How To Recycle Blog Content For Social Media

In this day and age, life moves fast. As we become a more interconnected world, the demand for new content is ever-increasing, and creating brand new content across each of your brand’s social platforms can be exhausting. Today we’re talking about all things blog-recycling and repurposing. 

What Is Blog Content Recycling?

Blog recycling, also referred to as repurposing, is taking pre-existing blog content and altering it to fit a new social platform or context. By doing this, the blog post you wrote about the ‘best sunscreen brands’ or the ‘smartest way to design your outdoor patio this summer could quickly become your most viewed Instagram Reel, most shared Facebook Infographic and most retweeted Tweet. Additionally, blogs are in-depth. So pulling social media post ideas from a previously-written blog post is a lot easier than elaborating on a 140 character Tweet, for example. 

Why Your Brand Should Recycle Blogs 

We recommend recycling blog posts because they are often the most in-depth form of content, so you’ll have lots to work with when recycling. Beginning with a blog post will also help you in the long run when it comes to maintaining your content calendar. However, you can recycle any brand content with a bit of creativity!

Why does beginning with a blog post help with maintaining your content calendar? Well, the purpose of a content calendar is to focus your marketing efforts on the same goal or topic. Because a blog post allows you to dive deep into whatever you’re talking about, it is much easier to pull from in-depth blog content to develop simple and creative social media content for other platforms on the same topic. 

Blog recycling also helps create a common personality and voice across all media channels, ultimately building strong brand authenticity. Building multiple pieces of content from the same blog helps maintain brand consistency and creates a human connection. 

Upholding your brand’s mission and values is what differentiates you from the rest, and relating these values in a way that attracts your audience will set your brand apart. But when brand voice and messaging do not match across all platforms, it loses its authenticity.

Ultimately, blog recycling is cost-efficient. Because recycled content frees you up from brainstorming brand new content for your social channels, you can focus your time and energy on the rest of your to-do list! 

How To Recycle Blog Posts: A Step-By-Step Guide

Step One: 

Write a blog post! There are no boundaries or restrictions limiting your blog posts, so go deep and share as much detail as you can! Blogs play an important role in successful digital marketing strategy, and there are so many topics your brand can dive into!

Step Two:

Deconstruct your blog post. Go in with your highlighter and find key takeaways – keep them simple. Highlight the whys of your blog post. What are the main messages of each section? 

Step Three: 

Apply your blog’s takeaways to new formats. Now it’s time to get creative! Need some social media content ideas? Let’s recycle this blog into new media for our other social platforms!

Instagram:

Instagram is a visual platform. This is a great place to create striking graphics, videos, and take stunning photography that relates to your content. In general, users see more engagement and reach when they utilize the app’s latest features. As far as tools go, Reels is the latest and greatest from Instagram and is an easy way to share short-form video content. 

Faces and statistics resonate well on Instagram. Creating infographics are a powerful way to convey the why to the masses. If your audience resonates with your message, they can share it to their story too. 

So, take the key points from your latest blog post, and try to create a quick Reel video around it. You can also use your content to create a standard graphic in your feed, and even story graphics that lead people back to the original link on your site.

Facebook:

Facebook is all about conversation, so writing an engaging post that resonates with your audience will increase your reach. 

Take this blog for example, recycling blog content is the topic and my target audience is businesses who need help finding their brand voice through social media and content marketing. A corresponding Facebook post like this would be appropriate: “Having trouble keeping up your business’s social media content calendar? Recycling blog content has saved our clients so much time and energy when it comes to their social strategy. What are some other ways that have helped you maintain your social media content calendar? *Link to blog*”

Twitter:

When it comes to Twitter, keep it short and simple. But in order to do so successfully, we must quickly grab attention. A high-quality image or video clip should convey our main point in the first three seconds! 

You can use this as an opportunity to take key points out of your text and link back to the longer blog. And, since Twitter is content-friendly (meaning, text posts, videos, graphics, and more all perform well), you can cross-post from your other platforms here. But, don’t just use Twitter as a dumping ground for cross-posting. Be sure to create unique content around your blog posts to keep your feed fresh and interesting.

LinkedIn:

People turn to LinkedIn for expert advice in their professional field and for networking opportunities. Posting here is an excellent place for B2B communication. Since Zettist is a B2B agency, sharing a case study and the results of how a client used recycled blog content to increase their SEO, for instance, would be a smart move! 

Important Considerations For Your Content Creation Strategy

• Which aspects of your blog post pertain to which social media platform? All social platforms work to create a human connection, however, there is a reason that people use multiple social media platforms. Each features unique idiosyncrasies that allow users to connect in varied ways.
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of various social media platforms in the context of your brand? Each platform has various advantages and disadvantages, but what’s most important is understanding how your brand can best manipulate each. This varies from brand to brand depending on the products and services you sell, your target audience, and the values and mission of your brand. 
• Who are you trying to reach? What differentiates each platform is the method in which users are able to share their stories, and understanding the demographic of your audience will help you pinpoint the right platform for your brand. 

The Benefits Of Content Marketing For Your Business

Whether you mention your brand’s products and services in the blog or not, your brand is invisibly selling itself—and that’s the best form of content marketing. Creating meaningful content in your blog subtly tells your audience about your brand or product and provides real value to the reader outside of what you’re trying to sell. 

You may not realize it, but we’re selling Zettist to you right now! This blog post is making us a more reputable branding agency because we’re able to provide you with valuable information on digital marketing strategy and technique. The more content we have on our website, the more likely it is that you (and others) will find us via a search engine or social media. And the best part? You and your brand can do this too! 

Blogging can also help with your SEO ranking. SEO, or search engine optimization, are visibility-boosting methods that help your content appear at the top of search results. When you search on Google for the “best sandwiches in San Diego,” for example, are you more likely to trust the shop that appears at the top of page one or the one on the bottom of the third page? Improving SEO with blog content is an easy way to increase exposure and convert more visitors to paying customers.

With so much relevant information packed into a single blog, you create a wealth of recycling-worthy content! Again, this is why we recommend writing your blog first and working from your blog to recycle the content into new media for the rest of your social accounts. Try to set a theme each week or month for your content calendar. Write a blog for every theme, and recycle it into new media to maintain a consistent voice across your entire brand!

If you need help with your content marketing, please reach out. We would love to build out strategy and content for your brand!