Should You Repost Your Old Content As a Writer?
Over nearly 20 years, I’ve written thousands (yes, thousands) of pieces. But I rarely repost. Here’s why I don’t reschedule the bulk of my work.
It’s true that social media moves so quickly that giving people another shot at seeing the content is rational. Reposting means you can have a lot of content going out in a short period and increase the odds more people will read your work.
BUT…
Automatically reposting means you risk creating your own noise. By putting older content back into the mix and spewing more posts, you can make the new posts seem less valuable.
So, the trick is not to ALWAYS repost, but to selectively do so and to rejuvenate the old posts with new value. You do that by connecting them to something in the here and now. You can schedule a few posts every month that direct readers/followers to your archive. Make your email signup easy to find on that archive and you’re good to go. Having a signature at the end of pieces that redirects people to the archive is also good practice.
Do you agree with my opinion? Why or why not? Leave me a note on Instagram.
[Transcript summary]
One of the pieces [of advice] that I hear all the time from different writers and professionals is that, if you are a creator of any kind — but especially writers — you should be reposting your old content so that people can find it. And I have to say, I disagree with that.
The reason is this: I understand that, when things move so fast, things are gonna get lost. And so, you don’t necessarily want older pieces to just die. But the issue is that you don’t want [older pieces] to sacrifice the new content that you have.
So, what I think a better approach is, is to occasionally give people a way to get to an archive. Now, that can be your website or it can be something else that you’ve set up. But don’t just reshare and constantly regurgitate older things that you have done, because you want to get that new content in there, too. And if you’re always sharing older stuff, you’re not showing that you’re still relevant.
So, always be posting new content, put it in an archive, and then only repost when it’s really relevant to the here and now. So, if you see something on social media and you can say, “Hey, I wrote about that,” then you can share that, or say, “Hey, I was thinking about this today for, you know, whatever reason,” and then pull that post. But don’t just do it to automate it and so every post goes three times. Just really think and be strategic about it. Take care, everybody. Bye.