The four-letter word that'll save your content strategy (and a free resource)
Quick question. When did you last finish creating something - a report, a webinar, a case study - share it once, and then... move on?
Yeah. Me too. We’ve all done it.
We spend weeks on something, hit publish, get a polite smattering of engagement, and then immediately start panicking about what to make next. It's exhausting. And completely unnecessary.
Most organisations are sitting on months worth of social content. It's just hiding in your Google Drive wearing a boring filename.
The question to ask yourself
We ran a webinar last week on something called COPE - Create Once, Populate Everywhere. It's basically a framework for getting more mileage out of content you've already made, instead of building everything from scratch.
Four letters. One very good habit.
All you need to do is… instead of asking what do we post next?, start asking how far can we stretch this assey?
That report you sent to a funder and never touched again. The webinar 40 people watched live. The case study that's three clicks deep on your website and getting approximately zero traffic. All of it is fair game.
How to spot the good stuff
Before you go rifling through your Sharepoint (good luck), three questions help you work out if something's actually worth repurposing:
Does it contain something useful someone else would value? A stat, a story, a how-to, an opinion. If it was worth making once, it's worth more than one use.
Could it live in a different format? A report can become a carousel. A webinar can become a short clip. A FAQ can become a week of posts. Format is not fixed - this is the biggest mindset shift and once you see it you can't unsee it.
Does it reflect your expertise or your audience's reality? If yes, it belongs on your channels. No need to manufacture relevance because you've already earned it.
Where to look first
I like to think of it as a treasure hunt. But less pirates, more spreadsheets.
Here are six places most organisations have content sitting completely unclaimed 👇
X marks the spot. (The spot being your Sharepoint/Google Drive/Newsletter archive/YouTube channel/Slack)
Reports and research - anything with data or findings in it, even a one-pager.
Blogs and case studies - already written for an audience, already on your website. Half the work is done.
Internal docs, decks and FAQs - yes, really. Your onboarding deck. The FAQ you send new clients. The presentation from last year's away day. All of it.
Website landing pages - full of copy that explains what you do and why it matters. Most of it never sees social.
Events, webinars and recordings - if you recorded it, you've got raw material for clips, quotes, carousels and write-ups. This newsletter is literally that.
Team moments and behind-the-scenes - often the most human content you've got. Almost always the most ignored.
Go hunting and get it all together in a spreadsheet. (If you’re anything like me, you can already see the colour coded drop downs 🤓)
Then what?
Arantza Asali (our brilliant social media manager and my co-presenter on the webinar) built a COPE workflow that takes you from "I have a repurposing-ready piece of content" all the way through to scheduled and published. It's visual, it's free, and it actually makes this feel doable rather than like another thing on your list.
Working through it might look something like this...
A glimpse inside Arantza's brain. (We're in awe and taking notes.)
To hear Arantza walk you through her workflow and this example, You can watch the whole webinar about COPE here
If you want to go deeper on any of this - building a content strategy that doesn't make you want to lie down, or just making social feel less relentless - our Accelerator for charities was built for you. A training program, community & consultancy all wrapped up in one. Find our more here.