3 Tips for Repurposing Your Old Content

BY TOMMY MORGAN

Content is everything in today’s social media landscape. 

Whether a long-form contributed article or timely news post, well-executed social content can have a significant positive impact on your organization’s success. 

We live in an information-cluttered world where practically everyone has a platform to project his or her voice and opinions—and standing out is harder than ever. Communications professionals must understand how to ideate, develop and optimize the content they’re building for the various purposes it serves. 

Rather than reinventing the wheel every single day, communicators lighten the load by repurposing. 

Repurposing means recreating

Repurposing does NOT mean copying and pasting content. Rather, repurposing is about bringing a fresh take to content that hasn’t worked in the past because it’s outdated no longer relevant. 

Here are three tips for repurposing content: 

1. Be creative.

Repurposing opens the door to a number of potential pieces of content. Why not take old social media posts and create a video highlighting your key messages? Another option could be publishing a collection of long-form writing into an e-book. 

Whatever your goals, repurposing can allow you to create a variety of content to engage your target audiences. You already have the materials available and a frame of reference for how the content will be used; recycling old materials for a new purpose sets up a unique canvas to paint creative content. 

2. Cover all your channels.

When determining what content to resurrect, you must approach it with an integrated strategy in mind. 

From a PR perspective, consider how this message would resonate with your target audience or elevate your organization’s thought leadership. From a digital marketing perspective, what is the SEO impact of the content’s title? In terms of content marketing, what interviews can be leveraged to create blog content? These questions will help you outline the best strategy for repurposing a piece of content to reach and engage with your target audience. 

It’s important to remember that not every piece has to win a Pulitzer Prize. While producing polished content is important, as long as it’s fresh (i.e. not copied and pasted from somewhere else) and relevant (updated with new facts, research and information), then it gets the greenlight. Simple is often better. 

3. Uncover new audiences. 

How can your content attract new audiences? 

Engaging with media is one way. If you pitch a killer story idea and get interviews with some industry publications, you could revisit the story months later with a new hook or with a different perspective. You could attract journalists with different niches, reaching untapped target audiences. 

Effectively using social media is another fantastic way to find new audiences. Your organization can post on a new platform, generate content that adheres to the stories and formats that this new audience prefers, or employ paid social media tactics to get your message in font of new eyes 

Keep in mind that repurposing content cannot be done blindly. You must ensure that you bring a new perspective to whatever content you are repurposing. Failure to do so can cause your content to fall flat with readers, overwhelm them, or even turn them away.

This article originally appeared in the March 15, 2018 issue of Ragan’s PR Daily