Part 1 - Creating long form content and why repurpose
In this playbook I’ll focus on giving you a killer system for repurposing written content so you become an absolute audience building machine.
Here’s a quick overview of the week
Part 1: Creating long form content and why repurpose
Part 2: X repurposing
Part 3: LinkedIn repurposing
Part 4: SEO repurposing
Part 5: Systematisation and expansion
1. What is repurposing
Ever followed someone on X and thought “this is great but I’d never have as much time as them to make this much content”?
Some people out there seem hyper productive. Posting 10+ times a day. And all of it quality.
And you’re sitting there struggling to write your single post for the day.
I get it - 100%. I used to be that way too. Sitting looking at a blank screen trying to come up with something from scratch.
And now I’m one of those annoyingly prolific people who, you’d assume, must spend all day everyday on X. In reality I maybe spend an hour a day. Less if I can.
Instead most of my content is pre-prepared and loaded up. And most of the preparation comes from repurposing.
Repurposing is basically taking a single piece of content and chopping and changing it into 5, 10, 50 pieces of content.
Let me show you some recent examples - examples will make this clear.
I published a whole set of newsletters on coming up with a business idea that works for you based on skills, strengths and market realities.
For example one issue had this section
You can see the full article here.
This part of the article was converted into a post on X
Click through to see the full post and its presentation.
That’s one example of repurposing. Here’s another.
From the same issue I also created a thread
Again, check the full post to see what threads look like - they are basically a chain of X posts, all one after another.
I also took the content from the same article over to LinkedIn, this time as an article
You can see the full article here.
Also on LinkedIn this time as a carousel
Fun fact - LinkedIn no longer allows the carousel format unless you are paying for adverts. But I’ll show you how to do it in Part 3.
All four of these examples come from the same article.
That particular article had 3 main “sections”.
Each of those sections became multiple repurposed posts.
Just in the 4 formats I’ve shown you here we’d have 3 sections multiplied by 4 formats for 12 posts.
Much easier than trying to write 12 posts from scratch!
This is the focus of this week.
2. Existing content
To repurpose content we need to, obviously, have some content!
AI is crap at generating content from scratch. But fantastic at repurposing once we give it something quality.
Here’s the rub though : it has to be quality!
If we give Chat GPT rubbish content to repurpose then… it’s going to make lots of other crap content!
Crap in, crap out. The mechanism in the middle isn’t going to do anything to change that.
We’re just multiplying the volume of poor quality. Pointless.
Instead we need to start with quality.
First up look to your existing quality content. Think about
- your newsletter
- your blog
- successful X threads
Therefore be creative. Look for any sources of quality information that you have produced.
I personally use my newsletter because it’s the chunkiest, highest quality writing I do each week. I’ve written a Prompt Playbook about newsletter creation if you are interested in setting up a newsletter.
Just make sure that top level content is the most in-detail, highest quality piece in your content marketing.
3. Original content
Don’t have any content yet?
First up, I’d recommend getting your content production to build your Audience up and running before worrying about repurposing.
X is a great place to get started and then a newsletter.
However if you really want to start from scratch and repurpose immediately here’s a prompt to help extract high quality content from your knowledge.
Act as a writing coach.
Ask a series of questions. Retrieve my answer before asking the next question. Then use my answers to structure an authority content piece.
What is the main topic or focus of this content?
Who is the reader?
Do you have a personal story connected to this topic?
What are 3 key points you want to get across?
For key point 1, what evidence or examples help illustrate and prove your point?
For key point 2, what evidence or examples help illustrate and prove your point?
For key point 3, what evidence or examples help illustrate and prove your point?
What comparisons, metaphors or analogies could you make to explain concepts?
What are common myths, misconceptions or counterarguments related to this topic?
What resources or references could you link to for readers wanting more information?
What is your concluding takeaway or call-to-action for readers after reading?
The final piece should be long and detailed. Focus on detail rather than conciseness.Prompt Output
I ran this with the main topic “the best time to start a business is now”.
By walking through the questions Chat GPT helps structure a long form expert piece.
Would I post this wholesale?
Personally no.
But it’s a valuable starting point for all the repurposing I’m about to do. It’s a starting point.
One other tip here: if you don’t know the answer to a particular section type “no, write something for me”. For instance if you can’t think of a metaphor to sum up your topic this will prompt Chat GPT to find a metaphor for you - very useful!
Pulling it together
We should now have a quality, long form piece of content to use in the next Part of this guide.
In the next Part we’ll be starting off with X repurposing.
A reminder of what we’re covering
Part 1: Creating long form content and why repurpose
Part 2: X repurposing
Part 3: LinkedIn repurposing
Part 4: SEO repurposing
Part 5: Systematisation and expansion