To repost or not? You’ll be glad to know that reposting your previous content is okay. In fact, it's an essential part of your social media strategy. Your followers deserve to see your best content. Yet most won’t see it if you only post once. So let’s discuss the best practices for repeating your posts to get more reach, engagement, and traffic.
What is a repost on social media?
A repost – or a repeat post – is content that you’ve posted before on the same social media platform. Recycle your best content to reach and engage new followers and loyal followers who missed the original posting or may still find value in it.
Why should you repeat a post?
Your followers don’t want to miss out on your best posts. There’s a high chance they haven’t seen your content after only one post. The average Instagram post reached only 13.5% of followers, Facebook reached 8.6%, and the average TikTok video had a 16.23% watch rate in 2022, according to Social Insider.
There’s no penalty when you reshare an engaging post. In fact, social media algorithms consider engagement. Your bests posts were engaging for a reason. Perhaps it was a humorous take that will still be funny a year from now. Or a holiday recipe that is appreciated every holiday. Or annual or seasonal reminders that are helpful.
Lighten the load of content creation. We all know social media account growth requires regular posting. For some social media managers, that can mean many daily posts on each of the various platforms. Repeating popular posts is an efficient way to fill your content calendar.
How to decide which social media content to use again?
You don’t want to repeat every post–or even most of them. So start by reviewing your top 10% of posts based on performance metrics.
Review each post. Will it still be relevant and add value for your followers in the future? Value comes in many forms, including entertainment, inspiration, education, and reminders, to name a few. Weed out the one-hit wonders, such as humor tied to a previous current event or a post announcing an event from the past.
Learn what content types work best. What performs best depends on your brands and your followers. Types of content can include: user-generated content, blog posts, motivational quotes, behind-the-scenes posts, industry news, testimonials, reviews, humorous content, curated content from other publications, seasonal and holiday posts, promotions, or video tutorials.
When should you reuse the content?
When considering how soon to repost, consider a few factors.
Is your account growing quickly? If so, you’ll want to get your best posts in front of your new followers as soon as possible. Assume new followers will not go digging for your old posts. Try a monthly or quarterly post to welcome your new followers and share some of your top evergreen posts of all time.
Is the post about an upcoming event? Resharing content in a short window makes sense when promoting an event like a sale, new product introduction, or live or in-person event. Otherwise, try to space out reposting to quarterly or even yearly. Popular seasonal posts can be rescheduled annually.
Have you optimized or changed up a post? By all means, share your news. Your followers want to be the first to know.
Lastly, there is also an opportunity to improve on poorly optimized content. Could your hook could have been better? Or the image? Or the call to action? Modernize and retry content that you believe should have performed better.
Not only is it okay to use your social media posts again, but repeating content is a proven tactic in a successful social media strategy. You will not annoy your followers if you follow the tips presented here. Go find your best-performing posts and lighten your load by adding them to your social posting calendar.
How are you producing user-generated content (UGC) to help fill your social media calendar? Learn how to work with hundreds–or even thousands–of talented content creators who receive your product gift and produce UGC. Chat with an ApexDrop content strategist today.
