Consistently publishing great content is the key to growing and maintaining a satisfied audience. However, that gets harder the longer you stay in the game! After a while, you start to feel like you’ve said everything there is to be said and ideas don’t flow as freely as they used to.
But not all is lost!
This is where repurposing content comes in. Taking the time to repurpose content from your content archive can help you keep up with your audience’s demand for quality posts.
But what exactly is repurposing content, and how do you it without sounding like a broken record? Keep reading to find out more!
- How to repurpose content the right way
- Identifying content worth repurposing
- 5 ways to repurpose content you’ve shared in the past
- How to repurpose your old tweets
How to repurpose content the right way
When done right, repurposing content is the ultimate content hack. It allows you, your fans and your new audience members to draw new value from content you’ve shared in the past.
However, repurposing content is a lot more than just picking out an oldie from your archives and adding it your current content rotation. It’s about freshening up your content and making it relevant for the present moment!
That means you need to put in a little bit of work rather than simply copy and paste whatever old post you find. You need to be selective and inventive.
Identifying content worth repurposing
Not all content deserves to be repurposed: some things are better left gathering dust, either because they were only relevant when they came out, or they didn’t garner the results you were hoping for.
Below are some ideas on how you can find the gems worth adding a new spark to.
Evergreen content
Evergreen content is the prime source when repurposing content. As the name indicates, evergreen posts are those that will always stay green and fresh – they are always relevant because they share something that always holds true or is always worth thinking about.
If you have content that’s ever relevant in your archives, you should be thinking of ways to breathe new life into it and reshare it!
For example, why not turn an old blog post full of useful information into a booklet on fundamentals, or use it as the latest edition of your newsletter?
If you’re into video content and find an old video you made that could still be interesting today or even in 6 months, think about sharing important segments of it to various platforms, from TikTok to Instagram or YouTube to help you stretch your posting schedule.
Some of your classic video work might also benefit from an update or a second take with better video quality – don’t hesitate to polish up a good idea in order to reuse it and make it a staple of your output!
If there’s content in your archive that’s still relevant today and that you suspect will always resonate with people, dust it off, breathe some new life into it, and share it with the world again. Later still, you can reshare it again for your new followers to find it and to remind your audience of the great, super relevant content you’ve put out.
Timely content
Sometimes, content isn’t so much evergreen as it is timely. Trends come, go, and come again and content you thought no one would ever be interested in again could suddenly be all anyone can talk about!
Monitor the trends in your space to see when old content could possibly be making a comeback. This is particularly useful if your content isn’t heavily linked to time. Recent events can set the stage for throwback content you never thought you’d use again.
For instance, director of photography Devan Scott reshared his thread about digital cinematography from months prior when the online discourse returned to the topic again, and received 188 likes and 20 retweets: not bad!
Because there are a lot of takes flying around, I thought I'd re-up this thread from back in October about the nature of digital image formation and the way that digital cinematography and post-production actually play out artistically. https://t.co/Xtw8pr8ens
— Devan Scott (@SadHillDevan) March 3, 2023
What’s popular?
Your audience itself can tell you what they’re looking for and are interested in.
Checking your analytics data is a great way to find content to repurpose. Going through your YouTube channel or blog’s analytics could reveal that people are going through content you made a while back and enjoying it!
If you find that people are searching for content you shared a long time ago, that’s a great sign that repurposing related pieces of content will go over well with your audience: that old content has suddenly become popular, and you should bank on that!
You can also track search data with apps like BuzzSumo, SEMrush, Answer The Public, or simply Google can help you make data-driven decisions on content to repurpose. They can help you explore what keywords are being used a lot and which hashtags people are currently using, which can help you figure out what you should be reposting!
What needs an update?
Adding updates and fresh takes to content in your archive is another great way to repurpose content. The only thing that’s constant is change, so it’s very likely that your old thread or chart need some freshening up to stay relevant.
Adding new graphics, up-to-date links and information more in keeping with and useful for today is a great way to extend the lifespan of your content. If you’ve learned anything new since you first shared that post, or made predictions on trends and outcomes you expected, repurposing it with follow ups, updates and corrections should be on your to-do list!
Plus, it shows your audience that you hold yourself accountable and are always interested in learning and growing!
5 ways to repurpose content you’ve shared in the past
Making old content fresh and appealing should be part of any creators’ skillset. In essence, repurposing old content isn’t about adding filler to your content strategy – it’s about adding value and creating space for content your audience will benefit from seeing gain!
Below are some ways you could repurpose old content from your archive to reach even more people and never run out of posts to share:
Create new content
Sometimes the best way to recycle is to reinvent.
TV shows are a great example of how old content can spawn new, even better content. Take for instance how The Vampire Diaries gave rise to The Originals, and Legacies after that. Or how Frasier wouldn’t have existed without Cheers!
The same can be true for your content: you can build on old posts to create entirely new yet related posts! On top of making you post more, this method also allows you to show the progression of your thinking for your audience to follow along.
