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5 ways you can repurpose your content for Instagram

With Instagram’s new features like Carousels, Stories, Highlights, Reels and IGTV – you can repurpose and freshen up your existing content and reach users in new ways.

Instagram is no longer just about photos and videos; it’s a platform used for blogging, learning, storytelling, and even a news source. When running a business account, keeping up with the platform’s latest trends could transform your online marketing results.

Instagram has transformed the way we can share content and interact with our target audience. We’ve highlighted a few of our favourite examples below:

Put long-form content into an Instagram carousel

An Instagram carousel is a post containing up to 10 photos or videos that can be viewed by clicking or swiping left. You can include a caption, geotag, product tag, and other available features you’d find on a standard Instagram post. Users can also engage in the same way by commenting, liking and sharing.

Why use an Instagram carousel, and how does this relate to your existing content? There are multiple ways you can use this type of post for repurposing content – but we’ve cut it down to two:

Repurpose a how-to post or blog into a visual step-by-step guide for Instagram. A standard blog post (like this one) can be separated into different slides or infographics (for each point) and put into one carousel. Just like you would on your site, can include your call to action (CTA) at the end to drive engagement such as comments, shares, saves or likes. 

Instagram Carousel Feature
Instagram Carousel Feature

You can give the option to link back to your site to read the full post – so it’s a win-win situation that could land you more traffic. This is essentially a more trendy and shareable way of sharing evergreen content.

We recommend making the most of the swipe or clicking motion. You could use this to build a sense of intrigue. For example, reveal a new product, promotion or event on the last slide of a carousel. Again, you’ll likely have a CTA here as well – whether that’s clicking to buy a product or ‘liking’ a post to show interest in an event, etc.

These are both fun, interactive ways of doing something you’d probably usually do in a blog post. 

Create your own Instagram guide

Instagram Guides are another new feature which businesses could be taking advantage of in their content marketing strategies. They are ideal for reposting long-form content that might already be on your blog or somewhere on your site.

A guide allows you to follow a curated flow of posts with commentary. Instagram introduced this feature to share public health information regarding COVID-19 – but it’s gradually being rolled out to more users and businesses. We’ve seen a host of small and large businesses use these guides – from digital marketers to beauticians.

Having a set of posts on one scrollable page makes Instagram Guides perfect for tips, recommendations and step-by-step guides. This is another way of making your business Instagram a ‘go-to’ place for visitors to find information. 

Instagram Guides
Instagram Guides

Share videos on IGTV

IGTV isn’t as new as the above features, but something that many brands are still getting used to. It’s like Instagrams very own TV channel. You can add videos to your IGTV, and they will be stored separately to your posts. You also have the option to keep them as part of your main feed.

IGTV feature on Instagram
IGTV

Chances are, you’re already creating some video content. Whether that’s on YouTube, Facebook, on your site or anywwhere else. On the other hand, don’t worry if you’re not – as this could be a great place to start. 

If you do have existing video content, then we’d recommend repurposing it for your IGTV. This is a way of reaching a new audience while maintaining the high-quality content you already have. The great thing about IGTV is users can access it via the ‘explore page’. 

That means people who aren’t following you will be able to see your videos – and the more you add, the more likely you’ll appear on these pages.

IGTV is long-form video and isn’t limited to one minute like standard posts are. Plus, it can take over your entire screen making it a more immersive experience.

As well as converting those long-form videos from YouTube and other platforms – you could use those same editing tools to create some shorter ‘teaser’ clips or videos focused on one blog. 

Add content to your highlights

First, we had stories, then Instagram gave us story highlights. Your highlights are a selection of stories that you want to keep on your profile for more than 24 hours. These will be kept above your main feed:

Instagram Highlights
Instagram Highlights

Generally speaking, most users prefer ‘snackable’ content which is easy to read and flick through. Highlights provide yet another handy hub of information that users can view to get to know your business.

We’d recommend splitting your highlights into specific categories based on existing material. For example, ‘projects”, ‘meet the team’, events’ etc. 

These are examples of what your existing blog categories might be – or be similar to. Add these as highlight categories and share an infographic or summary of the blog posts you already have for those tags. You can add the photos from those posts too.

Screenshot and share content from other platforms

We’ve noticed more and more business accounts doing this. It sounds so simple but can be an effective way of driving traffic to multiple platforms simultaneously.

Let’s say you tweet something, which drives a lot of engagement (likes, retweets, replies). You can screenshot this and repost it onto your Instagram story, feed or highlights.

This is probably the most straightforward way of recycling content as you’re simply reposting it as an image. You could add in an on-brand photo or background to support the post.

Going forward

Instagram is continuously evolving and providing its users with brand new features and trends. Each time a feature is introduced, consider it a new opportunity for both social media and business growth.

Knowing how to reach users in new and exciting ways is key to staying relevant online. Hopefully, this blog has given you a few ideas on how you can save time by re-using your existing content and sharing it on Instagram.

Get in touch if you have any questions or want to expand your content marketing activities onto social media.

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