In the ever-changing landscape of Social Media, content has always been hailed as the king (we also know that you have heard this umpteen times) . Community managers and social media managers worldwide fight the demon of ‘producing fresh content’ every day. It may not be always feasible to provide ‘uniqueness’ and therefore it is a common practice for them to continuously repost, retweet or reshare an image, video or article that has been published. This aspect has its benefits too, unless it is overused.
What exactly should be the ‘usage’ pattern for reposting and how often should you be repeating your content is a question that doesn’t have a definite answer and would differ with each brand and the chosen social media platform.
Use Storytelling To Reshare Content
Socialbakers recently launched a campaign called ‘The Smart Storyteller Award’ and are promoting it with a hashtag #smartstoryteller across their platforms. Though this may be an important engagement campaign for the brand, its strategy to promote doesn’t come across desperate.
Know a brand telling great stories? Nominate them for a #smartstoryteller award. Tweet @socialbakers or use the app — Socialbakers (@socialbakers) May 9, 2014
While the brand started with a blogpost, the relevant details and conversation happened in a phased out manner on Twitter. The details were shared twice on the first day (few hours apart) and gradually spread and shared at least once a day for a week thereafter (this campaign is still in effect) along with conversation and other content.
Where does your brand fall on the #smartstryteller scale? #contentmarketing
— Socialbakers (@socialbakers) May 12, 2014
This was about a campaign; however, the strategy with your blog may be slightly different, but not completely. At Beta21 we often reshare our content on Twitter and Facebook. However, we ensure that each time the ‘packaging’ is right. Though we make sure that the most ‘relevant’ and ‘new’ content gets priority, an adept strategy and presentation of content save us from looking repetitive and boring.
Pro-tip For Twitter
Share the updates 2-3 times on the first day spaced out at equal intervals. This is essential for two reasons. Firstly, not all your followers are on Twitter at the same time and hence posting important content would ensure better engagement and reach. Secondly, this would also help you determine the best engagement period for a certain type of content (a funny contest video) as against different content (apple to apple!)
Taking forward the same example, I evaluated their strategy on Facebook around the same hashtag. Socialbakers again showcased a smart resharing strategy here and stuck to the ground rules of not being repetitive.
The post was first seen on its Facebook page on May 9th, 2014. The brand has not shared the same content since then, however, it did connect the same idea with a different post, subtly reiterating the same to its followers.
The concept of re-sharing works differently on Facebook. It may be a great idea to post the same content (even as a campaign) multiple times on Twitter in a day, but it is forbidden on Facebook especially in the first 24hrs.
Pro-tip For Facebook:
Re-sharing is important but has to be strategic, in a way that best suits your brand. Considering the fact that organic Facebook reach has severely dwindled, sharing content on this platform can be done occasionally. We suggest doing it only once a month.
6 Tips for Strategic Content Resharing:
- While updating your content calendar make sure that it has space for older content too. This should include blogpost, videos and images, and done only when you can support the renewed interest. For example, we did an article on Social Media Resolution for Twitter in 2014 and it makes sense to repost the same to our readers and check with them their status midyear since we are practically completing 6 months! See what I just did there?
- Plan reshares well in advance. Use analytical tools like Hootsuite or Buffer to do the needful.
- Analyse the reposting strategy and apply the learning to subsequent content.
- Don’t reshare content that’s trendy or topical months after the date it has been published.
- Try the sample content in different scenarios to have a better understanding.
- Create a timeline for the lifespan of topical articles and refrain from sharing it after the period has ended.
In a scenario where community and social media managers would prefer their content freshly brewed, reshared content is like the perfect sugar cube, and if used effectively, it would add just the right sweetness to your content strategy.
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