Please enjoy the first part of this video, and the whole of the written post, for free. If you’d like access to the full video please consider becoming a member of Too Much Instagram. Scroll down this post for more details about the benefits of becoming a member.
One of the complaints I hear most often from busy writers and authors who’re already spinning alllll of the plates, is that Instagram takes up too much time.
Now, I have feelings about how often we conflate scrolling time, with effective, targeted online activity that will move the needle for your book marketing BUT that’s a conversation for another day… today’s conversation is about how important it is to repurpose your best posts to capitalise on their performance, while saving yourself time AND being useful to your audience.
Repurposing posts you already have is one way to reduce the amount of thinking and crafting you have to do when you are creating your Instagram posts.
The benefits to repurposing are:
it makes showing up online more sustainable for you as you don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel
it makes it more likely your Instagram posts will ‘speak to’ the right audience for your book
by repeating certain messages and ideas you will clearly communicate what people can expect from your writing
If you repurpose an idea that has already generated a significant amount of ‘social proof’ that shows it is relevant to your target audience, you can also double- or even triple-down on those results.
In this video I walk you through an example of identifying an Instagram post* that performed well, and how I turned that idea into three further posts over a period of 6 months.
You’ll see that each post has a slightly different focus, and I’ve experimented with different formats, but each post is essentially the same idea repeated four times.
*it doesn’t have to be an Instagram post - you can also repurpose sections of newsletters, essays, articles, podcasts, your book
What results were achieved by repurposing the same idea?
The first post I created (the pink carousel in the image) generated strong results of 33,537 views, 874 interactions and 40 new followers:
I was very happy with these results and could have left it there, but by repurposing the idea into three more posts I was able to achieve cumulative results of 91,264 views (x3 the initial results), 1528 interactions (x2 the initial results) and 105 new followers (x2.5 the initial results) without having to think of, and craft, a whole new idea.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it ;-)
TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM MEMBERS: Let me know in the comments if you have any questions about the video. You can also drop a link to one of your Instagram posts in the comments and I’ll suggest some ways to repurpose it ❤️
More repurposing resources
If you’re interested in learning more about how you might repurpose ideas to save yourself time, elevate your results, and continue to serve your audience well, you might also like these two pieces:
Benefits of becoming a member of Too Much Instagram:
If you’re looking for a friendly community of writers who’re learning how to better use Instagram to get more readers for their work, you might be interested in TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM.
I started the membership as an accessible alternative to working with me 1-2-1 and it has fast become of my favourite parts of my business.
Members are a mixture of published authors looking for ways to breath fresh life in their book promotion, authors who’re building momentum for launch day, and writers who’re building a platform to strengthen a book proposal.
These are the benefits that they enjoy, and you can too by upgrading your subscription to become a member today!
weekly WHAT ARE YOU POSTING? check-in chats to share ideas and receive advice from me about your Instagram plans for the week
monthly Ask Me Anything advice clinics
fortnightly Create-along accountability/ body-doubling/ co-working sessions so you make space to create some Instagram content
content inspiration - post ideas curated for writers and book marketing
how-to guides and tutorials so you can continue to develop your skills
exclusive discounts for workshops and courses
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Too Much by Nicola Washington to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
