We have recently become allotment owners (kinda. We are using an unused part of a friends allotment) and it’s been SO exciting. I am not the gardener of the family. My efforts so far have involved turning a fork of soil over a few times and buying lots of bulbs and seeds. My husband is making the magic happen. What I am excited about is all of the things that he’s growing. So far I’m looking forward to onions, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and runner beans. I am already benefiting from the MASSIVE amounts of rhubarb.
So far I’ve made rhubarb and apple crumble and rhubarb and apple jam (my first ever jam!) Right now there’s a load of sticks in the kitchen waiting for further rhubarb related goodness to happen. I’m going to do rhubarb cake, add it to banana bread, stew some for a cheesecake topping and to go with my yoghurt and granola at breakfast.
I am finding so many things to do with it. Any suggestions gratefully received! It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
When you run you business you need to learn the art of finding many uses for the same thing too.
This is called repurposing.
Repurposing is like magic.
You create something once.
And then you use it again and again and again.
Meaning that you get loads of use from one thing which is super handy because:
a. you don’t have to keep creating new things so often.
b. you can share your message in lots of places in different ways.
c. it makes your life easier.
d. it means that more people will see your “thing”.
e. it makes the most of the effort you’ve put in.
That thing could be content. It could be an illustration or an icon for your brand. It could be a photograph. It could be a story. It could be a freebie.
Let’s take this blog post. I’m going to repurpose this content a lot.
So I’ll finish this post, I’ll go and photograph the rhubarb in the kitchen (or I could use one of the allotment photographs I already took.. or both!) I’ll finish it, create some graphics for the featured image and the Facebook graphic and one for Pinterest, and hit publish. That’s one piece of content with 3 images. Reusable images. So I can repurpose those images for Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram – and the Featured image will work great on Twitter and LinkedIn.
So that’s:
1 x blog post (which you’re reading!)
3 x images
5 x social media posts
Then I’ll go and create a load more images in Promorepublic (amazing social media scheduling tool) and I’ll post new images to Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Twitter. These could be pictures of rhubarb with some wording in the post, images created using the words from this blog or images of me with quotes or images of the allotment.
5-15+ x social media posts
Not including Instastories.
After that, I can keep reusing those images and posts. You have to be a bit careful about that on Twitter, so keep an eye on that, but I can schedule the posts to go out in the future too.
I can also email my list with this post as it might be useful for them to think about repurposing.
I could use the words and rejig them and make them into a whole post on another platform.
I could make a video of me talking about this.
I could start a podcast and talk about this.
I could use this content as a basis for featuring on someone elses blog/ podcast/ interview.
I could do a live.
I could write a book and include it in there.
I could start polls or surveys about repurposing or about rhubarb recipes.
I could create an infographic.
I could do a talk.
I could create tutorials around repurposing in Canva.
I could create a webinar or masterclass.
There is SO MUCH I could do.
You could do all of this too. This list isn’t exhaustive.
Let’s recap:
- 1 x piece of content.
- 10-20 x images.
- 10-20+ x social media posts (Not including Instastories)
- 1 x email newsletter (link to it in your email signature too?)
- 1 x pieces of content on another platform.
- 1 x video.
- 1 x podcast.
- 1 x guest post/ podcast.
- 1 x live.
- 1 x book inclusion.
- 1 x poll.
- 1 x survey.
- 1 x infographic.
- 1 x talk.
- 1 x tutorial.
- 1 x webinar.
= 23-24 + times I could (so far) repurpose one piece of content. 15 ways.
Wow.
And most of this will take you very little time creating those images and scheduling posts. I’ll even time that bit for you when I’m done writing. (I totally forgot I said I’d do this, so I’ve just spent 45 minutes creating graphics and scheduling for the WHOLE WEEK – not just this post… including scrolling through my camera roll for some relevant images for the posts.. I’ll go with 15 minutes for 12 images related to this post spread across 6 platforms.)
If you have Canva for Work then it will even magically resize your images for you and that’ll save you even more time 😉
One of the great things about repurposing is that you don’t have to do it all at once. I could create an infographic in a few months time, add it to this post and then use that as a reason to share it again (not that you need a reason).
I could create a whole new batch of social media graphics and posts at any time.
Literally any of the suggestions above could happen at any point.
I could decide in a few months time that this post (rejigged and rewritten) would make an excellent freebie. Or I could make a slide deck with ideas. Or a card game with a new card for each repurposing possibility.. if you keep thinking, you’ll keep coming up with new ideas. Gather some quotes from others and pop those into the post and then use those for even more content coming back to the same place.. do a Part Two which links back to the original.
See?
There’s so much you can do.
In fact, there’s probably more ideas here than there are recipes (that I fancy trying) for rhubarb. (There are in fact 20 ways, as you may have noticed from the title.)
Comment below with your best repurposing ideas and examples so we can carry on talking about repurposing and help each other out 🙂
Amy Purdie is the founder of Whiteacres (where you are now) she can help your business become irresistible to your ideal clients so that they can’t wait to work with you.
Amy has been enjoying designing logos, brand identities, illustration, print work and websites – since 2007 fuelled mainly by tea and chocolate.