One way you could use this approach would be to look for content you shared that was thin on examples, or densely packed with info instead, and then create new pieces of content that either go into greater detail or break things down into more manageable and audience-friendly chunks.
Turn a blog post into a guide/info-product
Sometimes a blog post isn’t big enough for you to share as much information on a topic as you would have liked.
Since you have to put content out there, you should still publish the post, but that doesn’t have to be the end of the story.
You could combine and repurpose your old instructional posts into a full-fledged guide that explores everything you left out!
Repurposing an old blog post into a guide is a great way to add value to your existing content for your audience. And if it’s good enough, you can even charge for it (perhaps as an online course) or use it as a lead magnet for your premium offerings or email list!
Update and republish
Another easy way to repurpose old content is to simply update and republish it. If you’re in a fast moving niche, keeping up with the demand for useful content can be challenging, but updating the existing content you have can help you manage!
Review your content regularly to make sure it remains up to date – updating your old content will save you the trouble of creating all new content. Be sure to tell your audience every time you update your content so they know they can go over it again and to avoid them being surprised!
As an example, the film app Letterboxd updated its Top 50 Highest Rated Horror Films Directed by Women list and made a tweet about it for its followers to know.
UPDATED: Letterboxd’s Top 50 Highest Rated Horror Films Directed by Women. 🩸
What % have you seen? View the full list here: https://t.co/yc8OfhpYs6 pic.twitter.com/eUoy3S2eEQ
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) October 11, 2022
Explore a different medium
Exploring a topic using different media is a great way to repurpose content you’ve shared. If you’re a blogger, then doing a vlog on YouTube or recording a podcast allows you to maximize your ideas and expand your audience. Vice-versa, if you’re a YouTuber, then sharing your content to Instagram or TikTok will do the same for you!
Beyond just giving you breathing room, repurposing content is an awesome strategy for stretching yourself as a creator and discovering a new audience.
Who knows, you may even discover that another platform works better for you and decide to change your focus!
Turn an article into social media graphics/content
Repurposing content can be as simple as using Canva or an image editor to make quote graphics to share on Instagram, Pinterest or other similar platforms. Sharing poignant one-liners as tweets is also another great way to maximize how you use your existing content.
Turning your long-form content into easily digestible, visual content will increase your engagement and appeal to those members of your audience with shorter attention spans. Plus, research shows that content with visuals is much more successful than text-only content!
This is why Hypefury has come up with an amazing feature allowing you to turn your Twitter threads into an eye-catching LinkedIn carousel: your text becomes a series of cool images that users can swipe through, making it easier for them to absorb information!
How to repurpose your old tweets
Being consistent can be difficult – no one reminds you when it’s been a while since your last tweet! Instead, your engagement drops and it’s almost as if the algorithm starts working against you.
It can also be hard to know what to tweet! Inspiration doesn’t always strike when we wish it would.
Luckily, your old tweets can help you combat these problems! They can be the source of content or inspiration you need – especially when combined with great tools.
Twitter Archive Uploader
The Twitter Archive Uploader is one of Hypefury’s amazing features, allowing you to take all the value you’ve shared in the past and share it again with your audience in just a few clicks.
By letting you revisit your old tweets that did more or less well, Hypefury can not only help you share your gems with new followerrs, but also create new content for everyone to enjoy.
How to use the Archive Uploader
To start maximizing the value in your old tweets, you’ll need to start by logging into Twitter and requesting for them to send you your tweet history. Follow the steps below:
- Go to your Settings;
- Under the “Your Account” section, click on “Download an archive of your data;”
- Verify that it’s your account by entering your password when prompted.
Twitter will process your request and send you a link to download your Twitter archive within 24 hours.
Once you’ve received the link and downloaded your archive, extract the contents of the zip file and look for a file named tweet.js. Once you have it, upload the file to the Archive Uploader under the Toolbox section of your Hypefury control panel.
After you tweets have been uploaded, you can choose how you want them to form part of your Twitter strategy. Retweets and replies won’t be uploaded, but if you have gems in your original posts you can set them as Evergreen tweets and we’ll keep them in circulation for you.
Using the Twitter Archive Uploader is a great way to keep your Twitter archive clean and easily accessible for yourself and your followers. There’s no use in having your best content buried under thousands of tweets when your followers could be gaining value from it!
This is particularly important once you realize that your followers are all at different stages in their journeys. Those that have followed you and grown with you for a long time might not need your early content, but you might also have other followers making their start in their journey and who could benefit from content you shared a year or two ago.
Instead of having them turn to other mentors, you could simply use your archive to give them the value they crave. That, and some of the tactics we’ve mentioned above will help make you an authority that people at all stages in their journey can rely on.
So before you start scratching your head for ideas, think about some of the content in your archive that could easily make a comeback if you took the time to repurpose it! And why not give Hypefury a go with our free trial?
