Just as single, short, fictional stories can be repurposed into novels, television shows, and billion-dollar movie franchises, the life of one single blog post doesn’t have to stop once you’ve finished writing it.
A blog post can do many things, but regardless of its length, topic, depth, or tone, it can be repurposed and shared in a variety of ways that will ensure that you get the most out of your writing.
What to Do With That Blog Post
Share It
Our connected web increasingly allows us to function as a hive mind, building relationships with each other by sharing things we consider valuable.
- Direct Sharing: Straightforward sharing via social media is the most direct (and easiest) way to make sure your blog post is seen. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ – each of these platforms is filled with people who are ready for the right content to come along so that they can share it with their friends and family as it was originally shared with them.
- Re-Headlining: Try out different headlines as you share your post in multiple ways over time. By presenting the content a different way via your headline, you’ll be better able to see what works and what resonates with people, which will inform how you write your headlines in the future.
- Quoting Yourself: Many blogging platforms include the ability to build user-directed sharing into the blog post itself via a button at the bottom of each post. Enhance this functionality by customizing it so that, when users share your content, they do so while also directly quoting your work in their update or tweet.
Sharing is direct one-to-one marketing and is today’s online version of word of mouth promotion. Writing the content is great, but it takes telling someone about it for it to have any impact.
Get Input
Now that you’ve written your blog post, one possible avenue for your future may be revising that post for future iterations, or just gaining input on what did or didn’t work.
- Quora: If your blog post presents an essential question or concept under discussion, Quora may be a solution for you. Quora is a public question and answer site in which you could present the same concept as the one under discussion in your post, but do so in a way that engages readers and forces them to think.
- Reddit: Reddit is an extremely popular global content community managed by its users. Present yourself to one of the communities within Reddit (called a subreddit) by either sharing your post directly, or by presenting yourself as an author and engaging with “redditors” in direct question and answer.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a platform filled with business people who want to connect with others on a professional level. Connecting with colleagues and others within your industry is a great and safe way to gain valuable input from established pros via sharing in a more controlled setting.
Sharing and gaining input also serve as a softer, more humble way to market yourself and your blog; by asking input, you’re making others aware of yourself and your work, while not directly asking anything of them in return except for their opinions (which most folks are happy to give).
Repurpose It
Just because you originally wrote it as a blog post doesn’t mean it has to only live as a blog post. The content can become something new, and that something new could have an entire successful life of its own.
- Video: Recording a video of your post, whether that be a straight shot of you reading to the audience, or a more elaborate production involving animations and transitions, will ensure that you’re connecting with your audience on a different level. This is a great way for you to present yourself visually to your readers.
- Podcast or Audiobook: There’s an entire segment of your potential audience who likely doesn’t have the time or the inclination to sit down and read a blog post. Those people may be among the millions who multitask by listening to podcasts or audiobooks while doing other work. Record yourself narrating your post to reach this audience.
- eBook: Self-publishing is incredibly easy and increasingly low-cost. With a little bit of expansion, even relatively short, instructional blog posts can be turned into eBooks or sellable PDFs that can be listed on Amazon or other online marketplaces for added revenue.
- Presentation: Turning your blog post into a boiled-down presentation with concise, bulleted pages on a site like Slideshare will really add a level of professionalism to your content, not to mention reaching a busy, business-focused audience.
Some people like the book, some like the movie version. Each one of these above is likely to reach a different type of audience than the initial blog post, with the same message being communicated via a different medium. All successful and all avenues to reach people in ways you hadn’t before.
Finally, Flesh It Out
Many single ideas are contained within the one longer narrative that is a full blog post. You might be surprised at what you come up with by mining your own material.
Analyze it at length for the things you might expand upon. These things will germinate within your mind and become full-fledged posts of their own in no time (for example, we could easily dedicate entire posts to any of the above-mentioned methods, with specific examples).
Any professional writer will tell you that the business of writing goes far beyond just doing the writing itself. The original content creation is the hardest part, though – when the goal is to share, inform, and enlighten, sending that content through multiple avenues can only further that goal.
