I have a few exciting things that I am planning in the upcoming month and a half that will certainly keep me busy and best of all I believe that there will be ways to re-purpose the things that I create for future uses.

I am not a marketing expert but I do read a few different blogs about marketing tips etc and one tip that comes up frequently is how to reuse content so I am looking forward to trying this strategy. In fact I read this article yesterday covering this very topic. I believe that re-using some content will save me time and allow me to reach new potential clients.

Marketing Practices Are Always Changing

One thing that I try to keep in mind as I am looking for articles to help me, is that with social media the rules are constantly changing so it I need to be aware when an article was published. The one I mention above is dated, but not all articles are. I really don’t want to spend my time reading and implementing ideas that are out dated and no longer effective, but the question is how do you know what is current? This is a pet peeve of mine, and why I put a date on my the blog, I want people to know when it was published to help them determine relevancy. Even the non technical can relatively easily find out if the publisher provided a date and if so what date it was.

Information (especially when it relates to content marketing) is always changing and evolving. What was gospel six months ago could easily be a gimmick today. That’s just the nature of this business.”

Finging A Date

One way to solve the problem of learning when an article is published if there is no publish or update date on the article itself is to look at the meta data, and hope that the publishing author updated that information.

In Firefox, which is my preferred browser this is very easy to do, you simply right click on the page and select ‘View Page Info’ and a pop-up box will be displayed. The information displayed is from the the code itself. In this example, the article has an updated date displayed and does not show when it was originally published, however the meta data doesn’t provide a date at all.

You can contrast that with this article (I quoted it above) which does not provide an original publish date or update date in the article itself but the meta data provided by the publishing author provides both dates. Originally I wasn’t going to quote this article because I wasn’t sure it was current due to the lack of obvious date and an article it linked to was from 2014. But once I looked at the meta data I saw that it was updated in October 2020 so I decided to use it.

If you are using Chrome as your browser you can install an extension to view the meta data, the one I have installed is META SEO inspector. If you use Safari for Mac, you can check out this article for more information and for Microsoft Edge you can look at this write up.

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Why Reuse Content?

• Improves organic search results
• Allows you to target market
• Expands your online presence
• Reaches new audiences
• Increases your authority/credibility
• Gives new life to old content

Re-using content can help me save time because I won’t have to create the content from scratch, I will have something to work with. I know that this will not be a simple plug and play type situation I will still need to dedicate time to understanding how I can take some of the blocks of project A and put them into project B to allow the content to shine in both contexts without looking like a sloppy replay.

Two of the upcoming things I have planned are speaking engagements, and I think we all know that there are some specific things that all speaking engagements have.

• Introduction of myself
• Introduction of my business
• Thank you and contact information

Not only will I be able to use those three blocks in both speaking engagements but I can also use those items in my networking events as well. While it is true that there will need to be some variation on what I say to suit the context of the event and the person, utilizing the same bits over and over again will help me practice and perfect what my message is and judge how effective it is.

Last week I did finish the video piece I spoke about in my previous blog, and thinking about my upcoming engagements I know that I will be able to repurpose some of that content as well.

Is Repurposing Cheating?

I will tell you that I have a bit of a hard time with repurposing content, because it just seems wrong in some way that I cannot quite describe. It isn’t cheating but yet it just seems off and I am working hard to set that feeling aside and work with the information that the experts are providing me.

Syed Balkhi from Entrepreneur.com reminds us that it takes “...multiple touches before someone buys, repurposing helps reinforce your message.”

Additionally, it is important to remember that we are publishing out content on our sites as well as social media, and we are all at the mercy of the algorithm. What that means is just because you publish your content in one place and then repurpose it and publish it on a different medium doesn’t mean that your users will see it both places because of that algorithm and it will depend on where your users are. Not everyone has multiple social media accounts, and some don’t even use social media on a regular basis. So repurposing your content is not cheating at all it is working to deliver your content to the broadest audience because you are putting the information out to different platforms so you are going where people are.

How To Repurpose

As I mentioned above I will be repurposing some of my presentation blocks in various formats. Other ways to repurpose my blog posts are to create infographics out of the headings or main points and point back to my blog. I could reach out to other blogs to be a guest blogger and repost (tweaking it for the audience as necessary) an existing piece.

The articles I used above also have tips on how to repurpose your content. You can find additional ideas here and here.

What do you think about repurposing content, do you do it already? Do you have to overcome the feeling that is in some way wrong like I do? Share your thoughts at my Facebook page.

And if you would like to skip the back and forth to find a convenient time for a meeting, check out my schedule on Calendly! Schedule Now

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NOTE: I am not being paid for my mentions of people, articles, products, or books I used above nor do I receive referral compensation unless it is disclosed within the post itself, the links are for convenience.

Unless otherwise indicated I sourced the links provided while researching a post. Links that I provide at the request of another person/business will be noted, and if I am paid to provide a link I will disclose that information on the post in which it is applicable. All opinions are mine, regardless of whether or not I am compensated, and are not in any way influenced by the requesting party.

DISCLAIMER: This advice is general in nature and not to be taken as personal professional advice. This blog does not provide legal advice if you need legal advice, please contact an attorney directly.