We know that crafting quality content takes time. We get it. We do! We know all about the hours spent, the editing, the research, the drafts, the image search only to start all over again with another topic. Then what? It is entirely possible to keep your content working hard, by transforming your long-form blog articles into high-quality, digestible social media updates. Considering that 93% of customers expect companies to have a presence on social media, blogs present a unique repurposing opportunity for your business to reach target audiences across all social platforms while keeping your brand top of mind. Today, we’ll be discussing how to best repurpose your blog posts to drive success across all social media platforms, ensuring your content continues to work for you long after you hit ‘Publish’. First, let’s discuss three key benefits your business can gain from repurposing that awesome work:
Why Should I Repurpose Content?
- Reach and Engage a New Audience: Remember that everyone consumes information differently. Some people prefer to learn through video, or infographics, while others lean towards long-form content. Something your business published six months ago may not be as discoverable to new followers. Repurposing blogs into various forms of media can help expand your brand’s efforts and messaging to members of your target audience.
- Improve Your Organic Reach: With organic reach becoming increasingly difficult for brands and businesses alike to master, splicing your long-form content into easily consumed, high-quality tidbits across social platforms gives your work more opportunities to show up in search engines and social feeds, improving the likelihood that others will link to your article which can vastly improve your organic reach. One study from BrightEdge found that organic search holds a 51% share among traffic sources, which means you’re ensuring a significant lift in organic traffic and visibility by repurposing optimized content in various forms. Not to mention that creating new assets around evergreen or high performing content increases social sharing capabilities.
- Work Smarter, Not Harder: Many marketing teams are constantly compelled to craft something completely original for their brand, each and every time. That can be exhausting in time, energy and resources. Enter repurposing: reusing kick-ass content (in unique ways) gives your business a chance to cross-promote, reach an entirely new audience, and increase ROI. It’s not ‘lazy’, it’s a smart tactic to put your great content to work for you!
You and your team do not need to create day in and day out – by repurposing evergreen content for social media short form posts you are getting the high-quality work that you’ve already done into the hands of more people. Let’s talk how.
What Content Should Be Repurposed?
Evergreen
This term refers to assets created that have longevity to them, with takeaways that are just as relevant and true today as yesterday (and the day before, and the day before). Evergreen content is a heavy hitter, it will continue to work hard for you long after you publish it. A great way to identify true evergreen work is to ask yourself whether the content is tied to a season, an update, a recent event, or even a short-lived pop culture event. If so, chances are those references will date it. Evergreen is timeless and continually fresh.
Popular Posts
You can better identify what pieces of content racked up the most visits by taking a look at specific metrics through your site’s Google Analytics. Pay attention to views, time on site, and social engagement. Your most popular posts are most likely also chock full of information – key takeaways, statistics, and call outs that are just waiting to be turned into tweets or infographics, etc. Keep in mind that this isn’t a popularity contest: repurposing also provides a great opportunity to revamp a particular post that maybe missed the mark, with valuable data or new trends to improve visibility.
Outdated Content
Content feeling a little stale? Maybe it didn’t perform as well the first time you hit publish or maybe it did, but it’s simply outdated. Our industry changes constantly, but it doesn’t mean that all of the information found within an older post is completely irrelevant today! Don’t ignore this opportunity to create further value from this piece.
Once you’ve identified the pieces you’d like to reuse for short-form social media posts, you are ready to start outlining key takeaways from each post. Think: statistics, quotes, surprising statements and even passages that boil down to the core message. With each blog you’ve selected, we recommend noting at least five reasons you think it will spark with your audience, to ensure you use the language required to resonate!
Give Your Pieces New Life On Social
We know that repurposing a 1,500-word post into eye-popping, attention-grabbing social media updates seems a bit overwhelming. Remember that you are simply breaking down big ideas into smaller, more easily-digestible bits of information to reach your audience online. Now that we’ve discussed the what and why, let’s tackle the how, with ways you can repurpose different forms of content for reuse across your social media channels.
Create a Graphic
With so much content published daily, it’s easier than ever for your work to get lost in the digital abyss. Sigh. Fortunately, adding a visual aid or component to your post or piece can help increase its visibility. In fact, Facebook posts with images see 2.3x more engagement than those without, and tweets with images receive 150% more retweets when compared to those without. Identify your strongest how-to tips, data, quotes or statistics that, when showcased in an eye-catching graphic will hook your audience and draw them into your work.
For example, if we were creating a graphic to go alongside this post in particular, we would choose to create a handful featuring surprising statistics or tips for easy social sharing, then either sharing them with a link or posing them alongside a thought-provoking question that would encourage our ideal audience to click through to our content. Consider creating a graphic or visual component to be shared across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
Tools to Use: Over (for mobile only), Snappa, Canva
Create an Infographic
Infographics are in, and with good reason, they allow readers to consume content in a quick, visual way. Since 1,500-word chunks aren’t exactly highly shareable (or scannable, for that matter) infographics are ideal for social. They’re visually appealing, totally engaging and a great way to repurpose a blog post that is focused on data and statistics. Infographics give you the ability to simplify a more complex concept or post, bringing your topic to life in a way that is easily shared across multiple platforms. Consider creating infographics to be shared across Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Google+.
