How We’re Successfully Repurposing Content at Buffer
Social Media Manager
Everyone says you should repurpose your content these days. But why? And how do you actually go about it? How do you decide what to repurpose, and how do you actually execute? These are all questions we hope to answer for you today.
If you haven’t given repurposing content a try yet, you really should. Repurposing content can increase engagement, save you a lot of time and energy, and gives people a chance to see your best content they may have missed the first time you posted.
We’ve been using this strategy at Buffer for the past few months with great success - we’ve found that a lot of our repurposed content has been our top performing content when we pull our monthly social media reports.
Today, we’re sharing real examples of repurposed content from our socials to show you how simple it is and show you how our repurposed content has performed.
Why we started repurposing content
We started repurposing content to make things a little easier when it came to filling up our own social media content calendar! Repurposing content has saved us a lot of time and mental energy when it comes to trying to come up with multiple posts for multiple platforms. Work smarter, not harder. There were also some really good posts we’ve done in the past that we felt didn’t get as many impressions or as much engagement as we wanted, so we felt they deserved another try.
Different ways to repurpose content
Repurposing content can be done in many different ways - it’s not always just reposting the same thing again on the same platform. Here are some examples:
- Take a tweet and turn it into an Instagram post
- Post your TikTok on Instagram Reels (or YouTube Shorts, or both!)
- Turn your Twitter thread into a video
- Turn a blog into a TikTok video
- Share a poll on LinkedIn that you originally posted on Twitter
- Compile responses to a post to create a roundup
These are all simple ways to repurpose content that we’ve tried at Buffer. Over the last few months, our repurposed content has been some of the top performing content on Buffer’s socials.
Examples of repurposed posts from Buffer’s socials
How do you decide which posts to repurpose? There are many ways you can do this, but we like to repurpose posts that performed really well in the past or another option is to take posts that performed well on one platform and reformat them for another platform. Here are some examples of exactly how we’ve repurposed content for Buffer’s socials.
Turning a tweet into an Instagram post
Sometimes you’ll have a tweet that really takes off and a great way to repurpose it is to share it on Instagram. It’s important to keep in mind that Instagram is visual, so you still want to share a tweet that’s on brand for you and to do so you can turn your tweet into a simple Instagram graphic.
This was a tweet that we turned into a graphic for an Instagram post.
This Instagram post ended up being our most engaging post for the month of April.
This was originally a tweet that performed well in 2022 so we tweeted it again for 2023, and also turned it into a graphic for an Instagram post.
The original tweet had a 0.90 percent engagement rate and the second time we posted it had a 1.70 percent engagement rate, and was our most engaging post for the month of March. The Instagram post was also our top post based on impressions for the month of March.
Reposting a top performing post
When a post performs really well, why not post it again? We love to use Buffer’s analytics features to find the top performing posts over the last year and decide which ones should be repurposed. As long as it’s been a while since people have seen the post, we promise you don’t have to worry about them remembering that you already posted it before.
We used Buffer analytics to find our top performing posts based on engagement rate in 2022, and this was one of them, so we simply reposted it. We changed up the caption a little bit, but kept the graphics exactly the same.
The first time we posted, there was an engagement rate of 6.16 percent and the second time around, the post had an engagement rate of 8.05 percent, so this repurpose was definitely a success!
Turning a teammate’s tweet into an Instagram post and sharing multiple times
Twitter threads are a great opportunity to create Instagram carousels. You can make your graphics look like tweets, or try out a Canva template like this one to format your tweets.
This one was repurposed twice! Not only did we turn a Twitter thread from a Buffer teammate into an Instagram post, we shared the Instagram post again: the first time in December 2022 and again in May 2023. We kept the caption exactly the same the second time around, except for changing the call-to-action at the end to direct people to our blog.
The first Instagram post had an engagement rate of 3.59 percent, and the second time around it had an engagement rate of 4.04 percent.
Reposting timely content
We highly recommend sharing timely content! It can spark engagement and conversation when there’s something top-of-mind for people and they’re already discussing it. Holidays are a great example of repurposing timely content. You can either keep the content exactly the same, or switch it up a little if you feel it needs some updates.
We know this week is a 4-day workweek for most of you after the holiday...but what if you always had a 4-day workweek?
— Buffer (@buffer) May 30, 2023
and what if you still got all your work done in those 4 days without having to work extra hours? 🤯
That’s how we do things here at Buffer.
This is a post that we can share anytime there’s a public holiday that leads to a four day workweek. We originally posted it last year after Labor Day in the US and shared it again for Memorial Day this year.
The original tweet had 5,337 impressions and a 0.80 percent engagement rate, while the second time around the tweet had 5,942 impressions and a 0.90 percent engagement rate.
Turning a TikTok into a post for LinkedIn (+ reposting on Reels and YouTube Shorts)
Sometimes it’s possible to take video and turn it into text. We also highly recommend sharing your short-form videos on all platforms (TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts).
This originally started as an idea for TikTok, but we figured it could easily be translated to text so we could share on LinkedIn. And then of course, you should always share your TikToks on Reels and YouTube Shorts as well, so that’s exactly what we did here.
@bufferapp What would you do with your extra day off? #buffer #fourdayworkweek #3dayweekend #4dayworkweek #worklifebalance
♬ moonlight on the river - destiny
This post didn’t take off on TikTok, but it performed really well on LinkedIn and was one of our top posts of the month (for both impressions and engagement rate). The video also did better on Reels (3k views) compared to TikTok and YouTube Shorts (300 views).
Not every video is going to go viral or get tons of views, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share them! As long as you’re staying consistent and posting authentic content, it’s worth it.
Sharing a TikTok on YouTube Shorts
Why wouldn’t you want to create one video that can be shared three different ways? This was mentioned earlier, but you should be sharing any videos you’re posting on TikTok on Reels and YouTube Shorts and vice versa. Although each platform has its own nuances, your strategy should essentially be the same and your content will work for all of them.
This was a simple post that was originally shared on TikTok and we repurposed it for YouTube Shorts. We didn’t get a lot of views on TikTok, but this video is now one of our most viewed videos on YouTube Shorts.
Repurposing should always be a part of your content strategy
Repurposing content is an easy way to fill up your content calendar and get more engagement. If you’re worried that people will notice you’re sharing the same thing again - they won’t (we haven’t had anyone call us out yet!).Go ahead and try some of these easy repurposing strategies we’ve used and be sure to let us know how your posts perform!
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