I would be lying if I said creating quality content doesn’t require a lot of time.
“Uploading a new blog every week? And all those Instagram and LinkedIn posts, too? Ain’t nobody got time for that.” I would be lying if I said creating quality content (content that is actually useful to you and your audience) doesn’t require a lot of time. A well-written blog will easily take up several hours of your life, and that’s without the time spent on the accompanying prep work and research.
However, something many entrepreneurs don’t seem to realise, is the recyclability of their content. Just try to imagine being able to reuse the same blog you wrote three weeks back. How great (and sustainable) is that?!
Keep in mind that recycling content doesn’t equal simply republishing the exact same blog, since that would fall under duplicate content, which could quite negatively affect your ranking in Google. Better options would be to touch up old content or to use parts of your already existing content on other social media platforms.
Ready to get to work? In this blog, I’ll be sharing 4 ways to revive your old content. Let’s get to it!
1. Blog to Instagram
As we all know, Instagram is all about visual content. The captions, however, allow for quite a bit of written content. Not entire novels worth of text, of course, but a couple highlights from your latest blog or maybe a short summary.
2. Blog to podcast
Audio content is hot. If audio content was a dish at your local Thai restaurant, their menu would surely warn you about its hotness by adding four chillies next to the dish’s name. Personally, I consume humongous amounts of written content (even the very hungry caterpillar’s appetite has got nothing on my craving for words), but from time to time, I like to just listen to something. While on a walk, for instance, or while doing the dishes.
And I’m not alone in this.
Audio content has a bright future ahead of it, partially due to the rise of 4G and online streaming services. Listening to content on demand has become a lot easier than in previous years and while written content is still essential in terms of generating SEO traffic, audio content as a marketing tool can no longer be considered as merely an “extra option”. Recycling existing written content for audio content purposes can be an excellent first step if you’re new to making audio content.
3. LinkedIn to blog to newsletter to…
LinkedIn is a great way to stay informed about others’ current activities, but you can also use it as part of your marketing strategy. I can imagine you’re thinking: “Well, duh. But what does that have to do with recycling content?” Well, my esteemed and mildly impatient reader, I was getting to that. LinkedIn is an ideal environment for collecting content for your next blog or online newsletter (in case you don’t have the latter yet, be sure to have a look at this blog).
Right, back to LinkedIn.
I would like to share a wonderful example of recycling content that I stumbled upon while reading Ann Handley’s blog. Shame on you if you weren’t familiar this inspiring woman yet. Ann is not only a talented writer and online marketeer, she also has an amazing sense of humour.
A few weeks ago, Ann asked her followers which habits they plan to keep post-COVID-19. She then used the responses in a blog on her website and in her online newsletter ‘Total Annarchy’. Pretty nifty, right?
Of course, it’s still all about adjusting your content in order to fit the communication medium you’re using: make your newsletter worthwhile by adding a few personal touches, or start your blogs by referring to your LinkedIn page.
Little effort, big payoff.
4. Blog to tweet
Twitter’s main motto is “keep it short”. Or “be concise”, whatever floats your boat. Consequently, writing a tweet shouldn’t take too much time. Just have a look at your blog. I’d be willing to bet there’s a tweet-worthy morsel in there somewhere: a fun quote, a useful tip or maybe just a simple link to the blog in question. Easy peasy.
It goes to show that recycling content pays off. The exact way it pays off is up to you: more time available for other tasks, less stress about constantly creating new content, you name it.
Have fun with recycling your content!