What is repurposed content?
As the name suggests, repurposed content is a piece of content that is based in part on or is a completely recycled version of an older piece of content that is typically presented in a new format.
If you want a more in-depth understanding of this topic, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: What are examples of repurposed content?
The most common examples of repurposed content are as follows:
- A YouTube video that was originally a blog post – This is pretty self-explanatory. You simply take an existing blog post and turn it (or parts of it) into a YouTube video. But you can also go the opposite direction and turn an existing YouTube video into a blog post.
Either way, doing so would help you instantly tap a bigger audience than you would have had you just posted on a single platform using a single content format.
- Short social media clips from a long-form YouTube video – This is a great technique if you want to build a presence on various social media platforms but do not have the time to produce entirely new content for each one.
- Infographics based on a podcast episode – Since infographics are a highly shareable, low-commitment type of content, it is a great way to not only get the word out on your podcast but also give non-listeners a taste of what it is all about without requiring them to tune in right from the get-go.
- Audiobooks – This one is also pretty self-explanatory. It is just turning books into audio form.
- Republished articles and videos – You do not always have to make changes to your content to repurpose them. You can just republish them as is on different platforms. Doing so allows you to reach a wider audience without requiring people to hop from one platform to another just to consume your content.
Question #2: What are the benefits of publishing repurposed content?
The biggest benefits of publishing repurposed content are as follows:
- It helps you reach a wider audience using practically the same piece of content. As we have seen in the previous section, getting your content in front of people in different formats on multiple platforms is a great way to reach more people.
- It helps speed up your content creation process. Instead of producing every single piece of content from scratch for every single platform you are trying to build an audience on, you can just repurpose the content you already have.
- It helps you get more mileage out of each piece of content you publish. If you just post a video on YouTube, for example, you will only get views from people on YouTube. Once those views drop or completely stop, your video becomes practically useless. But if you transform the same video into a lot of short social media clips, several blog posts, a couple of social media posts, infographics, and maybe even a podcast episode, then you can get so much more out of practically the exact same piece of content.
Know more benefits of publishing repurposed content from the ContentMatters website, here.
Question #3: Can I transform all my content into repurposed content?
Technically, yes, you can transform all your content into repurposed content—but it is not a good idea.
First, there is a big chance that not all of your previously published content is still relevant today. Repurposing irrelevant content will not actually do anything for you in terms of helping you grow your audience because there is no actual audience to consume it. This means you will spend time on mediocre (if at all) results.
Second, repurposing all your content can cause you to become known as someone who just recycles old content instead of bringing something new to the table. This, in turn, could cause you to have trouble keeping—much less growing—your audience because they would not have anything to look forward to.
At the end of the day, your goal should be to find the perfect balance between creating completely new content and repurposing existing ones. The idea is to use repurposed content to simply speed up your content creation process and reach more people more quickly instead of as a replacement for actual new content.