Repurpose Your Content for More Impact with Less Effort - Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie

Summary

Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie: Episode Summary

Episode Title: Repurpose Your Content for More Impact with Less Effort
Release Date: April 15, 2025
Host: Shannon McKinstrie

Shannon McKinstrie delves into the art and science of repurposing content to maximize its impact while minimizing the effort required. In this episode, she shares actionable strategies, insightful examples, and her personal experiences to help listeners streamline their content creation process across multiple social media platforms.

1. Understanding Repurposing vs. Reposting

Shannon begins by clarifying the difference between repurposing and reposting.

Repurposing involves transforming existing content into various formats tailored to different platforms. For instance, turning an Instagram carousel into a talk-to-camera script for TikTok or an email newsletter.
Reposting is merely sharing the same content again without significant modifications, which doesn't guarantee renewed engagement or virality.

“Repurposing is not reposting. When I say repurposing, I mean taking one piece of content and transforming it into multiple formats.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [02:00]

2. Platform-Specific Content Strategies

Shannon emphasizes the importance of tailoring content to each platform's unique audience and format requirements.

Purpose: Acts as a virtual networking event.
Content Type: Insights, hot takes, industry rants.
Example: Sharing hot takes about the social media industry or discussing the undervaluation of social media managers.

“On LinkedIn, I use it as a sounding board to kind of complain sometimes about our industry... Everyone loves a hot take, right?”
— Shannon McKinstrie [04:10]

TikTok

Purpose: A playground for experimentation without attachment to outcomes.
Content Type: Unstructured, spontaneous videos targeting marketers.
Example: Turning LinkedIn rants into TikTok videos using simple B-roll and trending audio.

“TikTok is my playground. I just throw stuff out because I'm not attached to the outcome...”
— Shannon McKinstrie [05:45]

Instagram

Purpose: Catering to a different audience than LinkedIn, focusing on engagement.
Content Type: Carousels, reels, and stories.
Example: Repurposing successful TikToks into Instagram reels or carousel posts.

“My LinkedIn and TikTok audience are very similar, but my Instagram audience is very different. So, I repurpose accordingly.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [06:30]

Threads

Purpose: Quick sharing of thoughts, opinions, or hot takes.
Content Type: Short text-based posts.
Example: Sharing a thread and then transforming it into an Instagram reel or an email.

“If it does well on Threads, I take that thread and throw the text over some B-roll with trending audio...”
— Shannon McKinstrie [07:50]

3. Practical Examples of Repurposing

Shannon provides concrete examples of how to effectively repurpose content across different platforms:

Example 1: Carousel to Reel

Original Content: Instagram carousel titled "The Three Instagram Stories You Need to Post Every Day."
Repurposed Content: Turn the carousel into a talk-to-camera TikTok reel, using the carousel's script as the spoken content and overlaying the original hook.

“A carousel post can be transformed into a reel by using the same script and adding a talk-to-camera element.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [10:15]

Example 2: B-Roll to Voiceover

Original Content: A video showcasing a historic diner with overlay text.
Repurposed Content: Use the same B-roll footage but add a voiceover narrating the experience.

“If the original content was B-roll with text, the repurposed version could include a voiceover to add depth.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [12:40]

Example 3: Reused Scripts for Multiple Formats

Original Content: A viral reel with specific tips.
Repurposed Content: Convert the reel's script into an Instagram carousel, a TikTok video, and a detailed email newsletter.

“By taking the script from a successful reel, you can create multiple pieces of content across different platforms.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [14:05]

4. Maximizing Efficiency with Tools and Techniques

Shannon highlights the efficiency gains from repurposing content, allowing creators to:

Save hours every week by reducing the need to create new content from scratch.
Maintain consistent messaging across platforms, enhancing brand familiarity and recognition.

She also mentions tools like Flanks, an engagement rate calculator, to evaluate content performance.

“With repurposing, you can generate multiple content pieces from a single idea, significantly reducing the time spent on content creation.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [16:20]

5. Shannon’s Personal Workflow

Shannon shares her personal approach to repurposing:

Initial Creation: Post content on a primary platform like Threads.
Secondary Transformation: Repurpose the Threads content into an Instagram reel or carousel.
Future Applications: Use the same content for newsletters, blog posts, or future social media updates.

