Social media marketing can eat up a lot of time. And a lot of content. It’s the five-headed beast that always needs feeding. (Just picture those gnarly heads as being Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.)

When you’re using social media to market your business, you have to make the most of both your time and the content you create to share online. If not, you could be pulled down the rabbit hole (pun intended) watching cute dog videos for hours.

Repurpose Content With a Purpose!

To get more out of your content, repurpose with a purpose. Take one piece of content and turn it into multiple shares, posts and tweets. Then instead of a picturing a five-headed, hungry beast, you can think about a happy, little bunny that’s great at multiplying.

Here’s how this can work: You write a blog post — say, on the benefits of working with a business coach — and set it up on your blogging platform of choice, like WordPress. You find the perfect image, give your post a final edit and then hit publish. Now you wait for visitors to come to your site. Nope, not quite. Make time to repurpose that post by sharing it across your social media accounts, and cast a much wider net that can bring more people to your website!

Turn one blog post into 21 shares on social media!

Here’s the math on how one piece of content can become 21:

Share on Pinterest

1. Pin the blog post link and image to an appropriate board — Small Business Tips, for example. Make sure the board has an informative (keyword-rich, not cutesy) title, so it’s easier for pinners to find.
2. Is your post appropriate for another one of your Pinterest boards, like Business Coaching? If not, create a new board and pin the post and image there, too.
3. Does your Pinterest page include a board for your latest/greatest blog posts? Many bloggers do this, and it’s a great way to organize your blog content. Set up the new board and add the pinned post there. This is an example of a blog board from Social Media Examiner, however it’s called “articles.”
4. See if you can add the same pin to a group “fed,” small-business related board managed by someone you know. (Here’s the scoop on group boards.)

Bonus tip: Use an image-editing tool, like PicMonkey, to watermark (that is, light, transparent text) the blog post name and/or your site’s URL to the lower part of the image. This keeps your branding intact and doesn’t require someone to read the Pinterest comment to find your blog and branding info there.

Share on Facebook

5. Share the blog post on your business page and your personal one, as well, if you’re so inclined.
6. Are you in a private Facebook group with a business focus? Post the blog link there, but take time to add something about, for example, your writing process or what inspired you to write the post.
7. Ask three of your business-owner friends (ideally, those whose businesses are somewhat complementary to yours) if they would share your post to their business Facebook pages.  Then, return the favor, of course, whenever you can. Let’s continue our countdown: Friend #1 shares your post.
8. Then friend #2 shares it.
9. And friend #3 shares your post.

Share on Instagram

10. Not every blog post make sense on Instagram, but let’s assume yours does. If your blog post’s feature image will translate well on Instagram, use it. If not, use PicMonkey or another image-making tool to create a graphic to share. Add text to it or use a watermark with the blog post title and URL — or your site name, if that fits better.
11. Add the post’s image to Instagram with the URL for your blog in the comments section or reference that your latest post is part of your Instagram bio. (If you used Instagram regularly, you know that the platform doesn’t currently allow for clickable URLs in the comments.) Before publishing the post, add a comment about why you writing the article, along with several hashtags that are appropriate for small businesses — e.g., #smallbusiness #smallbusinesstips #smallbusinessmarketing etc. — to help your post be seen by more people. Share the post.
12. Ask one of your business-owner friends or networking partners who’s on Instagram to reshare your post on his/her Instagram page.

Share on LinkedIn

13. Are you on LinkedIn? As a working professional, you should be! Create a status update with a link to your blog post and write a comment related to your post.
14. How about also sharing it on a LinkedIn group that you’re part of? There are hundreds of small business-related groups … so add your blog post to one, but find a way to generate a discussion from your post so it comes across as more helpful vs. promotional. (Example: “I’m finding that a blog post of this length takes me about three hours from start to finish. Those of you blogging for your business, what’s your experience?”)

Share on Twitter

15. It’s been said that tweets only stay around for 18 seconds, so it’s AOK to tweet the same thing more than once. Share your blog post several times on Twitter over the course of a few days or even weeks. It’s nice to change up the wording a bit with each tweet repeat, but you don’t have to. Hashtags are great on Twitter, so add one or two to your tweet. OK … here goes tweet #1 …
16. Tweet #2 comes later.
17. Tweet #3 comes after that.
18. Tweet me @meldeardorff, and I will RT (retweet) you!
19. Find another business-owner friend or Twitter follower and tweet an @mention with a link to your blog post, where you ask them a question. (Example: “Hi, @meldeardorff – I’d love your thoughts on this article I wrote! Any of these tips resonate?”)

Share via Email

20. Email a link to your blog post to a business friend or a well-connected family member, and ask them to pass it on to a peer or associate.
21. Share your post in a monthly newsletter email to one of your targeted audiences (customers, customers and prospects, vendors/partners, etc.).

So there you have it — how one blog post can be shared 21 times. Think how helpful this could be if your goal is to post three times a day across your social networks! With 21 pieces of content, you’re covered for a week.

You’ve likely experienced that social media can be a distraction from the time you spend building your business. Get the most from your time by repurposing with a purpose and getting more bang for the bunnies buck!

Photo: Canva