Repurpose Your Content for More Impact with Less Effort

Do you want to save hours of your time when it comes to creating content on social media? I know you do! That’s why we are going all in on how to repurpose your content with ease across various platforms. We’ll discuss the difference between reposting and repurposing, why repurposing is the way to go, and how content performs differently across platforms like LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram. We’ll also look at what typical engagement rates are, and review real examples as I walk you through how I would repurpose those posts if they were my own.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Why everyone should be repurposing content for social media marketing. 
• The difference between repurposing and simply reposting.
• Strategies for tailoring content to different platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok.
• Converting your content into multiple formats, from reels to newsletters, with minimal effort.
• Real examples of how I would repurpose viral content for various industries.

Links in this episode:

• Loyalty Programs Carousel
• No Frills Diner Reel
• Best Design Decisions Reel
• Furniture Industry

Content I’ve Repurposed:

• First Three Instagram Stories Carousel
• First Three Instagram Stories Reel

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 010: Turning Testimonials into Engaging Content for More Sales
• Episode 033: Turn Your Content into Swipe-Worthy Carousel Posts
• Episode 053: Use Customer Insights to Create Reels That Attract and Convert

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:05]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content. The podcast where I remove the never ending content creation guesswork and overwhelm, so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked, good content. Alright. Today's episode is going to save you hours And I'm talking hours every week and for the rest of your life, so many hours and a lifetime, it's gonna save you a lifetime of headaches, overthinking, etcetera. We're talking repurposing, because every piece of content can be repurposed so many different ways. And I'm gonna prove it today. I grabbed some examples,

