How to repurpose your video content for social media [2020 essential guide]

Repurposing content in 2020 has never been more important, especially when you don’t want to compromise on neither quality nor quantity.

Many content marketers are beginning to see the returns of episodic content, by choosing to create an original series (show) instead of ad-hoc content creation.

In this guide you will learn how to repurpose content in smaller video microcontent, audio, written, and image.

1. Square video subtitled microcontent video

2. Horizontal video subtitled microcontent video

3. Vertical video subtitled microcontent video

4. Audio from the video to make it a podcast

5. Written summary article of the video

6. Square image poster quotes from memorable insights

7. Square image poster quotes from memorable insights

The way to get the most content payoff from your efforts is to start with long-form video. We already know that video is a magical platform that helps you get a lot more out than you put in. Video is the ultimate block of marble from which you can carve out your final sculpture. For ideas on what long-form videos you can create, check out our guide for show series ideas.

When we say long-form videos, we’re talking 10 or more minutes - with a sweet spot around 30 mins. Once you have long-form video ready to go, you can start to break them down into various formats.

Let’s break those down.

Pro Tip: This article is part of a longer series on how to repurpose content. Check it out to get ideas on how to repurpose your other content types too.

1. Square video subtitled microcontent video

Repurposing your podcast, event talk, or other long-form video into square video subtitled microcontent video is good for two reasons.

Square content:

Square content is highly mobile-friendly, and takes up more real estate than their horizontal counterparts (more on that later). It’s also a quick way to be able to take a standard 16 x 9 (horizontal) video and center that in the square, adding subtitles below and a header above.

You can create square templates using online video editors, standard video editing software like Adobe Premier and Final Cut Pro, or create a square template in Keynote and drag your video to the center of the screen.

Subtitled content: 

How many times have you left the subtitles on when watching Netflix, or your favourite YouTube talkshow? 

How many times have you skipped a video that was “taking too long” because there were no subtitles and it was hard to follow?

The reality is this - not everyone has headphones when they’re on the go and on their phone - where they will most likely see your content. They can either turn volume on and keep it on low so that they don’t disturb others around them (unlikely), or they will save it for later - and we all know what happens to that. Make sure people see your content by investing in subtitling it.

There are services out there to help with that including Rev or HappyScribe. You can also choose to upload your content to YouTube, where YouTube will automatically transcribe [parts] of your video for you to help reduce the manual work needed - for free.

Subtitled content is great for making the content appear more pronounced and easier to follow - especially when audio is off - like when you’re in the office, or commuting.

You can use Adobe Premier Pro and other video editors to burn the captions onto the video. Alternatively, you can export the subtitles as an .SRT file so that you can upload it separately to LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social platform which would then layer your subtitles over the video you uploaded. 

Here are some stats on the effectiveness of subtitled content:

• Boost share rate by 15%

• Boost reach by 16%.

• Boost engagement by 17%.

• Boost CTAs by 26%.

• 85% videos on FB viewed without sound.

• 91% video watch rate 

• Selecting the actual content pieces

Selecting microcontent snippets from a larger, long-form video can sometimes feel like being asked to draw a picture of something, anything, on a paper. It seems simple at first, but the infinite possibilities result in a paradox of choice, which often prevent us from being productive and actually finishing the task at hand.

A simple shortcut is to think of a selection criteria to base your microcontent off of. For example, you may decide that you will only chop parts that are anecdotes - because people enjoy listening to others’ stories. This can be especially interesting if you’re chopping up microcontent from a podcast.

Another criteria could be practical advice. In this case, you want to make sure that any content you put out is very actionable for your audience and easy to apply. You can also apply some of Jonah Berger’s research around word of mouth and virality and opt for content that induces high arousal emotions - as opposed to low arousal emotions. In other words, don’t just make someone curious, make them surprised.

Don’t just make someone happy, make them excited. If you’re trying to drive action around an important cause, don’t just make someone sad, make them angry.

