Do you recycle? Do you reuse? I promise you, I’m not talking about sorting your rubbish at home. I’m talking about recycling content you use on your blog or social media platforms.
There is nothing wrong with revisiting a subject and of course there are a number of ways to go about this.
Recycling
The easiest place to recycle content is on Facebook. I have discussed this in my Facebook Reach workshop and was well received. By looking at your Facebook Insights you can share or repost content which originally received high engagement, high reach, or another metric. Reposting content gives you the ability to:
– test which posts work best at particular times
– quickly add content to your page
– re-engage your audience, and
– boost Insights.
I have to say, there is nothing wrong with that. It does come with a word of warning: don’t repost something for about three weeks. I admit that this might seem like a long time, but not only does this give the regularly posting page the opportunity to have the original further down the page.
I have recycled blog posts in Newsletter mail-outs while I am away. Rather than burning out trying to create a bank of blogs, I have reused a previous series (read more below) as Newsletter articles. Not only is it a great reminder for clients, who may not go back through my archives, but it allows me to target new audiences and quickly get content to them.
Reuse
I admit that I love this one for my blog. I particularly like it for the “Top x number of ways to …” posts. I have taken the points in these posts and then expanded upon one as its own post. I will often think of a list of handy hints, but not have a lot of content to go behind each dot-point. With time, they develop into their own posts.
I have reused posts, or more accurately renewed them, when new information or products come to hand. Once again, I have the benefit of sharing with new clients, reminding existing clients, and benefiting from building internal links.
Don’t forget to reuse content from one platform to another, something which started as a Facebook post can grow into a blog post. Post the same content in different formats, try photos as videos. Of course there is always reusing content on a different platform altogether (consider posting the same article on another social media platform).
While I would like to say that this post is a ‘reuse’, it is in a way. I have taken one dot-point of a post lying dormant, waiting to be published, and used it to develop a full blog post. I find it helpful in times where I feel unprepared for my weekly post, time and life have gotten away from me, or I am plain old stuck for what to write.
So over to you! Do you recycle and reuse? Do you have a favourite time or occasion to use these skills? If they are new, what is the first thing on your recycling list?