You’re repurposing wrong - here’s how to get more out of your content.

I have been the repurposing queen for years now and I am always recommending this to other content creators, especially when they’re first starting out. Most of us have heard the phrase “don’t reinvent the wheel”. If not, the definition is “attempting to duplicate—most likely with inferior results—a basic method that has already previously been created or optimized by others.” In this case, “others” is… well, you. Why always start from scratch when you have perfectly good content, thoughts, and ideas that you have already generated? Today I want to dive into the importance of repurposing, but also set the record straight on how you’re supposed to be repurposing. Because from what I keep seeing online, most people are doing it wrong. Let’s do this!

The importance of repurposing content

Obviously, we already touched on this in the intro - why reinvent the wheel? There is a quote from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear that says, “Too often we convince ourselves that massive results require massive action." We have been taught our entire lives that if we work super hard, that’s when we will achieve greatness - right? Yes and no. When it comes to repurposing content, at some point you did have to work super hard to come up with the concept for the original piece of content - but you don’t have to always work “that” hard for future pieces of content because you have already done so much upfront work. Let’s just say you create a Reel based on a YouTube video you had done in the past (which we will talk about more later) and this Reel gets high reach and engagement - it didn’t take “massive” action to create this Reel, as so of the hard work was already done for you (by you) in the past. The point I am trying to make is “work smarter, not harder”.

It all boils down to using your time as efficiently as possible. We only have so much time in a day, right? And when you’re just starting out as a content creator, usually your time is even more limited because you might have a full-time job or other time-consuming commitments. By repurposing your content, you’re able to save time by using thoughts and ideas you already know work well for your audience.

The most common repurposing mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes I see folks making with repurposing is when just taking a piece of content in its current format, and just posting it on a new platform. Here’s an example. One of the worst ways you can repurpose a YouTube video is by taking the horizontal, 1920 x 1080 video and cropping it to fit an Instagram Reel. I’m going be completely honest with you, it’s not going to perform well. Another version of this could be just taking a podcast snippet and placing it on a graphic. I’m not saying that you can’t do that, but there are definitely better ways, which we will be talking about here in a minute.
Another mistake is just repurposing the content because you have it, versus actually being methodical about the type of content you are repurposing for your other platforms. So as a brand, you were audience might all be similar, but you might notice that each platform your present on has its own specific audience. One good example is my YouTube channel versus my Instagram. Currently, some of my top-performing videos are tips about YouTube. So though my current YouTube audience are content creators, I would say maybe more are leaning into YouTube. On Instagram, a lot of my top-performing reels currently are about my income and expenses as a content creator and digital nomad. My main audiences are definitely still content creators, but there are certain types of content that perform better on Instagram. so it’s just important to be mindful of the audience you have on each platform, so that you can re-purposed the contact in a way that will perform the best.

How you can repurpose more effectively

When you hear repurposing, you instantly just assume you should take a piece of content from one platform and put it on another. But like we’ve been talking about, that doesn’t always work, and isn’t usually effective. So instead, you’re going to take your current piece of content, usually from an evergreen platform like YouTube or a podcast - and turn it into a vertical video.

So instead of just using the actual piece of content, we’re using the same or similar ideas from YouTube videos or podcast episode, and then creating a vertical video - like a Reel, TikTok, or YouTube Short. (Or in my case, all three!)

I think the easiest way to explain this is to walk you through my thought process for coming up with a TikTok that really got this strategy started for me - it has over 490K views now.

I made a YouTube video called Why no one is watching your vlogs (and how to fix it) where I talked about the but-therefore rule of storytelling that I learned from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, South Park creators

This video performed fine - nothing crazy, but I had good feedback in the comments that the but-therefore rule was a helpful way to think about storytelling. So I figured, why not. I set up my phone and filmed a vertical video where I explained it. But, I started the video by saying “if you’re not getting views on YouTube, this is probably why.” I added a hook that was relevant to what I wanted to share, and would hopefully grab the attention of scrollers.

I actually just talked about this strategy in a recent podcast episode about the ultimate guide to TikTok in 2023, but after filming this vertical version of the YouTube video - I actually edited the TikTok like a YouTube video too. I did all of the things - I brought that footage onto my computer, I added titles, extra graphics, supporting b-roll, and captions - and then I exported it and sent it back to my phone to post.

And the reason this method works is because of the effort of adding a lot of visual aids to make it more engaging.

If I would have taken a snippet from the YouTube video itself instead, and just posted it on TikTok, or Instagram, it would have flopped. Instead I took the idea and concept, wrote a new script just for this short-form content and filmed it vertically.

Overall, you’re still being efficient and saving a lot of time because you’re not coming up with an entirely new idea or concept. But you are creating a new piece of content based on that previous piece of content.

Of course, on top of repurposing content for short form videos, you can also use the ideas and concepts to create graphics, newsletter articles, tweets, blogs, etc.

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I really hope this was helpful and giving you a refreshed a look at repurposing content. If you’ve been around for a while, you know, I am always recommending that. You start your journey with two platforms, one evergreen platform and one timely platform. For example, a YouTube channel would be an evergreen platform and an Instagram would be a more timely platform. Having a YouTube channel is a great way to build an audience and an income, if you want some more information about how to get started on YouTube, I talk a lot about that on my YouTube Channel youtube.com/katie. So make sure to check that out! And if you’re feeling stuck and want my team to take a look at one of your social media platforms, we offer audit services for Instagram, YouTube, Podcasts, and TikTok. The link will be in the show notes, but you can also just go to creatorlymedia.com/audits and find them there!