How to turn 1 piece of content into 25+ pieces that your audience will love
This simple framework can help you to get the most out of your existing content
Creating content is hard work.
Creating content for multiple social media channels is even harder.
That’s where having a content repurposing framework can be the difference between constantly struggling to create ‘new content’ vs. having an endless stream of content pieces you can share with your audience.
With the simple content repurposing framework I’ll share with you below, you can leverage 1 piece of pillar content to create at least 25 other pieces of content for different platforms.
But first, what is pillar content?
Pillar content is long-form content that goes deep into a particular topic.
It can come in numerous forms: written, video, and audio, but for the purpose of this article, we’re going to focus on video & audio content.
If you:
Host a podcast (I think this is a huge opportunity for accountants…)
Go live on Facebook or Linkedin,
Or run regular educational webinars/training for your clients (which I’ve noticed more accounting & bookkeeping firms are starting to do)
…then this framework is going to help you to take that content and use it to fuel your content strategy across multiple platforms.
If you don’t currently do any of those, then it could be worth considering doing so in order to drive your content strategy going forwards…
Here’s an overview of how it works.
It starts with your pillar content. The recording from your podcast, training, or presentation.
Then, we move into creating micro-content. This is where you begin to slice and dice your pillar content into smaller snippets.
Next, we take those snippets and optimise them for the social media channels you use. This step is where lots go wrong and I’ll share how to get it right shortly.
And finally, you distribute that content on your social media channels to drive engagement, and ultimately drive people back to your pillar content.
Let’s get into more detail about how to do each step…
Step 1 - Create your pillar content
Record the podcast episode, webinar, Linkedin live, whatever it is.
Having video from this is good but not essential.
Next, you do the normal editing + tidying-up process and then upload the full-length recording to the relevant channels.
Typically this would be on Youtube, your podcasting platform (audio only), and possibly your Facebook page.
Step 2 - Slice & dice to create your micro-content
Within this pillar content will be at least 3-5 snippets that will work well as standalone pieces of content.
In terms of video/audio, you’re only looking for 1-3 mins' worth of content.
Look for snippets you know will drive views and engagement, and ultimately send people back to the full-length recording to consume the whole thing.
You can also extract quotes and other relevant points that could work well as standalone content pieces.
Step 3 - Contextualise for your social media channels
This is where lots go wrong…
Don’t just drop links to Youtube, your blog, or your podcast on Linkedin or Twitter.
Please, if there’s 1 lesson you take from this newsletter let it be that 👆
Each social media platform has its own rules. Content that works well on Linkedin might not translate so well to Instagram. People want to consume in the feed and engage there as well. They don’t want to click to go elsewhere.
You need to contextualise your content. This means repurposing it so that it's optimised for consumption on that particular platform.
For video/audio snippets, check you’re using the right specs & sizes that work best on each channel. This helpful guide from Sprout Social will help. Also look at what style of video is trending on each platform and work towards that.
Here’s an example of this in action from personal branding expert, Amelia Sordell:
Pillar content on Youtube (1+ hour podcast episode)
Contextualised + optimised snippet on Linkedin (notice how she’s written out the key points in the post so people can consume without having to watch the video)
Another clip optimised as a Youtube short
Different clip optimised as an Instagram reel
As well as video/audio, you also want to think about the content formats that typically work well for each channel.
For example:
Linkedin - Create a carousel working through the key points of the podcast episode.
Twitter - Create a threaded tweet walking through the same points
Instagram - Share an image with a quote extract or a short reel
If you’re not sure what social media channels you should be using to reach your ideal clients then start by answering these 5 questions.
4. Hit post and monitor the engagement
Schedule and post your micro-content across your social media channels.
Remember to include a link to the full-length pillar content in order to drive people back to consume that.
Important - make sure you play by the rules of the platform when it comes to sharing links e.g. on Linkedin the algorithm penalises links in posts. To get around this it’s best to drop a link in the comments or edit the post 1+ hour after posting and add it later on.
The great thing about this approach is not just the multiple pieces of content you can create, but the insights you can gain from it.
Monitor to see what gets engagement and what doesn’t. If your audience is engaging with something it means it’s resonating.
If it’s resonating then you can use this to go and create more in-depth pillar content on this particular topic. Run another training, record another podcast. That then leads to more micro-content and the cycle continues.
Hope this helps!
Jordan
P.S. We’re thinking about running a free content strategy workshop for accounting & bookkeeping firms. If you’d be interested in joining please leave a comment below with your biggest question about content marketing or message me on Linkedin.