It can be difficult for small businesses operating in competitive markets to get ahead, especially when you consider the fact that they don’t typically have access to marketing departments and unlimited resources or funds.
So what advantages do small businesses have over their larger counterparts? The answer is their personal brand, as opposed to a corporate identity. This might sound strange, but large multinationals covet what entrepreneuring business owners seem to find with relative ease.
This gives them a competitive edge when dealing with their audience by allowing a human side to shine through more clearly. That’s one reason why approachable content is so important to emerging brands. How can businesses keep their content fresh and interesting over the long term?
Defining the Concept of Repurposing Content
The process involves altering the format of a work for a new intended audience, and there are many reasons as to why you’d want to do this. For example, you may wish to reach a wider audience, create less and promote more, establish your personal brand as an authority or increase your online Web presence.
Overall, the practice can take many guises, as each member of a target audience will prefer to consume their information in a variety of different formats. In this article, we’ll look at seven ways you can transform your personal branding and create engaging content consistently and successfully.
- Newsjack Appropriate Headlines and Start a Conversation
Many businesses nowadays are tapping into newsjacking, a strategy which involves inserting your brand into conversations that arise as a result of news and current affairs.
In this way, small brands can find a national or international audience, express their opinions or push their agenda – as long as they do it subtly – while pulling from the power of such significant events.
Additionally, repurposing this content for your own goals increases the chance of your information going viral – much like Starbucks did in 2013 when snow storm Nemo hit.
- Appropriate and Revitalize Your Blog Post Archives
If you’ve been in business and have been running a blog for any length of time, chances are you’ll have an extensive collection of content just waiting to be repurposed in your archives.
If you can revitalize this information and create something new, your personal brand will be able to extend the life of its back catalogue. Your audience will appreciate that you took the time to reframe an idea they cared enough about to read in the first place.
- Generate Group Discussions in Online Forums
As a fledgling business or established boutique, you shouldn’t forget that your customers are people and have their own interests and hobbies outside of what you offer. Forums such as Reddit, StumbleUpon and others represent some of the best places to begin posting content online.
If you can tap into the vast networks created by like-minded people, you’ll be able to increase the size of your audience and promote your brand to new potential followers. Alternatively, you can even take ideas from these forums and push them to your website to create and encourage a back-and-forth between your online communities.
- Build an Infographic or Other Interesting Visual
It’s a fact that humans are visual creatures and as such, more than 90 percent of the information absorbed by the brain is done so visually, which makes infographics a powerful tool in the right hands.
These shouldn’t be sophisticated mood boards referencing statistics and dense information, as they are at their best when the content is simplified and presented in a broadly appealing format. In fact, if all you do is reappropriate information from any of these sources, you’ll be well on your way to creating something interesting.
- Create a Mesmerizing SlideShare Presentation
If you take an infographic one step further, you’ll enter the domain of SlideShare presentations. You can use any of the free photo-editing programs to create powerful slideshows with ease and break down your copy into its major talking points.
Why would you want to put in the additional effort and go the extra mile? Because visual information can attract up to 94 percent more attention online. Also, once you present this information, be sure to tweet about it. Turn your slides into blog articles and push the same content in different directions to maximize its potential and value.
- Develop an Animation or Motion Graphic
Few forms of communication are as effective as video, and motion graphics are a happy medium between infographics and animation. A great example of this can be seen in Beat the Dealer, a motion graphic from CJ Pony Parts, which aims to simplify the process of buying a car.
For some perspective, you can also see how this information has been adapted and repurposed from the company’s existing infographic to present the same ideas in a different and versatile way.
- Repost, Re-Promote and Cross-Promote With Social Media
Lastly, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram and others remain important to personal brands. If you’ve been cross-promoting your online content via these channels, you’ve already been repurposing content for different audiences and formats.
While it may seem counterintuitive to post the same information to different networking sites, when quality content is paired with effective social media strategies, businesses can develop and refine their personal brands and reach audiences across time zones and geographic locations.
One thing you should know about when committing to social media is just how important timing and brevity is. As such, you’ll find this information on the ideal length of everything online essential as you progress.
Replicating Results and Embracing a Brighter Future
The great thing about repurposing content is that it’s a process that is repeatable. This means that if you do happen to find success through trialing a few of these strategies, you will be able to replicate the results with accuracy.
While this list cannot hope to include every conceivable way a business can repurpose and rejuvenate content, it should serve as an effective jumping-off point for you to go about your own research into building up your personal brand.
