Recycling your content can not only give you a boost in SEO, but strengthen your impact with current customers. It also gives you the opportunity to establish yourself as an industry leader to a new target by using a new medium. Below are a few ways you can breathe refreshing new life into that tired old content.

1. Create a Brand Spanking New Ebook

Building a high-quality ebook out of your blog posts makes a trophy out of all the championing you’ve done so far. It’s simple to gather your most popular posts, customer questions and comments to create the outline for your ebook. Then be sure to add value to them through additional insights and advice, original photos and a fresh design. Depending on the length and quality, it can serve as great free content to attract leads on your website.

2. Convert a One-Shot Post Into a Multiple-Shot Series

Take that 12-fact blog post that you ran last year and craft it into a 12 email treat for your customers. By adding new helpful advice, photos, examples, and rearranging the sequence, you can extend the life of that post, plus attract new traffic, leads and possibly customers. Spice up your email campaign by using free software such as Campaign Monitor to give you that professional feel.

3. Build an Infographic or Instructographic

If you find that your content contains a lot of data, infographics are a great way to relate detailed or complex information as something that is fun to read for your followers. Use software like Piktochart or Visual.ly for a polished DIY project. If your post is a “how-to,” you can create an instructographic for Pinterest that, similar to an infographic, is the new way to blend instructions and graphics to ease the learning process.

4. Slide It

If your post is data-heavy, your visual learners will appreciate a slide show of facts and insights on your topic rather than words on the screen. Make your slides simple with a less-is-more approach, meaning 3 lines per slide and use simple graphics and compelling images to reinforce your message. You can then promote your presentation by starting a conversation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn or, up the ante by hosting a professional webinar for your company.

5. Be The Guest of Honour

If a topic has been popular with your own followers, it’s a good candidate for a guest post. We really liked the idea of the “Hub-and-Spokes method,” where you view your original piece as the hub and the guest post(s) as the spokes. If you imagine these parts on a wheel – connected – you will see that the content will continue to drive traffic back to your site. Managers of other sites are often happy to accept outside work on their website as long as it’s relevant and of good quality.

Creating an eBook, expanding a single-shot into a multiple post series, putting together a cool graphic, presentation and guest posting are great ways to give yourself a creative concept break by repurposing your existing content. Recycling content can work brilliantly, just be sure you are adding value wherever possible to the original post.

How do you recycle your content? Let us know on Facebook or Twitter @YabstaDigital

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Vibrant Visuals

It’s all about the visuals, and Facebook itself has confirmed a decrease in the distribution of text-based statuses. Many social networks are encouraging businesses and users to embrace visual content, which, according to Social Media Examiner, receives an astounding 94 percent more views. The same article states that visuals are processed 60,000 times faster than text by the brain, making it no question why viewers prefer images. Visuals also contribute to brand growth (think logos and advertisements) and, in turn, a more widespread audience.

Living the Life

It’s time to shift focus from promotional posts for the sake of sales to touting how your products and services influence customers’ lifestyles. Selling what your business stands for, as opposed to the products themselves, engages users in a natural, organic way. Content can be more creative and rewarding, both for the reader and the writer. For example, why not start a blog series that offers readers a relevant freebie, such as Urban Outfitters’ #MusicMonday playlist downloads? That’s surely more interesting than another dress description.

Podcasts

Still an emerging medium, a podcast is a digital audio file made available for downloading. New and novel, they capture the attention of audiences in a genuine, engaging way, ideal for viewers who prefer listening over reading. Easy to digest, this tool is bound to become more and more valuable as 2014 progresses; according to Huffington Post, while only 5 percent of marketers are currently involved in podcasting, 24 percent plan to incorporate it into their strategy. Examples of businesses who have achieved podcast success include WEBS, Greenfeet.com and Copyright Clearance Centre.

Social media is here to stay, and we’re sure you didn’t need convincing. Staying on par with today’s trends, from visual content’s growing prevalence to audio files and a leaning towards lifestyle posts, is key to shining bright instead of fading into the background. Looking to learn more? Click here.

Image Credit: Miami Agent Magazine