Social media seems to get faster and faster as the days progress. Trying to keep up with content creation along with the general confusion of life can be difficult.
But why not make it easier for yourself by recycling some of the content you’ve already created?
This content could be blog posts, videos, podcasts – you name it. If you’ve created it, you can use it again.
Let’s break this up into a few steps:
- Long Form Content to Short Form Content
- Refreshing Short Form Content
- Short Form Content to Long Form Content
- Previously Unpublished Content
- For the Skim Readers
Long Form Content to Short Form Content
If you have a piece of long form content – maybe a blog post or YouTube video – you can break this up into multiple smaller pieces of content to spread across your platforms.
Each point you make in this long form piece of content can be made into its own post or highlight for social media. Maybe your blog post is 500 words – why not break up your blog post into 50 word excerpts to make some social media captions? That’s 10 captions you can mix or match with stock photos, quote graphics, or even simply thrown together Canva graphics.
Hint: For content repurposing it can be helpful to have a collection of graphic templates to mix and match so you’re not creating from scratch each time. Canva has loads of free templates that you can customise to your own tastes.
A few other ideas could include:
- Turning your blog post subheadings into a list graphic for Pinterest
- Extracting a few key points for a Twitter thread
- Creating an animated reel or TikTok highlighting a thoughtful quote
Once you have a “formula” for reshaping your content in this way, it’ll be even easier to do next time. It can be helpful to write down the steps you take so that you can quickly implement the same steps later. A simple checklist to follow can make a world of difference.
Refreshing Short Form Content
If you have loads of short form content, take a look back at your analytics and see which posts performed the best.
That post you did 3 months ago? Try reposting the caption again with a freshened up graphic. No one will remember exactly what you posted a few months – or even a few weeks – ago.
You can always rework the headline to test out different ways to grab your audience’s attention. Maybe adding a pop of colour with some emojis or experimenting with engagement questions versus bold statements.
Hint: While you’re freshening up some of your older posts – try adding them into a content bank to use again in the future. That way you’re organising your best content assets for easy reference later. This can be as simple as an Excel spreadsheet or Trello board that you can reference when you’re stuck on content ideas.
Short Form Content to Long Form Content
Another way to freshen up your short form content is to turn it into longer form content. Depending on your creative business, you probably speak about a few related topics online.
Group a few of these posts together to create a blog post. It may need a little bit of tweaking to smooth the edges together but it’s a great way to put together a blog post in a pinch.
You can even do the same by editing a few shorter videos together for YouTube or extracting the audio for a podcast. It doesn’t need to be perfect. People buy from people and the little imperfections can add a little bit of charm to your content.
Hint: When you’re planning out short form content, keep in mind your content pillars so that if you want to create longer form content in the future using what you’ve already made, you totally can.
Previously Unpublished Content
You likely get a lot of questions from clients or friends about what you do and how you can help. Take those frequently asked questions and turn them into captions for social media or group them together as a blog post or video script.
Using this method you don’t have to create a completely new content idea and you’re targeting your audience’s concerns as they’re all questions you’ve been asked before.
Hint: Whenever you get new questions from clients, store their questions and your answers in a spreadsheet to refer back to later when you need to start filling in your content calendar.
For the Skim Readers
Hello fellow skim reader. If you want to give your eyes a break, here is a summary to enjoy:
- Turn your long form content – blog posts, videos, or podcasts – into short form content by extracting key points into captions, quotes, or lists.
- Refresh your previously posted short form content by adding a new graphic, experimenting with the headline, or adding in colourful eye-catching emojis.
- Create blog posts, podcast or video scripts using your past social media captions by grouping together a few posts that cover the same or a similar topic.
- Use your previously unpublished content – like emails or FAQs on social media – to create posts for social media.
By following these tips and tricks you’ll be able to slow down how much fresh content you need to create for social media. Instead of creating something new everyday, create one great piece of content and drip it out in different ways over time.
