The Winter Olympics have just finished up in South Korea, and for most of us, that means one thing: Our favorite networks will air new episodes of our favorite TV shows. No more reruns!
But sometimes, a rerun can be a good thing. There’s something comforting about scrolling through the channels and landing on an old episode of The Golden Girls or The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. New is good, but popular and familiar work, too.
The same goes for your small business content. While you don’t want to consistently rerun blog posts, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few old favorites out of the closet, dusting them off and giving them another 15 minutes of fame — especially if they’re still as valuable as when you first published them. Here are a few ways to do it.
The Straight Rerun
Are you under the weather, out of ideas or ready to take off on a well-deserved vacation? Now is the perfect time to dig out some evergreen content. Just schedule it to post to your blog and social media pages as-is and forget about it.
Evergreen content is always relevant. There’s no need to update it because the facts haven’t changed. A “how-to” post that deals with getting the best airfare to Jamaica is evergreen; the blog post you wrote three years ago about your Jamaican vacation is not.
While you shouldn’t make a habit of rerunning pieces too often or too soon after they’re initially published, a few sprinkled here and there can save you plenty of time, introduce the topic to readers who might have missed it the first time and serve as a refresher for those who haven’t read it in a while.
The Refresh
Do you have a piece of content that you absolutely love, but it’s not wholly relevant anymore? Maybe it talks about long-past events or relies a bit too heavily on outdated pop culture references. That doesn’t mean you can’t repurpose it. You just need to refresh it.
We began this blog post with references to the recent Olympics. If we were to refresh this piece somewhere down the line, we’d come up with a new introduction that references a more recent TV phenomenon … and adjust this paragraph, too. Voila! We can now reuse this post without it seeming stale and outdated!
The Complete Repurpose
Sometimes, no matter how evergreen the content or how easy it may be to refresh, it just won’t have another lifecycle as a blog post. But that doesn’t mean it withers and dies in our hard drive. It just metamorphizes into something new.
Is the content rich in facts and information? Consider using it to create an infographic. Some people prefer their content in easy-to-digest bits and pieces, so by changing the structure of your article or blog post, you could gain a whole new audience. Is the content witty and entertaining? Make it a podcast! People can listen during their commute instead of reading it on their phone or tablet.
Once you get the hang of repurposing your content, the possibilities are virtually endless. A how-to piece can become a video, a video can become a webinar, a webinar can become a slideshow, a slideshow. You get the picture.
This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still be creating fresh, new content; you can’t rest on your laurels forever. But there’s no need for awesome content to only get one shining moment in the sun.
Not quite ready to try your hand at repurposing? That’s what we’re here for! Reach out to us today and let Mischa Communications help transform your reruns from ho-hum into awesome!