The voracious beast that is your online marketing needs to be fed constantly with fresh and engaging content. Your website, your blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, articles, and so on…
Don’t say it! – I know – it’s a problem.
I mean, who is that prolific or creative, especially when juggling a 24/7 business and a home life? Who has the time?
Relax. Here’s the secret – not everything needs to be new. In fact, re-purposing your existing or fresh content is the perfect way to extend your reach – allowing you to turn a single blog post, for example, into a multi-channel marketing opportunity.
Listen to Your Customers
The key to successfully repurposing your content is understanding your target audience. Each of your potential channels (website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others) may have a slightly different audience. The Facebook crowd might be a different audience from the others; LinkedIn connections might tend towards the professional; your website might attract more retail visitors than B2B clients. Understanding who connects with your business through each of its marketing channels is critical, because you’ll be repurposing your original piece using the needs of each channel.
How Can I Re-use Content on Facebook?
A single article or blog post 400–1000 words long makes for great Facebook material. Here is one path you can take. Let’s say you own a retail appliance store. A blog post entitled “Five Things to Consider When Purchasing a Refrigerator” offers up plenty of repurposing options. If you post your article or blog entry on Monday, for instance, then Monday’s Facebook post could be a mention that, “this week, we’re tackling buying a refrigerator in our blog. Learn five ways to choose a refrigerator quickly and easily.”
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, you can extract a single-topic paragraph from the article for your Facebook posts. Each post could be a single bullet or feature. “When purchasing refrigerators, remember: energy efficiency counts! Your fridge accounts for up to 20% of the energy you use at home, so make sure you select an ENERGY STAR or similarly-related product.”
Friday is a great day to sum up the article on Facebook. You can also offer a link to something that relates to your article. You might offer a web- or social media-only special discount. Remember to engage your reader and invite them to comment.
How Do I Repurpose Content for Twitter?
What holds true for converting your blog posts or articles to Facebook holds true again as you further shorten your posts for Twitter. With Twitter, you only have 140 characters – including spaces! – and you need to remember to leave enough room in your post for others to comment as they re-tweet your content. Be sure to use a free site like bit.ly (http://bitly.com/) to shorten your links for you.
For instance, your Facebook post of:
“When purchasing refrigerators, remember: energy efficiency counts! In fact, your fridge accounts for up to 20% of the energy you use at home! That’s why it’s best to make sure any new appliances you choose are ENERGY STAR-rated. http://bit.ly/ABCdE”
might become:
“Refrigerator shopping? Energy efficiency counts. Fridge=20% of your home’s electricity. Choose ENERGY STAR! http://bit.ly/ABCdE”
Make Your Content Work Smarter and Harder
So the silver lining is that one single short blog post can give you five or more Facebook posts and five or more Tweets!
Repurposing your content saves time and allows you to stay in front of potential customers in many channels with relevant content.
Have you tried re-purposing your content or are you struggling to produce all-new information all of the time?