Blog to Video
If you’ve been paying attention these last few months, you know that video resigns supreme on social. With one-third of online activity spent watching video and 45% of people watching more than an hour of Facebook or Youtube videos each week, we don’t see that changing any time soon. Better still, video drives shares and social engagement in an unparalleled way. Your video should highlight the key points from your content, summarizing ideas, tips, and tricks. Again, if there is a blog post that is longer form, consider creating a video series out of it rather than just one. Short, concise videos tend to get the most leverage! You’ll get more content and exposure this way.For this post, we could create a video (or even video series) covering the best content to repurpose, the tools and tips needed to do so with the best of ‘em, and how to optimize your efforts for each social media platform. We would reference this blog and encourage viewers to click for even more information found here.
Tools to Use: Animoto
Post to Series
This strategy is ideal for those pieces that are particularly lengthy. By slicing all of that quality content into smaller posts, you can create a themed series that targets a specific concern or interest of your ideal audience.
Live Videos
Engagement, now more so than ever, is crucial for brand awareness and success. Facebook and Instagram both have their own live platforms, drawing users in with broadcasts happening in real time. Better yet, Q&A’s are an awesome way to get your audience engaging with you on social media, in real time. Consider using one of this channels to answer questions your blog post may have inspired.
Slideshare
Slideshare is the YouTube of slide sharing websites, with the largest presentation sharing community on the internet. It essentially allows you to upload a file (PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote, OpenDocument presentations) to be viewed on the site itself, or embedded on other sites, with over 70 million users. We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet: Slideshare is a total goldmine for SEO, with massive user-generated content. Consider creating a presentation around a blog that gives readers valuable insights and industry-specific information, making sure your audience see’s the great value. Be sure to include keywords, clickable links, and a clear call to action.
Tools to Use: Slideshare
Publish an Update
Here is where that outdated content comes to play. Say that you wrote a killer piece on Facebook’s latest algorithm update, but months later, Zuckerberg’s latest tweaks left your content completely stale. Consider publishing a new blog post with a ‘refreshed’ version of the same content, tweaking it until it offered increased, relevant, timely value to your audience.
Best Practices For Social Platforms
You’ve identified your golden-goose content, you’ve outlined your takeaways, you’ve decided on a graphic, a video, or even a Slideshare. Now what? You need some best practices to keep in mind when posting on the various platforms for optimal social sharing success!
No matter what format you decided to create for repurposing, your goal is still to drive your audience back to your site. Drafting a social media post that references each blog’s hook, draws viewers in, and encourages them to click is key! Remember to focus on why the blog post you’re linking to should and will matter to your viewers so that you can ensure what you are writing resonates. Consider adding a hook that raises a question in the reader’s mind that your blog will, in turn, answer. Your post can hint at the solution that can be found within your blog, prompting your audience to engage. Sharing a strong, surprising statistic, statement, visual or quote alongside a hint at the value in your linked blog is a recipe for success.
Keywords found within your blog should also be found within your social post, to further highlight focus. For Facebook, avoid hashtags but consider turning keywords into hashtags for social sharing on sites like Instagram or Twitter.
While Twitter has upped their character limit, you still don’t have much wiggle room, so consider being as concise as possible while still delivering value. You could showcase a fact, quote or how-to tip in graphic form using Twitter cards, linking back to your post. Consider turning keywords into hashtags, and tagging sources used or mentioned within the blog for maximum visibility.
This platform isn’t just ideal for infographics, curated content, or high-res photos. Instagram’s multi-image posts are a unique way to visually showcase a step-by-step tutorial, allowing the user to swipe through while encouraging them to check out your blog for more! This format allows you to tell a sequential story, posting up to 10 photos or videos in one post, offering the most value. Remember that most people scroll through their Instagram feeds, quickly. Whether you decide to let your created content speak for itself or go longer-form with your caption, be sure to convey your key point or call to action right away, as captions are cut off in user’s feeds after just a few lines.
While what goes into a great Instagram caption will depend on your industry and target audience, hashtags bring benefit to all. When used properly, they can get more eyes on your content overall. Select hashtags that are relevant to your brand and post, but don’t go too crazy. Ideally, keep your amount of hashtags between 7-10 and include them below the caption, in the comment section to avoid cluttering your copy.
Quick Guidelines
Facebook: Videos, curated content, images, infographics. No hashtags, but tag resources mentioned within blog.
Instagram: High-res photos, quotes, videos. Use 7-10 relevant hashtags within comment section, not actual copy.
Twitter: Quotes, statistics, infographics. Use Twitter cards and shortened links to drive traffic.
Pinterest: Infographics
Conclusion
When it comes to repurposing your blog content into social posts, your goal remains the same as the day you sat down to write it: provide optimal value for your audience. Your blogs provide great insights, key takeaways, and informative how-to tips that are ideal for promoting your brand across social media – giving your readers that many more opportunities to find you, engage, and ultimately, convert.
Want to up your social media game even more? C-Thru Media can help with that. Contact us today to find out how!
