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Social Media Marketing Blog

How to Repurpose Your Social Media Content


Updated on August 17, 2023
5 minute read

Reduce, reuse, repurpose. ♻️

Published August 17, 2023
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Social media managers are expected to create valuable content every week. 

But with limited resources and bandwidth, consistently coming up with new ideas can lead to a one-way ticket to burnout.

So in 2023, it’s all about working smarter, not harder — and that starts by repurposing your social media posts for different platforms.

In this blog post, we’re sharing the benefits of repurposing your content for social media and how you can start implementing these low-lift tactics, today.

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What Does It Mean to Repurpose Your Social Media Content?

Content repurposing is a strategy that consists of reusing or reframing previously posted content on your social media channels

But, it’s not as simple as copying and pasting from one post to another. 

In order for repurposed content to perform well, you need to get creative with new angles, captions, or referenced trends. 

Side by side of Emily in Paris-related content posted on Later's Instagram. On the left, a user-generated content video poking fun at how easy Emily makes social media work seem on the show that reads "POV: You're Emily in Paris so anything you post goes viral" — the person snaps a photo with a trash can and gets hundreds of likes.  On the right, a meme that reads "Social media managers watching Emily in Paris," coupled by a GIF of "Emily" looking offended, with a tag that says "offended" on the GIF.

From turning a meme into a TikTok or using blog content to inspire a carousel post, content repurposing has many uses. 

And when done with thought and intention, it can reinvent the meaning of a piece of content, solidify your brand voice, and attract new followers. 

FYI: You can easily repurpose your content to multiple accounts with Later’s social media management tools! Create an account for free, today.

What Are the Benefits of Repurposing Your Social Media Content?

Social media managers will often repurpose content because it’s a low-lift tactic that yields high results.

In fact, it’s a core piece of Later’s social media strategy.

“By repurposing content to multiple channels, we’re able to reach more people with a single piece of content. This makes it easier for us to focus on quality over quantity,” says Later’s Social Media Content Lead, Lindsay Ashcraft. 

“By using what’s worked on other channels, we can get an idea of what might resonate on new channels without creating extra work for ourselves,” Lindsay explains. 

The takeaway? You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. 

Aside from the time-saving benefits, recycling your content can also help you beat writer’s block, avoid creative burnout, and post more consistently

Looking for more time-saving hacks? Plan, schedule and analyze your content with Later’s social media marketing toolstry it out for free! 

3 Ways to Repurpose Your Social Media Content

Ready to work smarter, not harder? Here are three tips for repurposing your social media posts: 

#1: Crosspost Your Content

The most common way to repurpose your social media content is to crosspost from one channel to another. 

How? At Later, we turned this high-performing LinkedIn text-post into a listicle-style graphic on Instagram: 

The result? Over 3K likes and 100 comments on one Instagram post.

Plus, when we posted it to X (aka Twitter), it also performed well with over 130 likes and 34 retweets. 

In a nutshell: Repurposed content is the gift that keeps on giving, and is a great method for getting extra mileage on valuable posts. 

TIP: Your audience is smart and can detect when you’ve been recycling content too often (especially if they follow you on multiple platforms), so avoid crossposting every day. Instead, do what works best for each channel you’re posting on.

#2: Repurpose Short-form Videos

Like most brands and businesses, short-form video content is an essential part of your content strategy.

And with so many social media platforms adapting and optimizing their platforms for short-form video, why limit your video content to just one platform? 

There’s a common misconception that reposting your TikTok videos to Reels (or vice versa) could cause the algorithm to deprioritize your video.

However, here are two tips for optimizing your video content when you want to repurpose them: 

Tip #1: Remove Watermarks

Watermarks are a big no-no when it comes to reposting your short-form video content.

Instagram has stated that “watermarks make the Reels experience less satisfying,” and thus this type of content will be “less discoverable in places like the Reels tab.” 

To get around this, you can use tools on Instagram or TikTok that let you save your video (without a watermark) prior to publishing: 

Repurpose content - Later remove watermarks

You can also remove watermarks from your videos by using third-party watermark removers like SnapInsta.app and SnapTik.app.

Tip #2: Keep Your Fonts and Audio Native to Each Platform

At Later, we frequently repurpose video posts — but the text and audio on each is native to the corresponding platform. 

Why? To avoid being potentially deprioritized in search (many social algorithms can recognize when you’ve used features not native to their platforms). 

Take this example, where we repurposed a TikTok into a Reel:

Repurpose content - Keep Your Fonts and Audio Native to Each Platform

We downloaded the TikTok video without a watermark, and overlaid Instagram Reels text over the original TikTok text. 

Then, we found the TikTok audio within Reels, and used it instead. 

By making these text and audio adjustments on Reels, we optimized the video to be Instagram algorithm-friendly.

Plan, schedule, and analyze your Instagram Reels and TikTok content with Later's social media management tools. Get started today — for free!

#3: Reformat Your Content

Sometimes, all it takes is one old post to inspire a new idea. 

When a Kourtney Kardashian meme started making headlines, we joined the conversation by repurposing a previous idea from our TikTok and applied it to this tweet: 

But there are endless ways to reformat content. 

Many brands and businesses will often extract quotes from their webinars or YouTube videos, and turn them into carousel posts on Instagram, blog posts, podcast episodes, or even Linkedin posts.  

Ultimately, reformatting your content is all about recycling high-performing concepts, copy, or visuals, and applying them to another platform. 

Remember, content creation doesn’t need to be mentally taxing. 

When you repurpose your content with the intention of bringing new life to your posts, you can increase your engagement and reach — with half the effort. 

FYI: Later's social media management platform is trusted by over 7M brands, creators, and social media managers to plan and schedule their social media content. Sign up today — for free.

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