Content repurposing works when you start from one real conversation and mine it for different kinds of material, not when you chop one blog post into twenty near-identical fragments.
The second approach is what most guides describe. They suggest turning a blog post into a podcast, a video, an infographic and an ebook. The result is the same thin material in more places.
This guide shows a different method: record one 30 to 40 minute conversation with the person who knows the work, then extract questions, numbers, mistakes, stories and steps. Each becomes a separate post. It forms part of our wider guide to social media marketing agencies in the UK.
What content repurposing actually means
Repurposing means taking material you already have and giving it a new form for a new audience. The key word is "have". The material has to exist before you reshape it.
Most guides we read begin from a published article and list formats to convert it into. That makes sense for a publisher with a big archive. A small business usually has no archive, but it has people who talk to customers every day.
So we start earlier. The raw material is the conversation, not the article.
Why a call is better raw material than a blog post
A conversation contains things a draft article leaves out: the stumbles, the examples, the customer's exact words and the opinion the expert only gives when asked.
Those details are what make a post specific. They are also what the generic posts in why most agency social content is invisible lack.
A written article has already been smoothed. A call has not, so there is more to mine.
Step 1: plan the conversation
Pick the person with the most useful knowledge: a partner, a head of service, a senior technician. Book 40 minutes.
Write eight questions in advance, covering each of these: the commonest question customers ask, a mistake customers make, a number that surprised them, a recent job or case (anonymised), something they disagree with in their sector, the process they follow and what has changed in the past year.
Send the questions a day before so the person can think. People give better answers to questions they have seen.
Step 2: record it properly
Record the call with the agreement of everyone on it. Tell them at the start what the recording is for and how long you will keep it.
UK GDPR applies whenever you process personal data, such as a named contact's details, as the Information Commissioner's Office explains in its guidance on business-to-business marketing. A recording of a named person is personal data, so keep it somewhere secure and delete it when you have finished with it.
If the call mentions a client, ask whether you may use the story, and in what form. When in doubt, strip names and identifying detail.
A law firm has a stricter duty of confidentiality than most businesses. For client matters, use composite or hypothetical examples and have a partner approve each one.
Step 3: turn it into a transcript
Use any transcription tool you trust. Check where it stores data and whether it trains on your recordings, because the recording may include confidential material.
Read the transcript once, with a highlighter. Mark anything that makes you think "that is a post". You will usually find more than you expected.
Transcripts are rough. Tools mishear names, figures and jargon, so correct those as you read. A wrong number in a transcript becomes a wrong number in a post if nobody checks.
Step 4: sort what you found into six kinds
Sort your highlights into six piles. Questions are things customers ask. Numbers are figures from the work. Mistakes are what people get wrong. Stories are short events with a lesson. Opinions are positions the speaker holds. Steps are the stages of a process.
Each pile suits a different post. Questions become answer posts, numbers become short data posts, mistakes become warnings, stories become narratives, opinions become comment starters and steps become document posts.
A worked example of mining a transcript
Take a call with the head of service at a small accountancy firm.
Twenty minutes in, she says: "The thing people get wrong is that they wait for the letter. By the time the letter arrives, you have lost two weeks." That sentence is a mistake post. The fix is one line: check the online account on a fixed date each month.
Ten minutes later she mentions that the firm answers most client questions within a working day, and that clients who wait longer tend to chase twice. That is a number post, once the firm has checked the actual figure from its records.
Near the end she says she disagrees with advice to register early for everything. That is an opinion post, and it will start a thread because other advisers will have a view.
Three posts came from three sentences, and nothing was invented. That is what the highlighter is for.
Who should run the call
An agency can run the call, but the agency must listen to the answers and not steer to what it wanted to write. The best interviewers ask a follow-up to every answer, such as "Can you give me an example?" or "What did you do?"
In-house, the person running the call should not be the speaker's manager if you can avoid it, because people answer more freely to a colleague.
If you work with an agency, put the call in your brief. How to brief a social agency includes access to your experts as a requirement, not a favour.
Step 5: map the month
A 40-minute call usually gives enough to fill a month of a modest calendar. This is a realistic map for a business posting three times a week, with a few other items.
| Item | How many | Where it comes from in the call |
|---|---|---|
| Short text post answering a question | 4 | Questions pile |
| Post built around one number | 2 | Numbers pile |
| Post on a common mistake and the fix | 2 | Mistakes pile |
| Short story post | 2 | Stories pile |
| Opinion post | 1 | Opinions pile |
| Document post walking through a process | 1 | Steps pile |
| Comment starters for your daily routine | 4 | Opinions and questions |
| Section added to a website FAQ or guide | 1 | Questions pile |
That is 17 pieces from one call. Not every call will give you all of them, and you should drop any that feel thin. Twelve strong pieces are better than seventeen weak ones.
The routine in the 15-minute LinkedIn comment guide shows what to do with the comment starters.
Step 6: write each piece in the speaker's words
Keep the speaker's phrases where you can. If they said "it nearly always goes wrong at the second invoice", use that. The plain wording is what makes it sound like a person.
Do not paste the same text on every platform. LinkedIn, Facebook and a website each need a different opening, length and tone. A 150-word LinkedIn post can become a two-line Facebook group reply and a fuller website section.
Check every fact with the speaker before publishing. Transcripts hold errors, and a post that gets a number wrong damages the speaker's credibility.
Step 7: get sign-off and schedule
Send the full set to the speaker once, in one document. Ask for changes within two working days.
For regulated businesses, add the compliance check at this stage. Decide in advance who approves wording about services or results.
Then schedule across the month and keep the unused material for next time. A good call still has material left over.
How to repurpose without padding
Padding is the main risk. It shows up as three versions of the same point on different days, or a "tip" that restates the headline.
A simple test: could a reader tell the posts apart? If two posts have the same lesson, drop one.
Another test: does each post contain something the reader could not have guessed? If not, the call has not given you enough, or you have not yet looked hard enough.
What not to repurpose
Do not repurpose a weak piece. If the original has nothing specific in it, no format will fix it.
Do not repurpose private or sensitive material without consent. A story you cannot share safely is a story you leave out.
Do not turn long articles into robotic summaries. Readers who see a summary of something they have already seen feel they are being sold to.
How to measure what works
Log each post with its type and the response it got. After a month, look at which of the six piles produced comments from people you want to reach.
If questions beat numbers, ask more questions on the next call. If documents beat text posts, build more. The pattern in your own data beats any general rule.
Our guide on making a LinkedIn document post in 20 minutes covers the Steps pile in detail.
Accountants, consultancies and other professional services firms often find that two or three calls a quarter are enough, because each expert has years of material.
Next steps
Growthcart is a digital marketing agency in Northampton. If you would like us to run the call, handle the transcript and draft a month of posts for your approval, get in touch.