Going for high arousal emotions increases the likelihood of action and word-of-mouth sharing. Here’s a great article about this if you want to read more.

2. Horizontal video subtitled microcontent video

While it may appear counter-intuitive to the "holy grail" square content format, horizontal subtitled microcontent videos have their charm. It is because there is so much square content out there today that horizontal video, especially with black bars at the top and the bottom, give off a different vibe altogether that's more documentary like, or classy overall.

Easier to fit multiple camera angles

Especially if you're trying to repurpose a sophisticated video with multiple camera angles, you will quickly realize that cropping to square may not be practical. Don't force it, keep the videos horizontal if you think it creates a sleeker experience for your users.

Letterbox effect

You can easily apply the letterbox effect using your favourite video editor to instantly create a more cinematic look to your content. In a world of unlimited content, cinematic and purposeful content definitely stands out. 

3. Vertical video subtitled microcontent video

I know what you're thinking, Instagram Stories. You're totally right. But, you can also create vertical video subtitled microcontent for LinkedIn and Facebook to make maximum use of real estate and create an immersive experience as such from your microcontent.

Vertical content is not rocket science, simply flip your aspect ratio from 16 x 9 to 9 x 16. In HD, that means going from 1920×1080 px to 1080x1920 px. Similar to square, it is possible that you may run into some cropping issues - but there are ways around that, if at least to consider your angles when you film the long-form content. 

Vertical video is still largely untapped - especially on platforms like LinkedIn where you "wouldn't expect" to see vertical content. 

4. Extract the audio to make it a podcast

First pioneered personal brands that do public speaking, you can easily find ways to extract the audio parts from your long-form video that don't need visual aid to create a listening experience for your followers.

By using rss feeds and other podcast distribution platforms, you would be able to take your .WAV or .MP3 file and syndicate it across Spotify, Soundcloud, and iTunes. 

Podcasts boast pretty high retention rates. 80% of the listeners listen to a full podcast episode or at least most of the episode.

Consider having a custom intro for your podcast, removing umms, 

Remove umms and long, unnecessary pauses

Keep it clean and crop the parts that do not add to the audio experience. Not a must when you're starting out, but something to work towards to ensure that your content is polished wherever your audience finds you.

Hands-free experience

Did you know that most people listen to podcasts when commuting, or at home?

No wonder podcasts have relatively longer audience retention rates. By simply extracting the audio from your long-form video content, you make it easy for others to consume the content and stay productive or entertained as they go about their day. No screens or hands needed. It's also a pretty efficient quick win especially if you're getting started with repurposing content.

5. Summarize the video as an article

Our attention spans aren't getting any longer. Having said that, people have different attention spans for different types of content. Some enjoy watching videos to get the full experience, some like to listen to podcasts while on the go, and some prefer reading articles.

Don't underestimate how many people can learn and get inspired from your content, if only it was in article form. A simple way to streamline this is to listen to your own episode, and summarize the 5 key points that were discussed as an article - with a call to action to watch or listen to the full episode.

Embed other content

When writing the article, consider embedding the content such as the long-form episode as well as related microcontent videos in your article. This helps to enrich the experience for the reader, and increases time spent on page which in turn reduces bounce rates and plays a role in improving your page visibility on Google.

5. Turn insights into square poster quotes

Creating image content from your long-form videos is a great way to add instant weight and credibility to the content - by highlighting key insights from you and/or your guests. Image content can never substitute other longer content forms like written, audio, and certainly video.

Having said that, often times all it takes is for one image piece of content to pique someone's interest for them to follow your CTA to check out the full episode.

Square poster quotes are great for Facebook and Instagram.

6. Turn insights into horizontal poster quotes

Similar to the above, but allow for longer quotes due to the comfortable real-estate that comes with the horizontal format. Horizontal quotes are great for LinkedIn and Twitter.

Now read this: How to help your team create more content by working less, not more

Ready to start repurpose your videos? Create an account on chopcast to start repurposing your videos for free.