One of the best things about working with writers is that you are ideas people.
You are story-tellers and experts, you like to make links between seemingly unconnected concepts, and very often you are really interested in people and the world around us: what makes us tick, how to explain our mysterious behaviours, how we live in relation to one another and the rest of the world.
So, why is that so many writers and authors tell me that, when it comes to creating content for your social media accounts, you have no ideas about what to post?
My reply is usually something along the lines of,
‘You have all the ideas you’re ever going to need, BUT you don’t know how to package them for social media. Yet.’
The ‘yet’ is important as giving ‘old’ ideas new life is something every writer can learn.
Sure, it takes some effort - the only kind of marketing and publicity that takes no effort is the marketing and publicity you don’t do - but if you can write one blog post or Substack article and repurpose it into 3 carousels and 2 quote posts, which you can then repurpose into three reels, which you then repurpose into an Instagram Live where you talk about the same topic for 10 minutes, taking questions or building on ideas… that’s a whole lot less work than coming up with a brand new idea every time.
🗣 PSA for members of TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM
Tomorrow (Thursday 12th September) at 9.30-10.30am I’m hosting a Content Create-Along session. I’m going to repurpose some of this content you are reading/ watching here into Instagram posts for my own account so you can come along to work on your own posts, and also I’ll show how I’m doing that!
If you haven’t yet registered for the call, scroll to the very bottom of this post (past the paywall) and click on the link. Once you’ve registered you will receive the link to the call straight to your inbox.
How to repurpose content
Repurposing content is therefore a crucial part of every author’s marketing and promotional activity - not least so you can protect your creative energy for the thing that really matters to you: your writing - which is why I asked
to come and speak with the TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM members about how she approaches it on behalf of the authors she works with.In the video, Pooja walks us through some of her insights into:
potential repurposing flows - how one piece of content can be used to create several more
some of the common objections around repurposing content e.g boring your audience, feeling repetitive
useful examples of how authors have given old ideas new life
discussion of writers’ common fears about ‘giving too much away’
how fiction writers might also repurpose content that their readers provide and also around their personal opinions, rather than the content of their books.
The whole video is available to members of TOO MUCH INSTAGRAM. If you’d like to become a member, you can upgrade your subscription by clicking on the pink button below.
Huge thanks to Pooja for coming along to speak with the TMI members. If you’d like to find out more about Pooja and her work you can find her here on Substack
, on Instagram, and on her website.TMI Members only - prompts to help you repurpose
Off the back of what Pooja talks about in the session, I’ve also pulled together three prompts for members to help you start to consider how you might repurpose some of your own content and cut down your work load:
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