Feeling stuck, overwhelmed, fatigued by constant social media content creation? The answer is repurposing social media content!
If you have been in the online marketing world for more than a week, you’ve heard how important new content is for every channel…especially Pinterest. With a business to run and content to create, we could all use some time-saving tips.
We talked with Andréa Jones of Online Drea about how to repurpose social media content into Pinterest pins or vice versa. We want to answer the question of how to work smarter not harder in our social marketing.
Don’t know about you, but I’ve been on the hamster wheel of creating new content over and over — and I’m a little fatigued. That’s why I was so jazzed to talk to Andréa.
I hope you find this interview as helpful as I did. I bet it inspires you to take a step back, put some boundaries around your social media, and create a plan for repurposing your content! You’ll want to read (and listen) through to the end because she gives some truly amazing tips!
I had a lot to learn myself from this conversation.
Before we dive into today’s episode I wanted to let you know about something new here at Simple Pin.
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Let’s dive into today’s episode.
Repurposing Social Media Content to Make Pin Creation Easier
Meet Andréa of Online Drea
Andréa is a social media strategist who is fiercely committed to empowering businesses to utilize the power of social media without being overwhelmed by it. She hosts The Savvy Social Podcast, leads a team providing done-for-you services inside her marketing agency, and serves over 200 students in The Savvy Social School.
Andréa says she’s one of those weirdos who like social media and she’s made some of her most amazing connections on social media. In fact, she met her husband on YouTube and her closest mastermind group members on Instagram.
I know some of you don’t love social media and to you, it can feel like you’re pushing a boulder uphill. Andréa says most of her students feel the same way. She helps them transition into a better relationship with social media by teaching them boundaries.
Social Media Boundaries are Vital
It’s important to realize that part of the job of companies like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok is to get us to use their apps a lot. The more time users spend on the app, the more money they make. We just have to recognize that’s part of how the app is designed and be willing to say no thanks, that’s not for me.
Andréa used the analogy of eating ice cream to explain her relationship with social media:
When I eat ice cream I eat a bite or two and I’m satisfied. Some people want 3 scoops and say I’m going to eat this until I feel like I’m going to puke. With social media, it’s about figuring out that couple of bites that you want and getting rid of the rest. ~Andréa
One social media boundary Andréa created for herself is practicing a hard stop with notifications.
She does not have notifications turned on for social media or her email and has been committed to this since 2017. She limits notifications to text messages and Slack.
When it comes to the weekend, she believes in being 100% off. She is fine knowing she might miss something and is comfortable responding to it later.
Social Media Overwhelm & Marketing fatigue is REAL
We’ve all felt a sense of marketing fatigue as social media marketing platforms have shifted so frequently over the past year, adding new features and trying to keep the attention of their audience.
As marketers, we have had to keep up with learning all the new things and it can be exhausting. That’s why this topic of repurposing social media content so we can work smarter not harder is so important.
Andréa’s company recently surveyed their community members asking what their current biggest challenge was. Their answer across the board was time. Rapid changes in social media and the constant need to keep up result in significant demands on our time.
As social platforms add more features to remain relevant, we need effective ways to deal with social media overwhelm.
Social Media Content Repurposing Strategies
One way to address this overwhelming feeling is to stack some of these features versus trying to learn all the platforms and their new features. There are similarities between them, so we can use that to our advantage.
If you’re creating and marketing your own content, you need to decide how much time you should spend marketing in each channel. Andréa suggests that you figure out your primary platform and concentrate there.
If you’re DIYing your marketing you’re probably DIYing your whole business or most of it. So I recommend spending only three hours a week on social media, in total. That’s across all of the platforms! ~Andréa
Okay, I just heard you all say WHAT?!
I know we have some Pinterest marketers in our community who spend 10 hours on Pinterest alone! How did she get to the idea of three hours and how does that work for her?
Andréa says she holds a firm belief that social media is meant to be social. You’re supposed to be looking around, engaging, and paying attention to what’s happening in the community so three hours is a great way to divide your work and social time in half. She recommends spending half of your time creating content and the other being social, not really working.
How you spend the half that is your work time is important.
When it comes to exploring new platforms, Andréa teaches her students to spend 80% of their work time on a primary platform, such as Pinterest, then carve out the other 20% for exploring another platform. When you’re ready, you can repurpose your Pinterest content for the new platform.
The idea is to take the content that is performing well on your primary platform and repurpose it to other platforms.
Related: Is Pinterest Social Media?
Suppose you’ve created a pin that’s doing well, such as The Top 10 Ingredients to Add into Your Smoothie. That same core content can become:
- a 60 second Instagram Reel that tells your audience the top 10 ingredients to add to your smoothie
- a carousel post that has two ingredients per slide
- a tweet with a list of the top 10 things you can add to your smoothie
It is possible to spend time on more than one secondary platform, but at that point, you have to start outsourcing.
When you think about how much time in a day is spent on the rest of your business-building activities, it’s not easy to find an extra three hours to add another platform. Something has to go.
You could hire a bookkeeper to help on the financial side, a virtual assistant to respond to comments, or a graphic designer who can help you design some of your Pins.
Related: How to Build a Successful Team
If you can hand some of your daily business tasks to someone else, then you can shift your focus to additional platforms and customize as your business grows.