“Today, I shared a thread that did well. I repurposed it into a reel, and soon it became the basis for an email and a blog post.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [18:50]

6. Case Studies: Repurposing Across Industries

Shannon examines viral content from various industries and demonstrates how to repurpose it effectively:

Finance Sector: Transforming a carousel about loyalty programs into a TikTok video with a similar script.
Food Blogging: Converting a B-roll video of a diner into a voiceover-led Instagram reel.
Interior Design: Turning a reel about home decisions into a detailed carousel post.

“Take any viral content from your industry, and see how you can flip it into different formats for other platforms.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [21:30]

7. Key Takeaways

Efficiency: Repurposing saves significant time and effort, allowing for a sustained content presence.
Consistency: Maintaining consistent messaging across platforms strengthens brand identity.
Flexibility: Adapting content to fit different formats and audiences enhances reach and engagement.
Repetition: Repeating key messages in varied formats reinforces familiarity and recognition among audiences.

“Instead of leaning on reposting, try repurposing. Repetition and familiarity are everything in marketing.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [23:15]

8. Conclusion

Shannon wraps up the episode by reiterating the importance of repurposing content as a strategic approach to content creation. By adopting these methods, content creators can achieve more with less effort, ensuring their messages reach wider audiences across multiple platforms without the burnout associated with constant content production.

“I am team repurposed. I've repurposed so much content over the years, and it's okay to repeat yourself. Repetition and familiarity are everything in marketing.”
— Shannon McKinstrie [24:50]

Resources Mentioned:

Show Notes: Examples and detailed steps on repurposing content across various platforms.
Flanks: Engagement rate calculator (search "Flanks engagement rate calculator" on Google).

For a deeper dive into repurposing strategies and access to Shannon's templates and examples, listeners are encouraged to check the show notes accompanying this episode.

Transcript

Shannon McKinstry (0:00)