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:42]:
and they will be in the show notes. But first, I wanna talk about how I repurpose and how by the time this episodes air, you will see how I took something I shared on threads the other day and all the other ways I'm going to take that one thing on threads and repurpose it in so many different ways. Okay. So first, let's talk what repurposing is. Repurposing is not reposting. So when I say repurposing, what I mean is, let's say I do a carousel on Instagram, I will then use that carousel as a script, a talk to camera script. Right? Or let's say a caption from a reel a year ago. Maybe the reel a year ago was b roll with a simple message on top, right, with, like, 10 words or something like that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:20]:
But the caption was lengthy. I could make that caption a script. I could make that caption a carousel, things like that. So while reposting is fine, I will say when I repost something that did well a year ago, it does not necessarily mean it's going to go viral. Or maybe there's a reel that didn't do well a year ago. Try it again, and maybe it will go viral. You just never know. Right? Things that resonate it's all about what resonates and making a few tweaks and things like that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:42]:
But what I wanna say real quick, the way I like to break down the platforms, LinkedIn is, like, how I like to show up as if I'm at, like, a networking event. I'm with my peers. I share a lot of content on LinkedIn for my peers because that's what typically does well. It's it's you wanna, like, share your insights on your world, things like that. That's what I find does best for me as a marketer. Okay? So it doesn't mean everyone has a different strategy. But on LinkedIn, I go on there, and I use it as a sounding board to kinda complain sometimes about our industry, like social media managers not being paid enough or valued enough, things as marketers that we need to get rid of and that we can control. And basically, what I share is hot takes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:18]:
Everyone loves a hot take. Right? I share a lot of that on LinkedIn. So my LinkedIn content is actually completely different than often what I post on Instagram. But what I do because TikTok, a lot of my following on TikTok are marketers. And again, I always say TikTok is my playground. I just throw stuff out because I'm like, literally, I think yesterday or two days ago, I posted like seven TikToks. Yesterday, I did one. Today, who even knows if I'll get one up? I don't have a strategy there.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:42]:
TikTok is my playground. It is recess for me. It's for me to just kind of honor the fact that I like to just create, and I'm very not attached to the outcome of how things perform on TikTok. So if you go to my TikTok thinking, it's gonna look like my other content everywhere else. It's not. It's very different. But if something does well on TikTok, I might repurpose it to Instagram sometimes, but I want you to know that they are all different beasts. Okay? So when I write something on LinkedIn, it's usually about marketing.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:10]:
It's usually not something I will put on Instagram because my Instagram audience is very different from my LinkedIn audience. But my, like, LinkedIn and TikTok audience, very similar. So on TikTok, I share lots of ideas for social media managers, social media marketers, social media strategists, consultants, people in my industry. I say things that they're maybe sometimes too scared to say because I've been in the industry a long time. So those kind of I repurpose a lot. LinkedIn and TikTok. Right? So that way, whatever I share on LinkedIn, I typically share it on TikTok. I'll take my LinkedIn text, and it's usually a wordy rant, if you will.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:41]:
And then I'll either talk to camera on TikTok with that script. I will literally take the rant I share on LinkedIn and say it to the camera on TikTok, and there's my TikTok. It's done. Or I'll take some b roll where I'm sitting there working at a coffee shop or whatever, what have you, and then I'll take the text that I share in the LinkedIn and put it there. So now I've got three pieces of content for one. Okay? Here's the other thing I do that my mentor noticed I started doing year and a half ago. She was like, Shannon, I kinda noticed you share a lot on threads, and then the next day, it's on Instagram, and it's an email, and it's a blog. And I'm like, there you go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:13]:
You've you discovered my little trick. Again, I like to test things out on platforms where I don't really I'm not attached to the outcome, and I will be a thousand percent honest. I'm very attached to the outcome of my reels because I not so much that I'm like, I wanna go viral. I wanna I wanna help everyone. And when I see so much other tips that are going viral that aren't true, I get very frustrated. And because I'm on Instagram chronically more than I should be, I see more content there, and I consume more there. So I just wanna really serve. So I'm more attached to the outcome because I'm like, I need every business owner to see this desperately.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:48]:
Okay? I know for you guys, you're attached to the outcome because the metrics, it's hard to look at. But, again, like I always say, you're probably doing better than you think you are. Engagement rate across Instagram, 5% is always my goal for my clients and myself, but the more followers you get, that rate goes down. So if you're over 10,000 followers, your engagement rate is typically, like, 1%. Meaning, 1% of the following you have is liking engaging with your content. Okay? If you're above 1%, you're totally fine. You can actually go to a website called Phlanx. I think it's p h l a n x.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:20]:
And just literally Google Phlanx engagement rate calculator in Google, and you'll put it there. You can put your username, and it'll spout out an engagement rate. With that said, let's get back to repurposing. So that's how I will do. I'll do LinkedIn, TikTok, similar audience. Instagram, I will throw something up on threads when I'm having a moment, a thought, an opinion, whatever. I throw it out on threads. Because, again, if it does well, cool.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:41]:
If it doesn't, whatever. If it does well, I take that thread and I throw the text over some b roll with some trending audio, call it a day. It's one text box, one video clip, a trending audio, typically about four to seven seconds depending on how long it takes me to read the text on screen. Done. Real. Done. I literally do this all the time. Other thing I do and what I'm going to do today, I shared a thread yesterday or two days ago, whatever.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:07]:
Who knows what day it is ever anymore, right? Threw it on on threads. It did really well. And it got shares to people are in the comments like, oh, my gosh, I needed this thing. So reminder, another was like, why are you yelling at me? Right? You know, being funny. I because I know it's a thread where, like, the text just the the text is really good because I was just really feeling it in the moment. And usually when I'm like that with my content and passionate about it, like, comes through. I think it's gonna do even better if I talk to the camera. So today, after this podcast, I'm going to literally plop my phone down on the kitchen counter, and I'm going to say that thread verbatim as a script, and it's gonna be done.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:41]:
There's my reel today. Okay? So by time this episode airs, you can go see it. It's about, you know, basically saying, like, you're telling me you're worried someone's gonna judge you and that's holding you back type of thing. Basically saying how silly it sounds once we really break down why you're scared to hit post. And I know it's a lot of mindset. I get I'm not downplaying. I'm just saying don't let people that don't have your best interest at heart stop you from hitting post. Okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:03]:
I will do that on threads, and then I'll make it a script. And guess what? In about a month, I'm gonna do a reel with a b roll, training audio, and the same text. And I will keep repurposing this stuff over and over again. Then when it's time to do an email next week, that will be the whole premise of my email. That thread but I will make that thread basically a long email and talk about what got me to finally hit post. I'll tell my story behind how I feel that way. So that's what I mean by repurpose. Again, you can absolutely repost same content.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:32]:
Not nothing's promised it's gonna do as well. That is what I do. So one more thing, actually. I had a reel go viral a year ago, and it was the title over my head was the three Instagram stories you need to post every day or the first three stories to post every day. Again, that triggers things in their brain that makes it not sound scary. It's like,

