To maintain our social media accounts, and help our clients do the same, it seems that we, myself included, have become advocates of repurposing content. Taking a press releases and extracting an e-blast from it. Sending post-event photos to print media and uploading them to Facebook. Putting links to YouTube in our press releases and putting the videos on our website.
Sure, it all makes sense. Social media takes time and time is money. So why not stretch your content when and where you can? It ensures continuity of messaging, keeps all of your communication platforms looking fresh and increases touchpoints with your target audience. But at what point does repurposing become synonymous with diluting? Can you post a new spin <gosh I hate that word> on the same news too many times?
In an age where we are taught that people like to receive information on their own terms, it seems logical that we would offer the same news on every platform possible. And that we would tweak the content to fit the medium. While I’m not saying this theory isn’t valid, it has some holes in it.
Spamming If I sign up for a spa’s e-blasts, receive their hard copy newsletter, read about them in my local newspaper and engage with them on Twitter, it would seem that I have an interest in their brand and news. But if I receive the same news item in each communications, let’s say it is an ad for a new line of nail polishes, at what point do I start to feel like I am being spammed? To that end, at what point do I become indifferent or resistant to the spa’s message?
Deleting If a brand consistently sends the same news across all communication platforms, when do people start deleting the content? If I know the e-blast is going to revisit the news I just read about on Twitter, why should I open the e-blast? If there is a pattern of no differentiation or added-value, people will begin deleting or trashing your communications before they even read them. This is wasting time and money.
As we continue to do more with less resources and stretch communication dollars further, we need to remember that regurgitating isn’t repurposing. Without something new and fresh sprinkled in with the mainstream news, repurposing can easily become synonymous with diluting. And diluted news, if distributed frequently enough, may become as valuable as issuing no news at all.
[reus id=”6″][recent posts]