Rachel Moffett

#ContentWritingChat Recap: How to Create & Upcycle Great Content for More Personalized Exposure with Brian Fanzo

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Did you miss #ContentWritingChat this week? Get caught up with our recap and learn all about how to upcycle your online content!

#ContentWritingChat September 6 2016 Recap: How to Create & Up Cycle Great Content for More Personalized Exposure


Our guest host for this week’s chat was Brian Fanzo. Brian is a Change Evangelist. He’s also the host of #Cloudtalk and the #SMACtalk podcast.

Q1: What does it mean to “upcycle” your content?

To kick things off, we asked our chat participants what upcycling content means to them. Here’s what they had to say:

Brian knows content is king! He said upcycling means taking great content, shaping it, and customizing it for other formats. Some examples he shared with us include turning a blog post into an infographic or a SlideShare.

Our CEO, Julia, said that upcycling content is when you mold and recreate your content for other platforms.

You can repurpose your content by updating it and making it “fresh” for new readers. It’s a great way to expand your content.

Matt said that upcycling helps you find new ways to use your old content for difference formats and audiences.

As Varun said, you can repurpose your best or evergreen content. Evergreen content is great for upcycling because it will always be relevant to your audience.

You can use your revamped content for a different purpose or to relate to a specific niche audience.

As Pamela said, you can turn one piece of successful content into an entirely different format, such as infographics or video.

Q2: What’s the difference between upcycling vs. recycling content?

So, what exactly is the difference between upcycling content and recycling it? Here’s what you need to know:

Brian said upcycling is customizing and personalizing great content so it fits and works on each network your audience is on.

Tara said upcycling content is when you improve the value of the original content in some way. You aren’t simply reposting it, but making it better.

Edanry knows the purpose behind upcycling is to make improvements to the original content so you can optimize its performance.

Tracy is spot-on with her answer. If you were to recycle content, you would simply be sharing it without making any improvements. When upcycling content, you aim to make it new again.

We like Matt’s comparison regarding warming up leftovers when it comes to recycling content.

When recycling your content, you want to be careful it doesn’t come off as spammy. Instead, go for upcycling and recreate your content. Then, you can tailor it for the platform you’re sharing it on and to your audience.

Q3: How can you expand your content reach by upcycling what you create?

Do you want to expand your reach via upcycling content? Here’s how to do it:

As Brian said, when you upcycle great content, you can focus on creating even more amazing content for your audience.

One great idea is to take your written content, incorporate it into a visual, and then sharing it on social media. It’s a great way to reach a new audience and to grab their attention with an eye-catching image.

Always consider what your audience is most interested in when upcycling. You want to create something that will resonate with them.

Debi’s advice is to share your upcycled content on social media so you can reach the audience you’re targeting.

Spread the word about your refreshed content! Make sure you’re sharing it across multiple channels.

When sharing your content on different platforms and mediums, you can reach a much larger audience.

Q4: Discuss how to upcycle blogs.

How can you repurpose that amazing, evergreen blog post you wrote a while back? Check out these great ideas that were shared during Tuesday’s chat:

Brian is pretty awesome on Periscope, so it’s no surprise that he repurposes blog content by sharing it in the form of a live broadcast.

We love infographics here at Express Writers! Julia loves to turn some of the blog posts here into shareable infographics.

Videos are incredibly powerful because they provide a great way for your audience to connect with you. Turning your blog posts into video content is the perfect way to upcycle!

As Kristin said, you should take the best blog posts and make them better. You can turn your posts into eBooks, video content, or even graphic slides.

Sarah suggested combining a series of similar posts into an eBook or other download. You could even turn it into a podcast episode.

We do too, Pamela!

Q5: Discuss other forms of content great for upcycling.

What are some other content types that work well when upcycling? Check out these suggestions from the chat:

Brian knows it’s important to understand your audience. The content format you choose should be dictated by the community you want to reach. Provide them with what they want to see.

Kristen suggests using Google Analytics to figure out which posts are your most popular. She said you could turn those posts into an awesome email autoresponder.

Julia knows video is where it’s at!

Josh also likes the idea of turning your best blog posts into podcast episodes.

Q6: What role should upcycling play in your content marketing strategy?

Take a look at what some of the participants in Tuesday’s chat had to say:

Tracy said it’s the best way to come up with relevant content and to learn what’s working and what isn’t.

Matt said you should always think about how content can be repurposed to reach the largest ideal audience.

Tara said content upcycling should help you naturally expand in the topics you like.

Amalia feels it opens new channels of communication and interaction between her and her audience.

Amel said it can help you position yourself as an expert, increase reach, and increase visibility.

Kristen said you aren’t doing your content justice if you aren’t upcycling!

Well said, Bill!

Q7: How can you use your analytics to track the success of upcycling content?

Here are some tips for using your analytics in your content upcycling strategy:

Brian knows it’s important to use analytics as a way to see what your audience likes and doesn’t like. He also shared some great tools everyone should check out.

As Sarah said, you need to set goals and monitor your performance.

Kristen’s advice is to upcycle the content that’s already doing well, then pay attention to the feedback and engagement you receive.

See how many views your repurposed content has gotten and how many times it’s been shared on social media.

It’s also important to measure engagement. Are people leaving comments? What kind of feedback are they providing?

Julia likes to use BuzzSumo to track social media sharing.

Q8: Q&A for Brian Fanzo!

Here are a couple of the questions Brian was asked during the chat:

Brian’s top success story when it comes to upcycling was repurposing a blog post with a Periscope broadcast.

When it comes to live video, you don’t have to be focused on perfection. Brian said you should pay more attention to the conversation.

We look forward to seeing you at the next #ContentWritingChat! Mark your calendars weekly for Tuesday at 10 AM CDT for great chats centered around content writing and marketing. Follow @ExpWriters to stay updated on our new topics and guests!

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