How to Repurpose Content – Hacks for Instagram, TikTok and More
Top hacks for repurposing content on Instagram to increase your efficiency and growth, even when you’re in a content rut.
Posted last year
Written by
Julia CohenPosted last year
It’s easy to burn out when you are running a content engine that keeps on giving, and it’s almost a catch-22 because you know that to succeed on social media you have to stay consistent. But with multiple platforms to focus on, how do you maintain frequent, high-quality content without hitting a roadblock? By making it go farther. In today’s article, we focus on the top hacks to know so you can repurpose your Instagram content and turn one post or video into multi-channel opportunities.
Jump to a section ✨
Why should you repurpose content? 👀
Repurposing content can help you out in a number of ways – the most important one being that it saves you time and effort. When you create a piece of content, you’re putting in the hours to shoot, edit, craft captions, and more – so you’ll want to make it go as far as possible.
Secondly, we all know that social media is extremely fast-paced. Just because you post something, doesn’t mean you can assume that everyone has seen it, so you can get your content in front of more eyes by repurposing the same sentiment or packaging your content in different ways.
Can you post the same thing more than once on social media?
✨ PSST! It’s ok to post something twice. Ever noticed one video has lower engagement than usual, but you can’t pinpoint why? Post these again at your top-performing times, as it is likely a large majority of your audience won’t have seen this content!
Why planning and organizing are key when repurposing social content 📆
The first step to a solid posting strategy is making sure you stay organized. If you have a good scope of your capacity for creating, editing and posting content in one month or week, then it’s easier to stay on track instead of feeling overwhelmed. There are a number of different tips and tricks you should implement into your schedule and strategy in order to plan ahead.
- Schedule time to create. If you know you are going to be interviewing someone for a piece of video content, for example, plan this in. If you know you have time in the morning before work to shoot or edit a specific series on your Instagram, plan this. Specify exactly which pieces of content you plan to work on, and on which days, so you can tick them off as you go.
- Use a formula. If you struggle to plan content ahead of time, you can use a formula for your feed. You might choose to alternate between static and video content for example, or actionable carousels and quote pictures. Giving yourself structure makes for easier grid planning.
- Be realistic. You might find yourself with a quiet week where you can produce and edit a lot, but don’t post it all at once! If it isn’t likely you can stick to posting every single day, and save your bulk content to publish every other day, or every few days so you don’t get to a point where you are out of content and ideas and have nothing to post.
- Use a scheduler. Once you have your content ready to go, you can upload it into a social media scheduler, to make sure it is published during your best posting times.
Flick’s tip: Use our own personal scheduler to get all of your content planned in advance! Try FREE for 7 days!
Top tips and hacks to repurpose content across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more…
- Ideas can be repurposed, not just hard content. If you fit within a specific niche, you will likely be repeating yourself on your social media, and that’s okay! You can pick up on what your audience likes and respond to. A great example of this is ‘running jokes’ or memes. If you notice you get a lot of engagement on a meme about something, take that idea and turn it into a funny Reel or TikTok:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
- Think about how you can make one idea or piece of content into multiple videos or images. If you are a fashion creator, don’t just take images of your looks. Take a video at the same time that you can cut to a music trend or use as a ‘get ready with me video. You can also create a video talking through your outfit or doing your makeup. A lot of creators will make transitional videos, informative videos, and images, just from one look:
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
- It’s ok to post something that you’ve already posted before. Not everyone will see your content the first time!
- Create a video ahead of time and use TikTok or Instagram’s ‘comment respond feature’ to make a response video. If you’ve posted something where you are talking, but happen to have a really cool makeup look on, make sure to record a video of how you got the look. Then, if someone comments asking about the look, you can directly respond with your tutorial video.
- Make a series out of one long video. You can record a video on one topic, and break it down into a series of sections that you can drip-feed across your social media schedule.
How to repurpose content from scratch – our hacks for Instagram, TikTok, and more ♻️
Repurposing is the number one hack for increasing the longevity of your Instagram content and the efficiency of your account. It creates less pressure on you to create when you don’t want to or when you hit a content rut (and we know all about those!). Let’s talk about how you can repurpose content and some of the most useful hacks you can have in your arsenal.
Video content is one of the easiest things to repurpose because there are so many different ways you can manipulate it. Let’s say you host a live interview with someone that is key within your niche (you can apply this same formula to any kind of collaboration). Before you even record or post your video, think about the opportunities you have:
- What platforms are you posting across? Could you film a TikTok using a trending sound with your guest to promote your video, or publish it when it comes out? Could you livestream the interview as it goes? Should you be filming in a horizontal or vertical format?
