CONTENT MARKETING SHORTCUTS: Recycling Content
Recycling waste might save the planet, but recycling content will save you both time and money.
Content marketing takes time and effort, but when you are busy running a business, every minute counts.
Last month, we looked at how instead of creating content, you could save time by curating content instead, to achieve many of the same goals.
This time around, we’re going to talk about recycling. It’s not just good for the planet – it’s good for your business too!
Once you’ve gone to the time and effort of creating a shiny new piece of content and sharing it with your audience, you can re-purpose it and re-use it.
Re-purposing & Recycling – not just for grandma!
Back in the Great Depression, my grandma was a dressmaker with expertise in re-purposing and recycling. She could refashion and recycle a favourite old dress into:
- a completely different style of dress;
- an apron;
- tea-towels;
- a shirt or dress for her children;
- a rag doll;
- placemats;
- or patches for a quilt, to name just a few.
These days, I like to do the same – only my skills are in recycling content, rather than clothes.
Ideas for Recycling Content
And it’s the same with your best content. You can re-release it, perhaps as an updated version, or in a completely different format. If you’re not sure what that might look like, here are some ideas:
- Turn a blog post into a podcast;
- A Facebook status update could also be Tweeted;
- A series of blog posts could become a free e-book, which you offer as an incentive for signups to your email list. I collated half a dozen blog posts from my own website into a guide called “What Every Business Owner Should Know About SEO“.
- A Powerpoint presentation from a speech, could be released as a video on Youtube or your website.
I’ve found that the people that follow along on one social media channel (eg Twitter), often don’t spend much time on others (eg Facebook), so you may as well spread your content around.
Sometimes, you don’t even have to re-fashion your content before you re-use it!
Why Recycling Content on Social Media is a Good Idea
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to have your content seen by your followers on certain social media channels.
If you share something on Facebook for example, chances are only 2% of your followers will actually see it.
While as business owners we could whinge and complain about the poor organic reach (and we often do!), we could look on the bright side – there’s nothing to stop us from using that piece of content again after six weeks, six months, or six years – so long as it’s still timely and relevant.
When it comes to content marketing, recycling gives you increased reach, with less time and effort.