Deciding on your primary platform might seem difficult if you’re torn between what you love and where you believe your people will be. Andréa says she gets the question of how to choose a primary platform a lot. Her answer is to go with what you love.
Stay on the platform that you love. I promise you, your people are there too. It’s just a matter of finding them. If I told you today that you have to be on LinkedIn but when you logged in you decided you never want to login there again, it doesn’t matter what I say, you’re not going to use it. So start with the platform that you already love and then you can layer in other platforms. ~Andréa
She recommends trying only one platform at a time because experience has proven that jumping onto all of the platforms right away becomes a full-time job.
Avoid This Common Social Media Content Repurposing Mistake
While repurposing social media content is a great way to save time, there is a common mistake Andréa has seen people make when moving across platforms.
She conveyed that when it comes to repurposing, it’s not just copying and pasting the same post, it’s taking the concept of the post and then seeing how you can sculpt it to fit the vibe of the new platform.
For example, you shouldn’t just take a video pin or an Instagram Reel and put it right in a TikTok because TikTok has its own unique culture.
Andréa’s tip is so important. It’s something we tell our community all the time.
If you want to take your Pinterest content and add it to Instagram, you need to add the interactive, personal element so people can connect with your reason for sharing.
If you want to take Instagram content and bring it to Pinterest, you need to change it to reflect that you have a solution to the Pinner’s problem. Pinterest users aren’t looking for that personal connection from Instagram. They are just interested in finding inspiration or a solution to their problems.
Identify Your Trusted Social Media Expert & Avoid Social Media FOMO
There is so much to know and it can be time-consuming to figure it all out.
Andréa believes the key is finding someone you trust. Listen to their podcast, and know that resource is spending their 15 hours a week figuring it all out so you can focus your three hours a week on what you do best — of course, we hope that Simple Pin Media serves as your go-to for Pinterest info!
She emphasized that there is a push for business owners to be innovative and she recognizes that nobody wants to feel stale or old. But there is a period where you can sit back, observe, and learn. Let someone else take the lead in figuring it all out.
You don’t have to jump on TikTok right now. You don’t have to be on Instagram Reels. If Pinterest is your focus, let that be your focus. Be okay with just spending 80% of your time on that platform. Andrea says that the very real FOMO feeling you get is actually orchestrated by the apps. You’ve got to resist it.
When Clubhouse first came out right around Christmas, I (Kate) found myself going crazy that first week thinking I needed to jump right in and figure it out. Then I said — Wait, this isn’t part of my business plan right now. This is distracting me from so many things where my brain is needed.
The FOMO is real and intense. I appreciate that Andréa called that out for all of us.
Another great point she made was that apps intentionally design and orchestrate that fear.
Instead of beating yourself up about it, just know it’s part of the design of social media apps. Part of their purpose is to make you feel like you haven’t done enough yet. Their goal is to try to keep getting you to do more. It’s their moneymaker!
I think in our industry there are so many things that we can feel like we missed and we get in this comparison trap of looking around at what everybody else is doing and thinking they’re doing it so much better than we are. Those thoughts are not productive or helpful for your business.
Use Your Digital Brain When Repurposing Social Media Content
As we think about leaning into the rule of three hours a week and putting up boundaries, Andréa left us with an amazing final tip.
Her number one piece of advice is a concept she teaches her students – using your digital brain.
Andréa describes the digital brain as the foundational element of the work you’re building out on your Pinterest account right now. It’s the work of discovering what your people are searching for and figuring out how they find you. When it comes to repurposing social media content, you want to lean into your digital brain — the content that you’ve already built and laid as the foundation on your primary platform.
Ultimately, social media should be a reflection of what’s happening in your business. So when you think about building out this digital brain, make it easy on yourself by creating that foundational content and then repeating it. ~Andréa
Creative business owners can feel a little hesitant about this. They feel like everything has to be custom-made or original. But Andréa recommends you repeat yourself often.
Social media moves so fast that your pins, tweets, and Instagram stories are all mixed in with so much other content from everyone. You need to repeat yourself in order to be seen.
If there is a pin that has done well, then think about a related question that a customer or client asked recently and create a way to answer it in the form of an Idea pin.
Andréa relates remixing your content to a commercial jingle.
Why do we know the Folgers song, the All-State song, or the Liberty, Liberty, Liberty commercial?
It’s because we’ve heard it a million times. Even though that commercial is slightly different every time, there’s an underlying thread to it.
She believes figuring out what that thread is for your business makes it so much easier to create content because you don’t have to recreate it every time. Develop your digital brain and then figure out how you can say the same things over and over again in a new way.
There is so much encouragement in that advice!
It gives us the wisdom to keep building on the foundation we’ve laid on one platform and take it to another. We need to move away from thinking in terms of content being a one-and-done idea. Build out your digital brain and allow it to help you connect with people across platforms.
Andréa has given us such great ideas for repurposing social media content. She has a free course that walks through this entire strategy so you can start applying it to your social media marketing plan. If you’re feeling stuck and fatigued, I encourage you to go there to get motivated. You can also reach out to Andréa on Instagram here.
For Further Reading/Listening:
I’ve love some clarification on the idea of reusing TikTok videos for other social. Is the TikTok watermark that appears on downloaded videos a problem? Or no?
Yes, you will want to remove the watermark. Pinterest has stated that using TikTok video on the platform is fine as long as the logo/watermark is no longer present.