Thanksgiving has come and gone - waistlines everywhere rejoice.
Our favorite day of the year to gorge leaves us with that age-old conundrum - what should we do with all of these leftovers?
When you are creating content for your brand, you may find yourself in a similar situation. All year long, you work hard creating and crafting blog posts, videos and various other media as a part of your inbound marketing strategy.
Surely, you have created a certain piece that you think is worth circulating more than once. One of the great benefits of online media is that recycling content is okay in moderation.
Much like the mound of leftover turkey sitting in your fridge, you are sitting on an extensive content library. You can turn that bird into a club sandwich, but what can you do with all that content?
Here are three strategies for recycling your content leftovers.
Be Mindful Of The Date
Sometimes, content you created months ago becomes relevant again due to current events, holidays, etc. Much like a newspaper running an article or editorial that ran in the past, it is okay to preface a piece of content with, "This post originally ran on...".
Additionally, you may just have a favorite post that you want to re-air, and don't even need much of a reason.And that is okay too!
But remember, Google's search engine loves fresh content. While repurposing popular posts may provide a temporary boost in traffic, it is not a sustainable content strategy.
End Of The Year Recap
As the calendar comes to a close, it is typical to look back fondly on the year that was. No sense in wasting time thinly veiling your intentions here. You want to highlight the best content from the past year. There are plenty of ways to present this.
"The Best Posts of 2012″ or something akin to that title are easy to put together and could actually provide an opportunity for interoffice dialogue. Ask team members what their favorite posts were, and include their name in the post. Highlighting your team is always important - a quick blurb from them saying why the post was their favorite provides insight to their personality.
This strategy allows you to recycle old content while creating a new post to house them in.
Spinoffs and Sequels
Hollywood figured out a long time ago not to fix what isn't broken. Sequels and spinoffs are never at a premium. We tried that with one of our more popular posts a couple months ago. "5 Guiding Principles For Creating Great Content" saw a good amount of traffic, so we decided not to reinvent the wheel. "5 (More) Guiding Principles For Creating Great Content."
That post was also successful. While the text was new for that post, the idea certainly wasn't.
Creating good content, like preparing a Thanksgiving dinner, takes preparation. But regardless, you'll end up with leftovers. Don't let them go to waste.
For more tasty tips on inbound marketing, check out our free White Paper here.