Web 301: 3 Ways To Upcycle Your Best Content

by Lily Bradic

What happens to your brand’s best content after its initial publication and distribution? Is it buried on your website and forgotten about, or do you find new ways of using it again and again? When you upcycle, the time and effort you put into content creation goes further. Repurposed content can also perform better than the original piece and can provide unexpected insight into your audience’s behaviour. Here are three quick tips to get started:

Break It Up

Your Slideshare slides can, individually, become shareable Facebook or Twitter images. Key points from your blog posts can be superimposed onto images and shared with your followers. Your infographics can be broken up into smaller pieces, too. Free online tools like Canva make it easy to create graphics for your blog, website or social profiles — take advantage of them when repurposing your content.

Edit Often

Keep track of your highest performing content and make sure you update it regularly. The online world moves fast, and information can become out-dated in a matter of months. While most types of content can be salvaged and made relevant again by a quick edit, some things — like news-based blog posts and anything related to viral or trending topics — are best left alone.

Revisit Your Past

Go through your blog archive, right back to the beginning. What’s changed since your business first started blogging? How has your brand evolved? Use quotes from old posts to demonstrate how things have changed — or how they’ve remained the same. If you mentioned any goals in 2011 that have since been achieved, make it known! This is also a good way of creating content when you're stuck — looking back can help you move forward when you're blocked.

Have any tips for repurposing content? Let us know in the comments!