The first thing to do is tease your upcoming content. This creates an opportunity to piggyback off of content that hasn’t even been created yet, as well as drive buzz and anticipation before it launches. Here’s an example of Miley Cyrus doing just that with her live interview series:
View this post on Instagram
You can also live-stream your video content as it happens across your social media platforms, so viewers have access to the long-form interview, that you can later push people towards:
View this post on Instagram
Now that you have your live video, you can repurpose it even more. The first thing you do, when it wraps, is section out clips from your interview or long-form video that are exciting, “aha” moments, or have a hook. It’s important that people will be able to understand these out of context.
You can create a series of smaller clips from one interview, and stamp them with your logo (like Miley) or you can add text that follows along with the speech as you share snippets. These clips can then be repurposed across TikTok and YouTube Shorts, and you can publish the long-form video on your YouTube channel.
Let’s say your video was an interview with Elon Musk on the future of social media (lucky you!). You’ve highlighted a quote where he talks about his three top predictions, and you isolate this as a separate video you think your followers (and others) would find helpful and engaging. You could upload this video into Reels, add titles like “Elon Musk’s predictions for the future” and save it for when you are ready to post, in line with your schedule.
View this post on Instagram
✨ PRO TIP: Make sure to create any TikTok content with your guest on the day, paying attention to current trends on the platform that you can use to drive people to your other pieces of content or platforms!
So far, we have a Live video, a long-form video, a potential TikTok, and some Reels. Let’s keep going.
So your feed isn’t just video. You want to mix it up with static posts, so you should also think about different ways that you can use the content that was said in the video for different formats. One of the most common ways to do this is by highlighting inspiring and shareable quotes that are likely to rack up saves, shares, and likes. You can use a platform like Canva to create a designed asset and featured quote from your videos in advance, and prepare these for when you want to post them on your feed.
View this post on Instagram
Besides quotes, you can also think about carousels. Was there a lesson learned in the video you recorded? Is there a way to break it down into a number of steps that you can feature across one carousel post? Think about some of the key topics covered and split them up into sections that will be value-adding to people. This is one of the best ways to capture engagement but also helps your users stay interested in your content as they feel like they are truly learning something from your page.
With video, comes audio. Another hack to repurpose your conversation into new content is by converting certain sections into audio snippets and using these to create Instagram posts with platforms like wavve.co. You can show the waveform of your guest (or yourself speaking) alongside the audio and quote, or their name. This goes one step further than posting written quotes because it allows your audience to really feel like they are hearing from someone – it’s more personal and therefore more engaging.
View this post on Instagram
Finally, let’s not forget Stories! Not only should you share your video and feed content onto your Stories every time you post, but you should also use it to interact with your existing followers. Ask them what they thought of the video, start a conversation or debate on a topic that was mentioned, and even get new content ideas by using the question feature to ask what they would like to hear you, or your guests talk about next. Your followers are your best sounding board for new ideas because you’re making the content for them to enjoy.
How Flick can help you repurpose content fast
Now that you have an overall idea of different ways you can repurpose your old social media content, how can Flick help you? Well, it can repurpose your content, like blog posts, YouTube videos, and social media posts, for you in seconds.
Flick’s AI Assistant can help refresh all of your high-performing content pieces with a single click of a button. All you have to do is sign into Flick, head to the Content Lab, and click “Repurpose Content.”
From there, paste the URL to the content you want to repurpose, and the AI Assistant will remix the post into new and engaging content quickly. Plus, the AI Assistant will make sure that the content is written in your brand voice and tailored specifically for you and your brand.
No more trying to freshen up the content by yourself—lean on the AI Assistant to help streamline your workflow and give you back time you can spend doing other things, like growing your brand or learning the newest TikTok trend!
By the end of this blog post, we now have a live video, a long-form video, a feed post, Stories, Reels, TikToks, Shorts, quote assets, audio assets, and carousels. That’s 10+ new pieces of content, all from one video. You can use your new repurposing strategy to inform your planning and organization too, by predicting what kind of insights and snippets you can gain from a video before you record. We hope you enjoyed our hacks on how to repurpose content across Instagram, TikTok, and more.
Stuck trying to come up with content ideas for the month ahead? We’ve got you! Test out our AI Social Media Assistant to brainstorm content ideas in seconds along with the best on-brand captions for your social media posts. Click the banner below to get started with a 7-day free trial of Flick!
More articles related to
How to Find Instagram Influencers for Your Brand
If you want to grow you brand on Instagram, you might need to find Instagram influencers to help you spread the word. Here’s everything you need to know on how to find influencers for your niche...
Mackenzie Taylor
Last month
15 Monday Social Media Post Ideas to Try Today
Build your relationships and help drive engagement with these Monday social media post ideas to help you start your week on the right foot.
Mackenzie Taylor
Last month
How to Repurpose Content for Social Media
Repurposing content for social media can seriously save you time and energy—plus give your audience what they really want from you! Here’s the best way to repurpose content for social media.
Mackenzie Taylor
Last month