How to Recycle Content the 10 Best Ways
Since it’s almost Earth Day, it’s a good time to talk about recycling your content on social media. It’s also a very good time to prevent your brain from exploding. Recycling your content, as it turns out, is a very good way to prevent your brain from exploding. If you need other reasons to keep your brain from exploding, you might want to read: Content Curation: 5 Killer Reasons It’s Your New BFF.
Photo by Caden Crawford 
Start with Your Blog
Your blog is like the torso of your efforts. Everything starts there. The “limbs” are the different social platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. You may be a starfish, with five arms, or an octopus with eight limbs. Or maybe you’re a mollusk, with only one leg. But I digress. Create your content on your blog, with plenty of nice, fat keywords.
Recycling Tip: Go back to your older blog posts and see which can be rewritten. A slightly different slant can give new life to an old post!
Tweet Your Post
Not only should you tweet your blog post, but if you’ve done your homework and gotten some social capital, ask for people to retweet. “Please retweet!” you might say. And then pin that tweet to the top of your Twitter feed so anyone coming there can see it. If you don’t have social capital, this is an excellent post on Reciprocation from my bud Bridget Willard.
Recycling Tip: Retweet your own tweet later. That’s right. When the initial excitement of that tweet is over, retweet your own post again. You could use a different headline and a different image. Or not. Up to you. Guy Kawasaki repeats his posts, and here’s Guy’s strategy.
Pin on Pinterest
You do have a blog board on Pinterest, don’t you? If you don’t, make one right away! And then pin your blog post there. You might also want to join a group board so that you can pin your wonderful writing there, too. Here’s how to join a group board.
Recycling Tip: If your pin doesn’t get repinned the first time, pin it at a different time and delete the first pin. Make sure you’ve added your key words to the description. You could also add it to a different board, at a different time.
Photo by Moyan_Brenn
Facebook is a little trickier, unless you post a lot every day.
Recycling Tip: Use #TBT (Throwback Thursday) or ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) to repeat old posts. And add some different text, for heaven’s sake!
Email Marketing
Remember that blog post? Take pieces of it and put it into your email newsletter. Maybe use a different image, from further down in the post, and add a sentence or two.
Instagram has been taking off the last couple of years, with more people using it.
Recycling Tip: Regram your own posts, and change up the hashtags. Of course, recycle the hashtags, too!
Photo by Moyan_Brenn
Google Plus
There’s some disagreement as to whether Google Plus is still relevant. Many Social Media Managers think that it isn’t. Most agree that it’s a ghost town, and that posting there helps with SEO.
YouTube
Videos are one of the best ways to get attention from your audience. Short videos, in particular work very well on social.
Recycling Tip: Chop up your video and reuse it in different ways. You could take a one-minute video and create three or four shorter videos.
LinkedIn is often described as the “sleeping giant” of social media.
Recycling Tip: Share one of your favorite posts in a LinkedIn group at a different time.
Recycle Your Images
If you’ve created terrific images, you could recycle them. For instance, you could make a calendar from Instagram photos. Or Create magnets from Pinterest images.
Recycling Tip: Use this link, which friend Kittie Walker shared on Twitter (follow her on Twitter ~ @avidmode), to recycle your images from Instagram.
How Do You Recycle?
Do you recycle? How?
Photo by Moyan_Brenn
I like how you give the strategy and then the tactic.
Among the major social media channels, Twitter is ideal for cycling content. Primarily, the volume of tweets in this public form allows for and invites repetition. Not only that, but by growing your audience on Twitter, a post from your archives is fresh and relevant to your new followers. Additionally, Twitter’s culture supports curiosity with keyword-based hashtags. People come to talk, learn, and explore. It’s an ideal place to find opportunity.
Thank you for the referral, too.
That’s so true about new followers and recycled content on Twitter, Bridget. Hadn’t thought of that one. I really appreciate your comments, always.
You’re welcome for the referral.
Carol
Love G+. Great for SEO and maybe a ghost town BUT that means higher concentration of influencers and less fluff.
Awesome recycling ideas!
Thank you, Robert! I’ve got to get onto G+ more often myself, and I sometimes wonder whether it still has the same value it once did. And thanks for the compliment about the recycling ideas!
Sincerely,
Carol
I’m big on recycling. My blog posts will never die. I’ll make them rise from the dead if I have to.
I’ve been meaning to get onto Pinterest for ages. Do you think content marketing blogs can do well there?
Great stuff as always.
Your my go-to person for stopping my brain from exploding.
Clement
Hello Clement,
Yes, recycling content is wonderful. We can go back and rewrite, tweak, add photos, and more. For Pinterest, yes, I’m a big fan. I have a group blogging board, if you’re interested. And I’m happy to give you tips.
Thanks for the comment. I appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Carol