Repurpose your post to make your blog work for your business. When people tell me that blogging isn't worth the effort, I know they haven't been repurposing.
The trick to making blogging easy and productive is to work in the way that works for you. If you think best on the page, start with a blog post and then repurpose. If you think best through speaking, start with a social media live (on your platform of choice) or podcast episode and then pull the transcript to turn it into a blog and more.
Either way, you get your message out in multiple formats so it will reach more people - not everyone likes to consume content in the same format you do. For example, I almost never watch videos because I learn better through reading. I'm sure some of you love video and hate reading posts on social media.
For the examples I discuss below, I'm assuming your blog starts as a written text. As you read, remember that your blog could start as any of the things I discuss - a social media post, a newsletter, or a video.
How to repurpose your post for social media
Blog posts and social media work well together. Here are some ways to repurpose your blogs on social media:
- use excerpts from the post as the text for your social media post or a script for a short live video
- use the topics and some of the text in your Reels and Stories
- summarise the main points in a carousel post
- dig deeper into one of the points you made in your blog post in either a long social post or a live video
If you use some, or all, of these suggestions, you can easily share one blog post several times on social media in ways that look fresh and new. Also, each of these social posts can have a simple CTA (call to action): "Click the link in the comments to read more!"
This kind of repurposing goes both ways. This blog post, started as item 11 in a list of 25 reasons that you need a blog. I turned each item on that list into a social media post on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. I use those posts when I'm promoting my Entrepreneurs' Blogging Club taster sessions.
How to repurpose your post as a podcast episode and/or YouTube video
Using a blog post as a starting point for recording is great for those who get a bit nervous on camera. You don't have to worry about what you're going to say, because you've already spent a fair amount of time thinking about it.
There are a couple of things to remember:
- A blog post is a written text, obviously. That means it won't work as it is as a script. Why? Because some things that work in writing, work less well in spoken language. For example, bullet point lists rarely work when read aloud.
- Your podcast and/or YouTube audience want to feel like you're talking to them, not reading at them.
How do you avoid reading your post to your audience? Remember that you're repurposing the ideas, not the exact words. It helps if you don't have the post in front of you when you record - you can't read what you can't see.
Instead, read the whole post before you record and make a note of your main points - these are probably already highlighted in your subheadings! Use your list of points to keep you on track while you record.
Don't forget that repurposing goes both ways - if you have recordings on topics you haven't blogged about, you can pull the transcript (or use something like otter.ai to transcribe it) and turn that text into a post!
How to repurpose your blog post in your newsletter
I'm going to state the obvious again: newsletters aren't blog posts. People don't tend to expect newsletters to focus on a single topic for 1000 words or more.
So how do you repurpose your post as a newsletter? You can use one longish section of your post or two short sections as the starting point for your newsletter. Because my writing style in my blogs is fairly conversational, I don't tweak it much in my newsletter.
I make sure to remove any mentions of previous posts or reword them and include links to the posts. I also break up any longer paragraphs - a lot of emails get read on phones, you don't want your newsletter to look like a wall of text that feels hard to read.
Since you probably won't use the whole blog post in the news letter, you can get 2 or 3 newsletters from a single post!
I mentioned above that this post started as an item in a lead magnet and a social media post. I then turned the social media post into a newsletter, and it's now a blog post! Click this link if you want to see the newsletter version.
I know people worry about being repetitive when they repurpose content - those of you who follow me on social media, receive my newsletter, and read my blog posts will know that I don't just go on and on about repurposing content. Though you might feel like you talk about a single topic a lot - your audience won't see it that way. No one sees every piece of content you put out!
How to repurpose your blog post by republishing it
Finally, if you do it right, republishing your posts is a great way to get them in front of more people.
What do I mean by 'do it right'? You need to tell Google which version is most important so you don't get penalised for the duplication. This article from LinkedIn explains what you need to know to safely repurpose your posts as LinkedIn Articles.
Another great place to republish your posts is Medium, This article includes the links you'll need to tell Google your website is the original (most important) source, while this one discusses the benefits of republishing to Medium.
I hope this post gives you lots of ideas for how to repurpose your blog posts! Also, look out for future versions of what I've written here - I've already got plans for breaking it up into social media posts, newsletters, ...