How to repurpose content

Repurposing content means recycling your content and packaging it up in different formats, such as a blog post, a tweet, a LinkedIn post, or a press release. The aim is to reach new audiences again and again using the same content.

 

For busy communications teams, this is a great way to maximise the content you produce while saving you time. Coming up with new stories all the time for social media and blog posts can be overwhelming – particularly when you’re overstretched.

 

Presenting your content in different ways increases your chances of getting more people to see it – who might never have found it – and reinforces your key messages.

 

An article on Forbes says that consistently posting content will help your audience to see you as a leader in your area of work. “Keeping a consistent posting schedule for your marketing content allows you to develop an audience that sees you as a leader and news source in your industry. There’s no guarantee that they will actually see content when it’s only posted once.”

 

Below we explore some tips for effectively repurposing your charity’s content.

 

 

Reuse old blog posts

 

Go through your blog archive to see if you can reuse them. Buffer says to think about which content is evergreen – content that stays relevant and is of high quality and drives traffic to your website.

 

The software app says: “Check your site analytics to see what posts have performed best in the past month and the past year. When looking at your monthly report, keep an eye out for top content that was published before the start date of your report, like a January post topping the charts of your March content.”

 

Think about how you can update old content and tie it in with current news stories to make it relevant to the present time.

 

 

Make the most of your annual report

 

Producing an annual report takes time and effort, so it makes sense to reuse the content elsewhere. Here are some ways to do this:

• Any numbers and statistics that you share about your work could be turned into infographics to use on social media and websites
• Stories from the people you support could be turned into videos, images with accompanying quotes and short animations to use on other communications channels. For example, on social media, in email marketing and on your website

 

 

Turn research findings into blog and social posts

 

If your policy colleagues have produced a research report, consider turning the most important findings into graphics for social media. You can also write a blog post to talk about the research.

 

 

Use existing content for your regular newsletter

 

If you produce an online newsletter for supporters or other key audiences, there are plenty of sources to turn to. You can use content from blog posts and link to them to help drive traffic to your website. You could also share some of the information you’ve recently posted on social media.

 

 

Break down long-form content for social

 

If you have a long piece of content, think about breaking it down into short bite-sized content for social media. For example, taking extracts of a long video on YouTube to use on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram. You could also take key messages from presentations and long blogs and turn them into social media posts.

 

 

Creating videos from written content

 

Consider turning key findings from a research report or a blog topic into a video. This is a great way to reach new audiences who may not have the time to read long-form content, such as a report.

 

 

Tips for repurposing content

 

Before you start repurposing content, make sure you consider the following:

• Decide which communications channels you want to focus on. It’s not possible to be on every social media channel You need to know which channels your key audiences use
• Put together a social media calendar so you can plan when you’ll post your content. This will help you to stagger content and remember when to post a story
• Invest in tools to help you repurpose your content. For example, Canva to create graphics for social media and Adobe Premier Pro for video editing
• Use a social media scheduling management tool to repurpose your content on different platforms
• Keep track of which content is performing best, so you know which stories to reuse in your communications
• Have your end goal in mind when planning and creating content and think about how your charity will get the most value from it. This will make it easier to repurpose content