How to repurpose and refresh your social media content

Using social media is one of the best ways of building a brand for your small business on the internet, but it can often be difficult to come up with fresh ideas for new content.

Of course, combining your content marketing strategy with your social media strategy will provide you with a regular flow of new blog posts to promote, but the ongoing task of keeping your channels up to date with new and original content can be a challenge.

One great way of reducing the amount of time you spend on social media but keep your profiles active and present is to repurpose and refresh your social media content.

After all, you’ve already done the hard work by creating original content that you think your customers will love, so why not use it in new and exciting ways to keep them engaged?

What is “repurposing” content?

In simple terms, repurposing content is using existing content and putting a fresh spin on to it.

So, if you posted an infographic on your website, for example, you could repurpose this content by cutting it into manageable chunks and posting on Instagram and Twitter.

By doing so, you’ll open your content up to new audiences and have something original to post on your profile that will boost your brand and increase your engagement levels.

Tip 1: Snip infographics into bite-sized social posts

Infographics are one of the most popular forms of content marketing, and they’re easy to make when you use tools like Venngage.

But after you’ve published your infographic and shared it with influencers in your network, it probably sits there without doing much else.

To help your infographic travel further, consider snipping it into bite-sized posts that you can use on social media.

Visual content on social media is much more effective than text and link-based posts, with infographics liked and shared on social media three times more than any other content.

Of course, you could post your infographics in full on social media, but this doesn’t make for good user experience and usually means that your audience has to scroll and pinch to see what you have to say.

Repurposing your infographics for social media by snipping takes no time at all and can help you communicate key messages about your industry and research.

Here’s an example of how Growth Hackers repurposed our benefits of content marketing infographic on Twitter.

Tip 2: Sign up for new social networking sites

If you want to help your content travel further, then consider signing up for new social networking sites to promote your business and help you get more out of your hard work. Most small business owners stick to Twitter and Facebook, but sites like Instagram and Pinterest can be just as effective if used correctly.

Posted images from your last event or your latest product releases? Repurpose them and create boards on Pinterest or use filters on Instagram to create attractive calls to action.

Remember that every social networking platform is different, and consider how you can use the same content in different ways on each of the platforms for maximum engagement.

Tip 3: Create visual content from your blog posts

If content marketing is your thing, then you probably have a whole host of blog posts that you’re proud of. And linking to those blog posts in your social media posts is fine, but what if there was a better way to promote your content and produce something original for social?

Use Canva or download Photoshop to create your own quote images, memes, GIFs and other content from your blog posts to hook your audience and send them to your site.

Graphics on social media can increase the comprehension, recollection and retention of your marketing messages, helping you to connect to your audience and make your social media platforms more attractive.

And, when compared to text, tweets with images receive more than 150% more engagement, so it makes sense to visualise your blog posts for an audience already exposed to thousands of videos, images and other multimedia content.

Tip 4: Piggyback on media and cultural events

If you’ve been managing your social media handles for a while, then the chances are that you will have dabbled in graphics and video content to add something new.

Make sure that you keep this content to hand so that you can pull it out whenever you need to – especially in the case of piggybacking on media and cultural events like TV shows, news and trends.

If you run a bakery, for example, and there’s a new episode of The Great British Bake Off, then reuse photography and graphics that you have published in the past to engage new customers and keep your channels up to date. You could even refresh the content you’ve uploaded in the past by adding Bake Off logos, turning a series of images into a GIF or publishing video content after episodes air.

It’s important that you keep up to date on trends and news not only in your own industry but in industries that you can piggyback and exploit.

Children’s nurseries, for example, will want to stay in the loop on all things education and child care and repurpose existing blog posts and visual content if any relevant stories hit the headlines.

Keep your eye’s peeled on Twitter Trends and the news so that you don’t miss out. 

Tip 5: Reusing content without making changes

As well as repurposing and refreshing your content to keep it up to date, you can also reuse your existing content multiple times.

Research suggests that organic reach for the average Facebook post has dropped from 16% to just 6.5% between 2012 and 2014, and again by 52% in 2016, meaning fewer and fewer people are exposed to your new content the first time it’s published.

Of course, you can use Facebook Ads to boost the visibility of your new content, but when you have a limited marketing budget, this isn’t always a feasible option.

With both research and hard data demonstrating the decline of organic reach in social media posts, there’s never been a better time to reuse your existing content to increase your chances of reaching more people.

If you post a new blog on a Monday, for example, then consider scheduling social media posts throughout the week at different times to capture your audience’s attention. If your post is evergreen, then you could even schedule posts well into the future to keep eyeballs coming back to your website.

Tools like Hootsuite and Buffer can be used to schedule posts, but new management tools such as Meet Edgar will automatically repost your existing content again and again to boost engagement and ensure that customers are exposed to your brand as often as possible.

Wrapping Up

Managing social media platforms for your small business can often feel like you’re keeping up with the Joneses, but it’s easy to repurpose and refresh your content for different audiences.

Whether you’re just starting out on your social networking journey or you’re a pro when it comes to Facebook and Snapchat, remember that original content is king.

Whenever you reuse a graphic or blog post that you’ve posted before, be sure to add an original caption or identifier so that your audience doesn’t feel like they’re being spammed with the same content over and over again.

Intelligent repurposing is the best way to maximise the effectiveness of your campaign while keeping your channels refresh and up-to-date. Good luck.