Foreign. I am your host, Shannon McKinstry. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. All right, today's episode is going to save you hours, and I'm talking hours every week and for the rest of your life. So many hours, a lifetime. It's going to save you a lifetime of headaches, overthinking, et cetera. We're talking repurposing because every piece of content can be repurposed so many different ways and I'm going to prove it. Today I grabbed some examples and they will be in the show notes. But first I want to talk about how I repurpose and how by the time this episodes air, you will see how I took something I shared on threads the other day and all the other ways. I'm going to take that one thing on threads and repurpose it in so many different ways. Okay, so first let's talk what repurposing is. Repurposing is not reposting. So when I say repurposing, what I mean is let's say I do a carousel on Instagram. I will then use that carousel as a script, a talk to camera script, right? Or let's say a caption from a reel a year ago. Maybe the reel a year ago was B roll with a simple message on top, right? With like 10 words or something like that. But the caption was lengthy. I could make that caption a script, I can make that caption a carousel, things like that. So why, while reposting is fine, I will say when I repost something that did well a year ago, it does not necessarily mean it's going to go viral. Or maybe there's a reel that didn't do well a year ago. Try it again and maybe it will go viral. You just never know, right? Things that resonate, it's all about what resonates and making a few tweaks and things like that. But what I want to say real quick, the way I like to break down the platforms, LinkedIn is like how I like to show up as if I'm at like a networking event. I'm with my peers. I share a lot of content on LinkedIn for my peers because that's what typically does well. It's, it's, you want to like share your insights on your world, things like that. That's what I find does best for me as a Marketer, Okay? That doesn't mean everyone has a different Strategy. But on LinkedIn, I go on there and I use it as a sounding board to kind of complain sometimes about our industry, like social media managers not being paid enough or valued enough things as marketers that we need to get rid of and that we can control. And basically what I share is hot takes. Everyone loves a hot take, right? I share a lot of that on LinkedIn. So my LinkedIn content is actually completely different than often what I post on Instagram. But what I do because TikTok, a lot of my following on TikTok are marketers. And again, I always say TikTok is my playground. I just throw stuff out. Cause I'm like, like literally, I think yesterday or two days ago, I posted like seven TikToks yesterday I did one today. Who even knows if I'll get one up? I don't have a strategy there. TikTok is my playground. It is recess for me. It's for me to just kind of honor the fact that I like to just create. And I'm very not attached to the outcome of how things perform on TikTok. So if you go to my TikTok thinking it's gonna look like my other content everywhere else, it's not. It's very. If something does well on TikTok, I might repurpose it to Instagram sometimes. But I want you to know that they are all different beasts. Okay? So when I write something on LinkedIn, it's usually about marketing. It's usually not something I will put on Instagram because my Instagram audience is very different from my LinkedIn audience. But my like LinkedIn and TikTok audience, very similar. So on TikTok, I shared lots of ideas for social media managers, social media marketers, social media strategists, consultants, people in my industry. I say things that they're maybe sometimes too scared to say. Cause I've been in the industry a long time, so those kind of. I repurpose a lot. LinkedIn and TikTok, right? So that way, whatever I share on LinkedIn, I typically share it on TikTok. I'll take my LinkedIn text and it's usually a wordy rant, if you will. And then I'll either talk to camera on TikTok with that script, I will literally take the rant I shared on LinkedIn and say it to the camera on TikTok and there's my TikTok, it's done. Or I'll take some B roll where I'm sitting there working at a coffee shop or whatever, what have you, and then I'll take the text that I share in the LinkedIn and put it there. So now I've got three pieces of content for one. Okay, here's the other thing I do that my mentor notice I started doing year and a half ago. She was like, shannon, I kind of notice you share a lot on threads, and then the next day it's on Instagram and it's an email and it's a blog. And I'm like, there you go. You. You discovered my little trick. Again. I like to test things out on platforms where I don't really. I'm not attached to the outcome. And I will be a thousand percent honest. I'm very attached to the outcome of my reels because I. Not so much that I'm like, I want to go viral. I want to help everyone. And when I see so much other tips that are going viral that aren't true, I get very frustrated. And because I'm on Instagram chronically more than I should be, I see more content there and I consume more there. So I just want to really serve. So I'm more attached to the outcome because I'm like, I need every business owner to see this desperately. Okay, I know for you guys, you're attached to the outcome because the metrics, it's hard to look at. But again, like I always say, you're probably doing better than you think you are. Engagement rate across Instagram, 5% is always my goal for my clients myself. But the more followers you get, that rate goes down. So if you're over 10,000 followers, your engagement rate is typically like 1%, meaning 1% of the following you have is liking engaging with your content. Okay, if you're above 1%, you're totally fine. You can actually go to a website called Flanks. I think it's P H L A N X. And just literally Google Flanks engagement rate calculator in Google. And you'll put it there. You can put your username and it'll spout out an engagement rate. With that said, let's get back to repurposing. So that's how I will do. I'll do LinkedIn, TikTok, similar audience Instagram. I will throw something up on threads when I'm having a moment, a thought, an opinion, whatever, I throw it out on threads because again, if it does well, cool. If it doesn't, whatever. If it does well, I take that thread and I throw the text over some b Roll with some trending audio, call it a day. It's one text box, one video clip, a trending audio. Typically about four to seven seconds, depending on how long it takes me to read the text on screen. Done. Real done. I literally do this all the time. Other thing I do and what I'm going to do today, I shared a thread yesterday or two days ago, whatever. Who knows what day it is ever anymore, right? Threw it on. On threads. It did really well. And it got shares, too. People are in the comments like, oh, my gosh, I needed this. Thanks for the reminder. Another was like, why are you yelling at me? Right? We're, you know, being funny. I. Because I know it's a thread where, like, the