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:49]:
oh, just these are the first three. Go ahead, right? It did really well for me and I talked to the camera and talk it out. Two months later, I took my script. I literally took my script exactly what I'd said. I transcribed because a lot of my stuff is off the cuff. And I literally let the reel play, and I typed out everything I said, and I flipped it into a carousel post. And guess what? That carousel post also went viral for me. Not crazy viral, but viral for my account.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:12]:
Also got new followers. Right? The first slide of my carousel was the hook that had been over my head and have talked to camera. That was slide one. Slide two, my intro. Right? And then slide three, tip one, slide four, tip two, slide okay? They're all on my Instagram account if you wanna dig in. Actually, we'll put them in the show notes. Oh, yay. That'll be good.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:31]:
That'll be fun. Yay. I'm a nerd. Alright. So I found a bunch of content from different industries, and I'm gonna tell you exactly how I would repurpose their content. This is all viral content. Ready? And these will all be in the show notes. First viral piece of content is a carousel post.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:46]:
Looks like she's, like, in money, finance, etcetera. Okay? First slide. Loyal programs are the hottest consumer status symbol. Okay? Now, again, if if you're new to carousels, obviously, we're not talking photo dumps. Photo dumps are one thing. Photo dumps still work. Right? Carousels are like a slideshow. Okay? First slide, loyalty programs are the hot hottest consumer status symbol.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:10]:
Next slide. And this this one looks like it went not viral again, but it's it's almost 4,000 likes. That's a lot for her following. Okay. Second slide. The loyalty economy is booming, and then she's got some graphics and a bunch of texts. Third slide. Loyalty tiers, etcetera.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:25]:
If I was her social media manager or strategist, I would say, okay. Now that that did well, let's do a reel with the same exact everything. You've already got it. She would talk to the camera, and the hook over her head would be exactly what's on this first carousel. The hook over her head for three seconds as she's talking would say, loyalty programs are the hardest hottest consumer status symbol, or we would remix it in any way. First words out of her mouth are exactly what's on slide two, and that is her entire script. She would look at the camera. So the first thing out of her mouth with the the hook over her head, she would say, the loyalty economy is booming.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:57]:
Consumers aren't just joining loyalty programs. They're chasing them. Okay? That is what I mean by repurposing. Next example. And then again, she could turn that into a newsletter. She could turn turn it into and let me just say, take every reel of yours and put it on YouTube Shorts. I beg of you. Alright.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:14]:
Next one is a local food blogger. Her hook at 10,000 likes. Her hook says, on screen, historic no frills diner in the West Village, and then it just shows the name. If I was her, since she already has the footage, I would say, okay. Since this was b roll with text, that was it. It was just b roll training audio text, no voice over. The next one, we're doing a voice over. I would say, come with me to check out this historic no frills diner in West Village.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:39]:
So the verbal right? And then everything in her caption is the rest of her script. A quintessential New York City diner serving a delicious right? Do you see what I mean? Okay. Alright. The next one is for an interior designer. Hook says, four of the best decisions we made for our home. She can now turn this into a carousel. That is the first slide of her carousel because this is a reel with a hook and then a clip with text, a clip with text, a clip with text. She breaks down the four things.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:07]:
She can make that a carousel of images where, again, first slide, four thing you know, decisions we made at home. The second slide, she can even tell more of a story. We bought this home in February And then slide three would be number one, this cabinetry number two, right? And slide after slide after slide. Okay. Lastly, another example. This girl dupe.com. So she talks about the video is b roll of her reaction, and it says, you guys, I just finished a two hour long documentary about how the furniture industry is scamming us, and I'm not okay. Again, she can now repurpose this to her looking at the camera and saying, you guys, I just did it, and then she flips the camera just like she did in this one and shows you exactly what to do.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:49]:
There you go. And from there, she could make a carousel if she wanted. Right? So that's what I mean by repurposing. And this is why I love the reels lab so much, shameless plug. Because every reel in there, the script can be turned into a carousel. The the b roll with training audio can be turned into a talk to camera. So I want you to go look at any content, maybe even content that didn't do well that you thought should have done better, content of yours that did really well, and just see how you can flip it. And then look at a longer caption, how you can turn it into an email or maybe a blog.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:21]:
Okay. So instead of just leaning on reposting, try repurposing. I am team repurposed. I've repurposed so much content over the years. It's okay to repeat yourself. Remember, repetition, familiarity, we love it. In marketing, it's everything. More next week.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:37]:
I love you, friend.