Are you getting the most mileage out of your content?
If you’re already blogging, writing articles, offering teleseminars or webinars, or even just answering emails, you’ve got content you can get more out of!
Re-use, Re-write, and Recycle!
You can repurpose content to use in different places: your latest blog post could be turned into a press release, article, guest blog, a short report to giveaway, even the basis of a new ebook… there are many things you can do with written content that just require a bit of editing.
Or, you can repurpose content into different formats: such as text to video, text to audio, audio to text, text to slideshows… so your latest blog post could become a podcast on CinchCast or BlogTalkRadio, a video on YouTube, a slideshow on SlideShare, a press releases to post in your media room and share on PR sites, a teleseminar or webinar for your audience… the list goes on!
What is Content?
You want to think creatively anytime you’re creating content. And don’t limit “content” to your written blog posts or articles. Anytime thoughts are coming together in your brain you’re creating content that you can repurpose — phone conversations, emails, that rant your significant other politely listened to last week, the chat with the mailman or friendly neighbor, and of course your blog posts, articles, how to tips, and anything you’re creating in written form.
Earlier this week I created a blog post out of a comment I left on another blog. I’ve also turned phone conversations, parts of my ebooks, and interesting email conversations into blog posts.
Repurpose Respectfully
If you’re using inspiration from a particular conversation or email, you need to be careful to repurpose it respectfully. If you want to reprint an email or quote from someone else you need their permission. You might share your thoughts on the topic from a more general perspective.
And respect your own time! An example of this might be: you recieve a great question about your products or services via email and spend 20 minutes typing up a good response. That response can be modified as needed, then added to your FAQ page. You might also answer it in a video and share on YouTube. How else can you take that 20 minutes of time and get more mileage out of it than just an email reply to a single person?
Why Bother?
You’ve put time into creating your content. But it’s only in one place or one format. By taking time to transform it and get it out there in other formats and places you’ll reach more people.
How’s it Work, Exactly?
If I wrote a great blog article with 10 tips about X, that could be turned into a good press release with just a few minutes of time. I could then add it to my media room on my site, submit to free press release websites, and send it to my media list (local media, media that reaches my target audience). This way I’ve got a shot at getting mentioned in an article somewhere, and by providing useful content instead of just a salesy press release I can build relationships with reporters and hopefully become a future resource even if they don’t use that specific release. Submitting to the online press release sites helps build links to my website, and posting that press release online provides more content on my own site. The press release can reach more people than my blog can.
Or, if I’ve got a blog post with 5 ways to do X better, I could create an image slideshow to go along with it and upload to SlideShare (reaching a new audience), use Jing to record those slides with my narration and upload to YouTube (again reaching a wider audience), record it as a CinchCast audio (more ears hearing me), then expand on the content and create a teleseminar or webinar to present. After the teleseminar or webinar I could take that expanded content and create 5 blog posts out of it (since I’d have expanded on each of the 5 points) that I could use here on my blog or as guest posts elsewhere for more traffic.
In my next post I’ll share a list of different formats/ideas for repurposing your content to help you jumpstart your brainstorming.
Thank you Lisa, Namaste, and Shel for requesting this topic.
Photo credit iprole at sxc.hu
Sounds great! Now I just need to get at it. I like the list of 5 then turn it into slide show or Jing and then take the expanded content and create 5 blog posts! Very useful! Thanks, Michelle.
I’ve found that helps with blogging — since I can get a lot more posts out of one idea that way. :)
Thanks for all the great ideas, Michelle! I have re-purposed content, yet not to the extent you’re mentioning, You’ve provided some great ideas.
Much appreciated —
CIndy
Hi Cindy, one of my own goals is to repurpose more this year. I tend to go for the ones in my “easy” comfort zone (turn the article into a blog post, audio, or more blogs) but that means I’m missing out on reaching new audiences with slide shows and video. There are so many great options though. :)
Great idea, Michelle!
I am very new at blogging and I already want to re-issue some of my posts, not because I ran out of ideas but because I want them to realign with what the purpose of my blog is turning to.
Michelle,
Thanks for this thought-provoking content. It is a great kick in the pants for me! I have invested thousands of valuable hours in writing over 200 blog posts, and I really like the idea of re-purposing the content.
Your idea that content is composed of thoughts, independent of the words used to express the thoughts, helps me to consider other ways to express the same thoughts. I see that it is the meaning of the content that counts — not just the particular verbalization of it. For example, I could make a video talking about the same thought as i previously explained in a blog post. This is exciting!
I completely agree that it’s so important to reuse content in as many ways as possible. Eventually, I’d like to start creating video posts and podcasts to reach a larger audience, and your post is a great help–thanks so much for the ideas! :)
Jing is a new tool for me and looks really useful, thanks for sharing it. Regarding repurposing, one of my clients said, “Won’t people get tired of seeing the same information?” My response was that we are faced with so much information, you have to assume people won’t see it the first time you put it out there! And not every one of your followers views every channel, so it’s a great way to gain new followers by placing your material across a variety of channels. Good info, thanks Michelle!
I especially like the idea of slides. I love doing them so why haven’t I done that? Hmmm…thanks for the kick in the pants, Michelle. :-)
Michelle,
This is great advice.
I got an email question from a blog reader that required a rather long answer and a couple of days later got a similar question from someone else. So I started cutting and pasted the answer. I think I could create a short report of 7 part mini-course from it. And it’s been sitting there all this time.
Thanks for the inspiration.
Heather x
Great info! Thanks for sharing. I will definitely apply your tips to my blogging..
Love your tips! Thank you for sharing so many great ideas and plan on using them all!