It’s that time of year again! The kids are out of school, the days are longer, and the weather is warmer. It’s hard to believe that Canada 150 is a few days away—the amount of work that has gone into the celebration is mind boggling. Not just from Canada itself, but from hundreds of companies across the country. It’s actually a great example of why communications planning, goal setting, and time management is so important.
Recently we were discussing how, while it would be a lot of work to plan the 150 celebrations, it’s almost easier to have something to plan and promote than having very little to communicate. Think about it: you’re doing your best to come up with content for your internal or external newsletter, website, blog, etc. and you’re drawing a blank. It’s not that nothing is happening with your business, it’s just that a) you’re working on items you’ve already shared with your employees, customers, shareholders or b) you feel there isn’t any grand information to share at the moment, just little things here and there. It happens.
The thing is, while you don’t want to send “fluff” or, worse, information that in no way is relevant to your business, radio silence for an extended period of time is a prime example of poor internal and external communications. Fear not; there are ways to avoid giving your internal and external audience the silent treatment during a slow period.
One of the most common questions we receive during our workshops is how to consistently come up with creative, effective and interesting content. We’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t always easy. However, just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.
If You’ve Got It, Use It
You might be surprised to hear this but repurposing existing content is an excellent way to ensure you’re still communicating even during down times. In fact, there are actually a number of benefits to repurposing existing content. If you really think about it, we spend a lot of time and effort researching, writing and distributing our 
content. Once it’s out there, there are certain factors beyond our control that may prevent a certain segment of our audience (whether internal or external) from seeing said content. However, if we find a way to creatively reuse an article from a newsletter or a blog post, people may see it after missing it the first time around. If the message is important and interesting enough, distributing it for round two is never a bad idea.
Take Roots always considers these two things when repurposing content:
- Present the content in a different way
- Share the content using a different medium
Different Technique, Same Information
Let’s talk about the ways in which content can be re-used. So, you posted a blog a while back and you loved its message. You think it was pretty well-received and would love to re-iterate the importance of the content. Instead of sending out the information in the same way, like simply copying and pasting the text into a new blog post or newsletter, you should try to think of other ways to share the information. How can you do this? Well, you could create an infographic—this will not only allow you to reuse content, it will actually open you up to a new audience.
Remember, different people react differently to information depending on how it is presented. Maybe a segment of your audience doesn’t enjoy reading blog posts but will gladly look at information presented in a more visual way.
Here are a few more examples of ways in which you can repurpose a blog post:
Before After
Old Blog Post How-to guides
Tips in an external newsletter
Podcast
Slide deck
Website visual
Different Medium, Same Message
The value of different communications mediums should not be forgotten, either. We often see internal and external communications as separate entities, but there’s no reason why some of the information shouldn’t be shared to both audiences. If you wrote a “how-to” guide in an external newsletter to your distribution list, you may want to str
ongly consider sharing that guide internally. Why let good content go to waste? Look at all the mediums at your disposal and think of creative ways to use your existing content for each one. You would be surprised how far one piece of content can go.
One last tip: if it’s been a while since the original content was shared, be sure information such as statistics are up-to-date.
Want help with creating content? Take Roots can help! We not only offer a variety of helpful workshops, we can also assist with the actual development and creation of your content. Contact us to find out how we can help!