Remix & Reuse: How To Recycle Your Content

There are hundreds of reasons you should recycle your content.

Whether it’s blog content, website content, or content you use in your lead magnets (read: eBooks, cheat sheets, checklists, etc.), you should put a Remix & Reuse plan in place and then act on it at least once a year.

Today I’m sharing 11 ideas for recycling your content.

Remix Your Content

Remixing content  is like giving it a shot of botox – you’re just smoothing out some of the wrinkles and making it new, young, and fresh again.

Ideas for remixing:

1. Show vs. Tell: Take an old post and create a visual to go along with it. Try a video, an infographic, or make a SlideShare deck from it.
2. Use it in a List Post:  List posts are great ways to highlight older content. We made a “Best Of” post at the end of 2013 and linked to each of our most-shared posts.
3. Remix guest posts: Take old guest posts (with permission, of course!) and update them, add a new title and headers, and fill in any holes. Then you can place that content on your blog as a new post. It’s also probably a good idea to link to the original post.
4. Consider making it a series: As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, you should always have an eye on Google Analytics for your best performing posts. These may warrant a series or follow up. One of our most successful posts has been in the top three posts on Google Analytics for over a year now (20 Of The BEST Calls To Action), so we promptly decided it needed a follow-up, which we titled, “20 More BEST Calls To Action.”
5. Updates: With our field, social media marketing, things change A LOT. This means many posts require updates to make them correct. Instead of making a one-sentence update, take a new point of view (POV) or stance and develop those thoughts for a more robust post. You can then re-share it with a note that it has updates along with a new POV.
6. Take it from small to BIG: Let’s say you have 10 posts about tools. Or several posts on how to do a specific task for your industry. Why not take all of those posts and make them into a lead magnet, such as an eBook for download? (We did this with our four-part blog series on ROI, and now offer an eBook for download on our site – made from those posts [we added some formulas and a cheat sheet, of course]!).

Reuse Your Content

While remixing content may take a little more elbow grease, there are some simple, tried-and-true ways to reuse content, too.

Ideas for reusing content:

1. Show off popular posts: There’s a reason certain posts do better than others, and when the people speak, you’ve got to give them what they want! One idea to show off popular posts is to take advantage of the sidebar on your blog and use a tool like PostSkin to put that content in the spotlight.
2. Market evergreen content: You put in tireless nights and hours getting your content right, so why do so many people market that new article for only a few weeks?! Granted, not all content “lives” forever, but if you do have evergreen pieces (meaning they are helpful and valuable with no expiration date) make sure your marketing efforts are evergreen, too! We like to use the WordPress Plugin Revive Old Post to make sure our evergreen content is being shared on social media – even when we’re not thinking about it.
3. Take advantage of Throwback Thursday: Again, if you have content that is awesomesauce, or was popular a few months ago, try giving it a little CPR by posting it on #TBT (on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram). Tell your audience why it’s such an amazing piece or why it was shared thousands of times to pique their interest.
4. Take it from BIG to small: Comb through your eBooks, case studies, and blog posts for one-sentence tips or tricks. Use these snackable bites on your social media sites to show authority and add value to your pages.
5. Make it an event: If you give webinars or keynote speeches, many times you can reuse content for part of your event. In fact, some of the ideas from this post will make an appearance on our upcoming webinar (it’s FREE – so sign up!), “6 Steps To Perfecting Your Small Business Content Marketing Strategy.”

Why Recycle Your Content?

Why not? You invested time, and maybe money, to publish your content, so it’s only wise to remix and reuse it.

And now you have 11 ways to do just that.

So? What are you waiting for? Go recycle your content!

Do you have any creative ways in which you reuse content? Let me know in the comment section below!

The post Remix & Reuse: How To Recycle Your Content appeared first on B Squared Media – Social Media Management.