text just. The text is really good because I was just really feeling it in the moment. And usually when I'm like that with my content and passionate about it, like, comes through, I think it's going to do even better if I talk to the camera. So today, after this podcast, I'm going to literally plop my phone down on the kitchen counter and I'm going to say that thread verbatim as a script, and it's going to be done. There's my reel today. Okay, so by the time this episode airs, you can go see it. It's about, you know, basically saying, like, you're telling me you're worried someone's gonna judge you and that's holding you back type of thing. Basically saying how silly it sounds once we really break down why you're scared to hit post. And I know it's a lot of mindset I get. I'm not downplaying. I'm just saying don't let people that don't have your best interests at heart stop you from hitting posts. Okay, I will do that on threads and then I'll make it a script. And guess what? In about a month, I'm gonna do a reel with a B roll, trending audio and the same text. And I will keep repurposing the stuff over and over again. Then when it's time to do an email next week, that will be the whole premise of my email that thread. But I will make that thread basically a long email and talk about what got me to finally hit post. I'll tell my story behind how I feel that way. So that's what I mean by repurpose again. You can absolutely repost same content. Not nothing's promised. It's gonna do as well. That is what I do. So one more thing, actually, I had a reel Go viral a year ago, and it was the title over my head was the three Instagram stories you need to post every day or the first three stories to post every day. Again, that triggers things in their brain that makes it not sound scary. It's like, oh, just. These are the first three. Go ahead. Right? It did really well for me, and I talked to the camera and talk it out. Two months later, I took my script. I literally took my script exactly what I'd said I transcribed, because a lot of my stuff is off the cuff. And I literally let the real play. And I typed out everything I said, and I flipped it into a carousel post. And guess what? That carousel post also went viral for me. Not crazy viral. Viral for my account also got new followers, right? The first slide of my carousel was the hook that had been over my head in the talk to camera. That was slide one, slide two, my intro, right? And then slide three, tip one, slide four, tip two, slide. Da, da, da, da, da, da, da. Okay, they're all on my Instagram account if you want to dig in. Actually, we'll put them in the show notes. Oh, yay. That'll be good. That'll be fun. Yay. I'm a nerd. All right, so I found a bunch of content from different industries, and I'm going to tell you exactly how I would repurpose their content. This is all viral content. Ready? And these will all be in the show notes. First viral piece of content is a carousel post. Looks like she's like, in money, finance, et cetera. Okay, first slide. Loyal programs are the hottest consumer status symbol. Okay, now again, if you're new to carousels, obviously we're not talking photo dumps. Photo dumps are one thing. Photo dumps still work, right? Carousels are like a slideshow. Okay, first slide. Loyalty programs are the hottest consumer status symbol. Next slide. And this, this one looks like it went not viral again, but It's. It's almost 4,000 likes. That's a lot for her following. Okay, second slide. The loyalty economy is booming. And then she's got some graphics and a bunch of text. Third slide. Loyalty tears. Da, da, da. If I was her social media manager or strategist, I would say, okay, now that. That did well, let's do a reel with the same exact everything. You've already got it. She would talk to the camera and the hook over her head would be exactly what's on this first carousel. The hook over her head for three seconds as she's talking would say, loyalty programs are the Hardest, hottest consumer status symbol. Or we would remix it in any way. First words out of her mouth are exactly what's on slide two. And that is her entire script. She would look at the camera. So the first thing out of her mouth with the hook over her head, she would say, the loyalty economy is booming. Consumers aren't just joining loyalty programs, they're chasing them. Okay, that is what I mean by repurposing. Next example. And then again, she could turn that into a newsletter. She could turn. Turn it into. And let me just say, take every reel of yours and put it on YouTube shorts. I beg of you. All right, next one is a local food blogger. Her hook at 10,000 likes. Her hook says on screen, historic, no frills diner in the West Village. And then it just shows the name. If I was her, since she already has the footage, I would say, okay, since this was B roll with text, that was it. It was just B roll training, audio, text, no voiceover. The next one, we're doing a voiceover, I would say, come with me to check out this historic, no frills diner in West Village. So the verbal. Right? And then everything in her caption is the rest of her script. A quintessential New York City diner serving a delicious ch. Right. Do you see what I mean? Okay. All right. The next one is for an interior designer. Hook says, four of the best decisions we made for our home. She can now turn this into a carousel. That is the first slide of her carousel because this is a reel with a hook and then a clip with text, a clip with text, a clip with text. She breaks down the four things. She can make that a carousel of images. Where again, first slide, four things, you know, decisions we made at home. The second slide, she could even tell more of the story. We bought this home in 2000. And then slide three would be number one, this cabinetry number two. Right? And slide after slide after slide. Okay, lastly, another example, this girl, dupe.com so she talks about the video is B roll of her reaction. And it says, you guys, I just finished a two hour long documentary about how the furniture industry is scamming us, and I'm not. Okay, again, she can now repurpose this to her looking at the camera and saying, you guys, I just did it. And then she flips the camera just like she did in this one, and shows you exactly what to do. There you go. And from there, she could make a carousel if she wanted. Right? So that's what I mean by repurposing. And this is why I love the Reels Lab so much. Shameless plug because every reel in there, the script can be turned into a carousel. The the B roll with trending audio can be turned into a talk to camera. So I want you to go look at any content, maybe even content that didn't do well that you thought should have done better, content of yours that did really well. And just see how you can flip it and then look at a longer caption how you can turn it into an email or maybe a blog. Okay, so instead of just leaning on reposting, try repurposing. I am team repurposed. I've repurposed so much content over the years, it's okay to repeat yourself. Remember, repetition, familiarity. We love it in marketing. It's everything. More next week. I love you friend.