also be giving your readers more options and more ways to consume your content.
6. Create a PDF of your blog post for downloading
I’ve seen Ian Cleary of RazorSocial do this on his blog. Not only is it a great way to get people who like a physical object to read your posts but it gives you the opportunity to get them into your sales funnel by asking for an email address.
7. Create videos from tutorials
Tutorials are often the most popular posts on my blog. Text isn’t always the easiest way of explaining how to do something. You can take photos of each step, add them to your post and you can create a video showing how it is done.
I find offering both a written and photographic tutorial alongside a video works best. Once you have the video you can upload it to YouTube, Facebook and embed it in your site.
8. Turn a SnapChat story into a video
Your Snapchat story may disappear within 24 hours but sometimes those stories are worth keeping and sharing beyond your SnapChat audience. If you create something that you want to keep, download your story from the day, edit it and create a video for YouTube or Facebook from it.
Here’s one I created from a snapstory about EdBallsDay.
9. Create an infographic covering key points from your blog
If you’ve done a lot of research for a post, if you’ve discovered lots of statistics or conducted a survey you can turn it into an Infographic.
Pull out the key statistics and learnings and use a tool like Piktochart to pull them together into a graphic.
10. Create an ebook from a collection of blog posts
If you have a series of popular blog posts on a specific topic consider pulling them together and creating an eBook. This will help you gain new subscribers.
I just picked up Beacon, a WordPress plugin for creating eBooks from blog posts. I’m planning an eBook on Facebook competitions. I’ll let you know how I get on.
Challenge
This weeks challenge is to:
- Find 3 blog posts that you can repurpose
- Use the techniques above to create a new piece of content from them.
If you create something as a result I’d love to see it so leave me a comment below, Tweet me @spiderworking or snap me @spiderworking
If you enjoy this podcast please leave me a review on or or let me know about your blog in the comments below.
Do Facebook ads make you tear your hair out? Let us manage your Facebook ads for you. We'll save you time and improve results. Get A Quote Now.
