It’s Still A Pizza But It Tastes Different – Repurposing Content

One of the biggest fears for content creators is that the topics of conversation come to a gradual halt.

To many the answer is to have a rigid editorial calendar in place or in the words of Pam Didner, ‘once you have a content plan, you can schedule content production accordingly to minimise burn out.’

Pizza, Pizza

One thing that I have seen as a trump card is to repurpose content. The time and effort that is made to create content needs to be rewarded but many businesses and marketers merely move onto the next project or article. This is a flawed strategy to move from one article to the next. It is similar to a pizza delivery person who has made the journey to one house, then moves onto the next address. Content that takes time to create, like that pizza that has just been delivered to your door, deserves time to be consumed.

Lets start talking again, but in a different way. Focus on the wealth that you can create, rather than the moments in time that pass you by. I say that many people spend too much energy on creation and not on distribution. Repurposing content can become such a strong tool to your armoury and by that I don’t mean taking an article that you wrote last year and added a different opening paragraph but to change the format and media delivery of the information produced.

A good example I have found this year has been the Talking Content Marketing project, where my own curiosity and ability to reach out to thinkers and influencers and ask them questions related to content has slowly become a consistent project that I have become attached to and has grown organically ie. I plan, I approach, I ask questions. One thing that I wanted to do is with the time and effort to produce this series was to merit its own place on the ID Group website (where a number of articles were produced around a particular topic). What I’m trying to say here is that if there is a particular field of interest that can grow into a series on your website, then go for it! It could be related to a particular aspect of your industry, a specific process for doing things, a way of doing business that is shared by others, a particular method that you transfer from customer to customer. Everything here is related to the idea of producing information that is interesting to a specific audience.

The role of content is to engage, inspire and educate. It has absolutely nothing to do with resurrecting the newspage on the website to conjure up more irrelevant flag waving or running a competition (that you thought about six months ago) and award a bottle of Prosecco to a customer.

Six Tips To Take On Board When Repurposing Content

Repurposing content does work. Here are some pointers that I found useful to produce more value from the Talking Content Marketing project:

•  scope for future content concepts. Topics and discussion from the interviews have helped scope ideas for future articles (even Pam Didner’s comment inspired this one). They have helped trigger new concepts and thoughts by questioning and thinking about the responses that were provided. Even Ian Rhodes response made me think promptly when asked if businesses now need to take the role of educators, Ian replied ‘are we educators or sales people? I don’t think the label really matters,’ it made me ponder. It has led onto a future article that looks at why we would naturally want to buy from a teacher not a seller (coming soon to a place right here).

• alter the format. An obvious choice is to create an ebook with the articles related to the topic that you are discussing. What worked well for me was to take statements from the influencers interviewed and to create something a lot more visual and appreciate the fact that we consume quickly and putting together a content heavy book with every interview would have been a cumbersome task for the reader. Jessica Gioglio, co-author of The Power of Visual Storytelling said:
  

  “photos, videos, infographics, presentations and more are being used by companies to tell stories as a compliment to their marketing and communications efforts.”

  Using channels such as Slideshare became a new tool to introduce to a new audience and by adding a creative touch to the project, it was recognised as one of the Slideshare’s of the day and ensured reach to an audience I would never have had access to. In two weeks the slidedeck had resulted in over 3,300 views (click the image below to view the presentation).

• become even more snackable. From the creation of the Slideshare presentation, individual slides were then used as visual content on other social platforms, notably Twitter and Pinterest and selected images were then shared with those who participated. Comments made were then shared with the contributor’s audience and open up another audience who became aware of the project.

• use as an information distribution tool. During meetings and conversation with customers, if points were raised that had relevance to the interviews these were then shared to back up a particular topic of discussion. It almost feels as though there is further validity by having a point of view expressed within an article that has already been produced and to share within an email conversation.

• part of a wider digest of communication. The audience within the ID Group community are sent every Thursday the ‘You Are The Media’ news round up (if you’d like to join, just fill in the box with you email address above, or below if you are on a mobile device). The interviews are then shared to the community highlighting the topic raised in the interview and then invited to read the article in full. A different example of a buyer persona where the people who are receiving the weekly webmail have opted in.

• you share the experience with a wider audience as a presentation. The Talking Content project is now becoming a topic that I am sharing in presentations to audiences. It is something that I am familiar with and have grown from a blank space. It is a content curation and repurpose topic that is relevant to me and able to share the experience in the knowledge that it is unique to me and not go for the more clichéd ‘Content Is King’ talk.

Each time the content has changed media format so has the audience. Whether this is for those within the ID Group community, those people connected to the project participants or as an informational tool for customers and prospects, different personas are created and targeted.

Be Where People Are Looking

What is happening is that the different media channels that are used are in the places that people are searching. It is not reliant on the one channel to the same audience ie. content is produced and distributed via Twitter, it’s in the places where people are looking and engaging.

Repurposing content is so much more than breathing new life into old articles, it is all to do with the alteration of the format and adaptation of the media channel around a particular topic or theme. It is all to do with telling a different story for each media format and being able to connect with different audiences. Not even your competition can copy that and the way that you communicate.

If you are continually adding value to what you create by remarketing and repositioning then you are evolving your thought process from an initial topic idea to eventually being seen as useful resource on a discipline. Whether this is commercial planning or a storage company, people trust those who demonstrate expertise and can share knowledge in a confident and authentic manner. The end product is to be seen by others as essential.

Alter A Continuous Routine

Repurposing content is such a valuable piece of armoury to avoid the trap of routine. You shouldn’t be following a continuous path by creating content that follows the same process every time it is produced and distributed.

As we become recognised and associated within our marketplace, we should learn to do more with less. This comes back to the belief that when it comes to creating content, frequency shouldn’t be taken into consideration but consistency of quality content. Musician Herbie Hancock once said:

“It’s easy to get sidetracked with technology, and that is the danger, but ultimately you have to see what works with the music and what doesn’t. In a lot of cases, less is more. In most cases, less is more.”

It’s time to look a closer look at what we have created and not forget about it.