Repurposing Content Across Different Platforms

If you're a content creator like me, who creates contents on different platforms, you know that coming up with different ideas for these different platforms is hard. Something for Instagram, something else for LinkedIn, something different for Instagram, or YouTube--it's mentally draining having to think of ideas and define scopes for the different topics.

Repurposing Content Improves Content Creation Process

So I learned how to repurpose content and that has improved my content creation process a lot by:

• reducing the mental stress of finding and researching topics
• giving me different content ideas for my different platforms, thereby serving multiple audiences across my platforms
• improving the process of defining scopes

Repurposing content is the process of recycling existing content to fit another format.

While writing this article, I immediately thought "I could make a YouTube video on this topic too 🤩" You see, now I don't have to think of "the next video to make".

I've made video versions of some topics I already had an article on and vice versa.

I've made TikTok versions of a topic I already had a YouTube video for, and vice versa.

I've made Instagram versions of some topics I already have a YouTube video for, and vice versa.

One thing I do regularly is if I make a post with some slides on Instagram, I repurpose it for LinkedIn by converting all the slides to one PDF.

Here is an example: I repurposed this IG post on JavaScript Callback Functions to this post on LinkedIn

Instead of having to think of two different topics for Instagram and LinkedIn, I'm pretty much sharing the same thing and serving different audiences on both platforms. This is also better than posting on my LinkedIn:

"I just made an Instagram post on XXX where I explained YYY. Here is the link to the post"

Doing this reduces your chances of actually having your contents visited.

For the LinkedIn and Instagram, I shared above, I also have a YouTube version. These would serve different audiences in the platforms they already are.

Linking contents can affect user experience

Users don't like having to leave one platform for another to learn something (unless they have to). For example, you make a post on Twitter that says:

"I just made a video on ABC. Here is the link to watch it on my YouTube"

Only a few really interested users will click the link (especially if your abstract is intriguing) but if you could make such content that you can share directly on Twitter, more users may go through that content.

By repurposing the same content idea across different platforms, you improve the user experience and also increase your chances of people going through your content.

Repurposing content helps you define your content scope

In a lot of cases, I have made YouTube videos based on an Instagram idea. Someone mentions a topic they'd like me to make a post for on Instagram, and then I make a video version of that topic. What I've found is that having already made that post on Instagram makes it easy for me to define the content scope for YouTube.

For example, I make a little mistake on the Instagram post, or there was one more example I could have covered in my explanation to make the reader understand the topic better. I can use those lessons learned for the YouTube version. Now I know I shouldn't make that mistake on YouTube, or now I know an extra example I can include in my video.

When making YouTube videos out of my Instagram posts, I usually have the Instagram post open on one screen and I use it as a guide for my video. I don't have to define the guide afresh because I'm using an existing content

Repurposing content helps you learn from feedback from people as well. Someone gives feedback on a TikTok video, now I know the YouTube version can be better with the feedback.

The downside of repurposing content

Sometimes, repurposing content can be easy; for example the case of converting existing slides on my Instagram to a PDF which I share on LinkedIn. But some other times, it can be overwhelming too (I think this is the word).

In my experience, having to repeat myself multiple times can be boring. I've had cases where I had to make a TikTok video for an already existing YouTube video, and I couldn't crop the YouTube video to fit the vertical resolution for TikTok. This means I had to repeat some of the things I already said.

And vice versa--converting a TikTok video to fit a horizontal resolution is already impossible. So I have to remake it.

Another case is making an article for an existing video. It's like transcribing my video. Not like I make an article word-for-word about everything said in the video, but explaining the same concepts I already have, can be tiring.

What I've done to improve this boredom in my case is that I don't always repurpose immediately. Let's say I have an article on TopicA, published 4 weeks ago and another on Topic B published two days ago. To avoid that tiring feeling of repeating myself just two days later, I would repurpose TopicA instead of TopicB.

Also, repeating myself is not always boring. Sometimes it's even fun, so in those cases, I could do immediate repurposing.

Wrap up

If you're a content creator who has struggled with managing different topics for different platforms or maybe has struggled with coming up with topics for your platforms, one efficient strategy you can apply is repurposing content.

Think of something you've created before, and you can make a different form of content based on that topic and the content you already have.

You can use one of your previous talks for an article; one of your previous videos for a LinkedIn post; or one of your recent articles for a YouTube video.

I hope this article helps content creators out there. Keep creating! 🙌🏾