Look Back, Waaaaay Back: Mine Your Past Content

Ever get stumped when creating social media posts? Stuck on what to film for your next video? Sick of staring at a blank page with a blinking cursor for that blog post? There’s a simple solution to this problem! 

Dig into the past to create content for your future. 

We’ve all seen the “On this date” or #TBT posts on social media and it’s a great way to remind people why you went viral in the first place, it’s also a great way to save your butt when you’re just out of ideas! 

Here are a few other ways you can repurpose content - even things you created in different formats - for your future marketing efforts. 

Recycle, Reuse, and Repurpose

If you’d written an article - much like this one - with several tips about your industry, make individual social media posts about each tip. These could be videos or graphic-based posts, or paired with a great photo. This blog we wrote about The Five Graphic Design Mistakes You’re Making is a great example of five posts you can write and schedule - a sixth if you’re promoting the overall blog itself?

What’s Changed?

Did you write a blog a couple years ago about something interesting, but now the situation has changed? That’s a great way to update and create new content. Accountants can update a blog about new tax filing rules, a construction company can update posts about code changes. For us, with the constant changes in technology related to marketing, there’s always something new happening. For example, this article about the Evolution of Hashtags, updates one of our older blogs about Hashtag mistakes we’ve seen in the wild.  

#OTD or #TBT

We’ve all seen the hashtags and, sure, it’s evolved to be officially cringe. BUT, the concept is still excellent for creating content. Look back on your incredible milestones. Won an award 10 years ago today? Celebrate it with a post! If you’re a business with a long history? Lean into the nostalgia like our post about our lovable mascot Moody’s birthday. Show historical photos, tell stories about the history with real people. Lean into your history to create content for the future.

When telling stories about your business, you’ll find yourself coming back to the same topics over and over again, but there’s always something new to say. And remember, you’re growing your audience, so those new followers may not have seen what you’d created in the past. Frankly, with the algorithms determining who sees what you’re posting online and when, it’s possible even your most loyal followers haven’t seen all the content you’re producing, so it’s worthwhile to dig out what tidbits you’ve seen resonate and build on them for your new content!

If you want some help going through the archives, or are looking for a broader social strategy, we’d love to hear from you. We can help you plan your content for a month or a year! It just might be time to Go Rogue.