Reuse and Recycle: How to Make Evergreen Topics Feel like New

In the fast-paced world of social media, keeping up with trends, understanding algorithm changes, and engaging your audience is a full-time job (Hi! 👋). Maintaining a consistent online presence can be overwhelming, especially when you’re already busy running the business you’re promoting on social. The pressure to continually create fresh content can often lead to social media burnout – or have you dreaming of throwing your phone in the nearest body of water.

It’s time to enter your content repurposing era – this strategy lets you leverage your existing expertise to make your life easier and engage your audience in new ways. Let’s talk about how to repurpose your content and discover how it can transform your social media strategy.

Everybody’s already seen that: The #1 myth about your content

Stressed about sharing content people have already seen? Here’s a harsh truth: no one remembers every detail about your content as much as you do. In a world where people have access to billions of pieces of content per day and shortening attention spans, it’s easy for them to miss the golden nugget of content you posted a few months ago. Plus, with so many variables affecting how and when your content gets shown, showcasing the topics you’ve already created in new, engaging ways is a great way to connect with your audience without losing yourself in the process. 

Tips for Coming Up with Ideas From Your Own Content

Now that you’re feeling more comfortable with the idea that you don’t need to come up with a new topic every time you start a new piece of content, let’s explore how to do it for the best results.

1. Identify evergreen and well-performing content: look through your platforms and flag content that landed well with your audience and remains relevant over time. These may be found in insightful blog posts, engaging videos, or old captions that had people commenting or DMing you about. Do this regularly and take screenshots of your best posts to revisit when you need an extra boost of inspiration.

2. Tailor content to different platforms: recognize that different platforms serve different purposes. Once you’ve selected the topics you want to use, tailor the posts to suit each platform. For example, if you’re working with long-form content like a blog post or a podcast, you could turn it into engaging LinkedIn articles, a carousel for Instagram, or bite-sized TikTok clips. By making your valuable content platform-specific, you broaden its reach.

3. Craft your content into varied formats: don't limit yourself to a single content format. Transform your content into diverse media types to cater to different audience preferences. If you are using an Instagram photo with a thoughtful caption as your source material, try making it into a Reel using the caption as your voiceover or a video with the caption written in text pairing it with a trending sound. Experimenting with different formats on the same platform can provide you with more content to work with.  

4. Utilize AI tools: you don’t have to do it all on your own! Take advantage of the AI tools available to help you form ideas on how to transform your existing content. We always recommend adding your personality and branding for originality, but these tools can be your co-pilot in discovering new angles for repurposing effectively.

Case study: one piece of content, three ways

Ready to see content repurposing in action? Let's take a closer look at what this might look like with our blog post on the LinkedIn algorithm updates:

1. LinkedIn post: Condense the key takeaways of the blog post into a LinkedIn post speaking to the value of the platform and how to make the biggest impact on it.

2. Instagram carousel: Share the top tips shared in the blog post in a carousel that people can scroll through and save to come back to when they are working on their LinkedIn.

3. TikTok video or Reel: Short video of people networking with text overlay talking about the 4 main takeaways from the blog post and adding more context into the caption to take advantage of the platforms’ SEO capabilities.

Dividing this single piece of content into three distinct formats will help you reach a broader audience and maximize the value of your initial effort.

Keeping up with current topics doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose evergreen posts. It isn't just a time-saving strategy, it's a powerful way to expand your online presence, engage with diverse audiences, and reinforce your brand message.