Repurposing & Respecting the Social Media Platforms

Content repurposing is about taking content and sharing it in new and different ways. Respect plays a HUGE role in this.

Respect? For who? For what? I hear you ask!  I’m talking specifically about respecting the platform that you put your content onto and the associated audience.

For example, I often get asked the question, "Can I repurpose this piece of content exactly as it is from one place to another?".  My answer to that is that it always depends on the content and the context.

For example, if you have an article on your website and you want to repurpose it as it is, without really making many changes, onto LinkedIn. That may be perfectly fine if it's the right content and context for the LinkedIn audience (I do this quite often).

But…would you put that same article on your Facebook page? Most likely you would not.

Or another example. You’ve filmed this hilarious short video of yourself falling over after drinking one or three too many glasses of wine, and you share it on Snapchat. Then, you decide to share the exact same video on Instagram Stories…go for it….maybe even to Facebook Stories…no problem. But, I’d hazard a guess that you’re not going to share that same video on LinkedIn.

When it comes to sharing content, what is appropriate really does depend on the platform and the audience.  You really need to respect why people are on that platform. What do they want to see? What do they expect to see? What will they respond to?

In this article (and podcast episode 10), I'm going to look at some of the major platforms and explore generally what people expect to see.

I’m a wine lover (I almost said connoisseur, but that’s taking it way to far…let’s just say I like wine). So, let’s say for example I want to share my wine drinking experiences on the social platforms.

Facebook: I like wine

Facebook is like the party. I might share that I’m drinking wine with my friends – show a few photos or videos...maybe get a few 'likes' on my posts. Facebook is all about being sociable (mostly!), it’s about bringing people together and sharing thoughts, ideas and experiences.

OK, it's not wine...it's a margarita...but here's an example from one of my own posts earlier this year...

Facebook Live: I’m drinking wine…right now…join me

Facebook Live is all about the real time experience. I could share my experiences of tasting different wines.  I could ask people to join me in a virtual tasting and we could talk to each other about the wines.  This would be an amazing thing to do if you had an online wine store. Or, wine producers could do lots with this kind of idea too.

Twitter: I am drinking a bottle of #amarone tonight

All about conversation and being concise! 

Also, hashtags are still important, they help you get noticed and help you find content too.

Twitter is very fast moving, it’s a real time information platform. You can find out the latest opinions, news and stories. You can find and reach people with hashtags, and also jump onto trending hashtags to grow the discussion and potentially grow your audience. Twitter is great for local businesses, for example, maybe I want to find out whether a local wine shop have a certain wine in stock…if they are active on Twitter we could converse in that way.

Instagram: Here’s a photo of my bottle of wine tonight

This isn't my photo by the way...but I wish it was!

Instagram is a feast for the eyes! It’s a visual platform and generally we share content that is aesthetically appealing to our audience.  Here, I might share a photo of my bottle of wine. I’d try and get some nice lighting, make use of the Instagram filters, and make it look as nice as possible. I’d share with some hashtags and geotags too, to try and reach new people. Your Instagram content doesn't always need to be staged, or fancy, but it is a visual platform and I always bear that in mind.

Instagram Stories: Here I am buying the wine…can you help me choose what to buy?…now I’m drinking the wine…oops I fell over….too much wine….now I have a hangover…

Instagram Stories is casual and fun. It’s in the name, but it is about our ‘stories’. It’s the behind the scenes, what’s going on in our lives kind of content. With my wine example, I’d take images and videos during the day then share them all together as a story. I would even consider getting people involved by doing a poll – ‘what wine shall I drink tonight: French or Italian?”.

Try and take people on a little journey to find out a bit more about you. Stories don't have to be as visually engaging as Instagram posts because they are a subtly different kind of format, the context is not the same and stories disappear after 24 hours.

YouTube: Tune into my YouTube show where I interview a wine producer every week…hit subscribe

YouTube is a place to be entertained, educated, inspired…people go to YouTube for many different reasons. I could do so much with my wine content on YouTube. I could simply vlog about my wine drinking exploits, I could even have a wine tasting show. In fact, that’s how Gary Vaynerchuk got started online (see below).

LinkedIn: I am a full qualified wine drinker

Let’s get professional!  I might share my number of years of drinking wine (joke!). Maybe I've got some wine qualifications, and that would be useful to share but really only if I work in the wine industry!

Whilst we tend to think of LinkedIn as the professional networking site, funnily enough I’ve recently seen it become more and more like a social media platform. I’m seeing status updates on LinkedIn that are more about socialising and exactly like posts you’d see on Facebook. For example, on LinkedIn, I could simply share a status “I prefer Prosecco to Champagne, does anyone else?” – I would most likely get some decent engagement.

Pinterest: Take a look at my ‘Wine & Cheese Pairing’ Infographic 

Pinterest is all about the visuals, but it’s for people who are looking for more than the photo or video on Instagram. It’s about providing tons of visual inspiration and ideas. If I were posting about wine on Pinterest, I’d likely created a really visually engaging infographic. Or, I’d create a Pinterest board (like a scrapbook), full of images and ideas about, say for example, pairing wine and cheese (mmmm).

To conclude

There are other social media platforms, and of course other ways to put our content in front of our audiences e.g. podcasts, books, speaking…etc.

The point that I'm making is that we must always speak the language of each platform. 

Maybe all that is needed is a little change here or there to make your content in-line with what people on a new and different platform would be expecting.

Repurposing content is a brilliant thing to do, I’m the world’s number one fan when it comes to content repurposing. But. Be smart people. Respect!

I was experimenting with blog repurposing to video and also turned this article into the video below...an example of what we do with our Blog 10x service.