The Art of Repurposing Social Media Content

When you listen to the radio, how many times do you hear the same advert in 1 hour??

3??

4??

Maybe 5 times?

The businesses that pay for the airtime want maximum exposure, regardless of how annoying it gets for the listener. In fact, the more annoying the better because at least people might remember it.

Who remembers the ‘Big Wants Your Car’ ads??

“We won’t knock you daaan on price.”

Anyway, I digress.?

Social media and radio are very different. If you want to listen to music or the dulcet tones of your favourite radio DJ, you have to suffer the ads that seemingly drop in every 58 seconds on repeat, giving the paying advertisers their money’s worth.

With social media, however, viewers have much more control over their feeds, so if they see too much of you on the same day, especially if you’re saying the same thing…

A flurry of unfollows will inevitably take place.

No one is creative every day.

“Andy, I’m so unorganised with my content. If I think of something in the morning, I’ll sling it up, but most of the time I’ll sit for an hour and then post nothing.”

This approach is less of a strategy and more of a time-sucking, anxiety-inducing fast track to failure because consistency is key to this content caper.?

The most successful creators on the planet have a strategy for delivering maximum impact, with minimal creative input. Sure, some of what they distribute is hugely engaging but if you watch them every day for a month, you will begin to see patterns in their production.

Patterns are caused by the fact that they share the same handful of key messages on repeat.

But surely people will know…

If I asked you what you did yesterday, you could probably tell me.?

If I stretched it out to a week ago, you might start to struggle.?

With the amount of social media content consumed by the average human each day, do you really think they would be able to pick out your duplicate post from 4 weeks ago?

I highly doubt it.

On any given day, only a small percentage of your total social media following will see your post. You can call this unfair all you want but that’s the social media game and our job is to learn how to play it.

This means that even if you shared a post on Monday, then the same one on Tuesday and Wednesday, the chances are it would hit different people each time.??

Yet no one ever does it for fear of annoying their followers.

Now, I’m not suggesting you create a single post and schedule it for release every day of the week, but I hope you are starting to understand the power of repurposing content that may have taken you a long time to create.

Content tricks of the trade

“Andy, I really do struggle with thinking of what to say. Surely no one cares about my life or our boring services.”

Almost every conversation we have with clients right at the start of a partnership starts with this sentence. And to some extent, they are right.

No one cares about their business. Until they need it.

The goal of social media content creation is to link everyday life events with a business story or need. Your content should never be about how great you are, but rather a solution to a problem your target audience is likely having.

The answer helps people and the everyday life event makes it relatable so that people want to read it.

To do this, you need to build a content framework starting with the main purpose of your business. What does it do at a very broad level? Once you can articulate that in a few words, write it down at the top of a piece of paper.?

Then break down that top-level service into 5 sub-categories. Let me give you an example based on our business model.

The top line service is ‘Social Media Management for Businesses’.

As it is, that is super broad and if you tried to cover every element in one piece of content, it would read more like a book than a social media post. And no one has time for that.

To break this down, we could have:

• Benefits of using a Ghostwriter
• LinkedIn training to get you started
• The importance of a digital presence
• Why content creation is so important for sales
• The art of distributing engaging content that people want to read.

5 sub-categories that fall under your top line heading. But they are still far too broad so let’s break the top one down even further.

• Why do people struggle to write their own content?
• The 5 biggest reasons people are turning to a ghostwriter.
• The process of a great ghostwriter
• The time you save by using a professional ghostwriter
• The importance of great copywriting to your sales funnel

I could go on.

Do this for all 5 sub-categories and you have 25 unique pieces of content that cover all the possible questions your buyers are asking, giving them the answers they so desperately crave.

We interrupt this newsletter to bring you a quick introduction to our private LinkedIn group. For just ￡1 a day, you can benefit from daily advice, a collaborative audience and of course, my support when you need it most.

Click the image below to find out more and for details on how to join.

Maximise the ROI from each piece of content

Now you have your 25 posts, you have enough content to last you an entire month at one post a day (Mon-Fri). If you want to know more about effective, multi-channel distribution, you should read our article from a few weeks ago.

Each one of these posts will undoubtedly have a relatable element included, based on your personal experience with the subject matter. This is what ultimately makes someone engage.

Or not.

The thing about personal experiences, however, is that they evolve. What was relevant when you first wrote these posts has now changed because you’ve experienced something new. The key messaging is the same, but your relatable element can be tweaked.

A 30-minute job of re-writing an entire post or coming up with something from scratch has been replaced with a 2-minute tweak to an already great story.

But whatever you do, don’t overwrite the original, because, at some point in the not-too-distant future, you are going to use that post again. Exactly how it is, because it will always be relevant.

Conclusion.

We see the world of content creation as a daunting, intimidating place, full of expert creators and influencers with huge followings and even greater confidence levels.?

It isn’t what it seems.

The only difference between you and them right now is that they have a system for effectively delivering content without it consuming their lives.?

They are not better, hungrier, sexier, smarter or more creative.?

The one thing they have done that you haven’t, however, is start.

When you’re ready to dust off those big boy pants and bring your brilliance to the stage, drop us a message and let’s start working together.

Stay Unconventionall.